TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Review: Microsoft Anti-Spyware Ineffective

Re: Review: Microsoft Anti-Spyware Ineffective

jmeissen@aracnet.com
25 Jan 2005 23:17:26 GMT

In article <telecom24.34.11@telecom-digest.org>,
Justin Time <a_user2000@yahoo.com> wrote:

> ... But, with the descriptions they
> are using, how would the average person know a patch addressed
> functions they were using.

The average person shouldn't worry about it, and shouldn't try to
second-guess Microsoft.

> As to the thought that "every patch they put out must be good" I say
> this: If you don't use some functions why do you need to patch
> programs that are never accessed? The most common dial-up speed I can
> get at my home because of all the different SLICs and converters
> between me and the CO about 48,000 cable feet away is 24K. If I want
> to spend over 4 hours downloading a patch, then I would like to know
> up front what it is supposed to fix.

95% of the critical patches (or more) address vulnerabilities in
Internet Explorer and related packages, and common services that run
in the background. About the only way you wouldn't be exposing those
vulnerabilities is if you didn't use email or a web browser. Even if
you use Mozilla, Firefox or some other browser, pieces of IE are woven
into other applications.

If you're exposing a Windows system directly to the 'Net via a dialup
connection then you'd damn well better be applying every critical
update as soon as it comes out. That should not be an option.

If you think your phone connection is too slow, get someone with a
cable modem to download them and burn them to CD for you. In fact,
that would probably be preferable because the time it would take you
to download them would make you an easy target.

I really have no patience for someone who thinks they're smart enough
to not patch a Windows system because they think they don't need
it. I'll be happy to forward you the logs from my mail server and you
can see how many sending addresses resolve to names like "ppp-xxx" or
"pool.nnn" or "xxx.adsl.xxx", etc.

John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com

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