RG> This is one of the major differences between Linux and Windows
RG> - With LInux you can place any file or config options where YOU
RG> want, and YOU have total control over who can (or cannot)
RG> execute or change the files. With windows you are stuck with
RG> the registry, you can't change its location, and only god knows
RG> who has what permissions to access any given file. 

 Yes. That part is true... if fact, "anyone" has permission to
change the registry, whci hcan then permit access *anywhere*.

 Even so, in Linux *if* a hacker gets access to the /etc directory he
can do almost as much damage.

DD> If they've taken over Symantec then I guess I'm fucked.

> It occurs to me that a false M$ or Symantec home page would be a
> good way to spread a virus.

RG> It's been done. Not just with Symanantic & M$, but also with
RG> Ebay, and almost any banking site you can mention.

 Yair... that's what makes me so wary of the net. In the Fido BBS. we
probably had a base of 500 users able to access the same BBSes I did.
On the net, the base is a million, or more. It's just a question of
odds and numbers, like monkeys typing the collected works of William
Shakespeare. I'm pretty clever, but in a base of a million there are
probably 10,000 more clever than I.

RG> Such sites are usually closed down within hours of them
RG> opening.

 Of course... as soon as they get caught, or as soon as they begin to
work - whichever way you like to look at it.

Regards,
Bob
  

--- BQWK Alpha 0.5