DD>> How would you "activate" this cookie if I'm not using your
DD>> version of a browser?

DD> How many versions of IE are out there - and how many variations
DD> of service pack and security update? Which flaw will you
DD> program for? [...]

 If I'm Microsoft, I'm *writing* the flaws.

 Have you ever worked with programmers? I spent three years directing
six of them on a project. They were all smart. The worst was a child
molester, one was a queer Arab (leather pants and ear rings), another
wrote *strange* poetry to imaginary pweople (he was a bit of a worry),
one ended up overdosed in hospital (he couldn't even kill himself
right), and one just up and left for no reason anyone could work
out. The other one was normal.

 I expect that Microsoft is pretty much like that. Who better to fuck
up the system than the guys *writing* the system?

BTW, what's this new Sasser worm that exploits a "flaw" in WinXP?

BL> Myself, I see terrorists as poor pathetic little losers like
BL> Amrosi who blew up innocents in Bali, a second-rate car
BL> mechanic who still thinks he'll share paradise with Allah and
BL> 47 virgins - haters who can't succeed in this world so they aim
BL> for the next. 

DD> Err, Bob - that is the sole reason for being Christian too - to
DD> suck up to the right people to gain enough brownie points to
DD> ensure a favourable treatment on death.... Death is the purpose
DD> of life.... [...]

 Don't tell me... tell it to a Christian; I worship the Great God
Ba'al - sacrifice a frozen #16 chook every Sunday, and that's the
whole thing. Ba'al doesn't have commandments or make promises, no
eternal life - just bribes so he doesn't fuck you over while you're
still alive. Ba'al prefers babies thrown into a fiery furnace, but so
far as I know, I'm his only worshipper, so he can take a baked chook
and like it, or I'll switch onto bloody Thor or Jupiter Fluvius.

 I don't have to go tyo churck on Sunday or face Mecca five times a
day while blowing up the fuckign infidels... I just bake a #16 chook,
and eat it afterwards with baked potatoes. I can't understand why
Ba'al is more popluar. Of course, he's an utter bastatrd, but that's
*my* kind of god anyway.

 It makes more sense than a loving god who invents AIDS and polio.
AIDS and polio is perfectly consistent with Ba'al, caused by not
enough burnt offerings.

BL> What is it that needs a patch to stop Windows running the worm?

DD> Or a firewall device/package that doesn't allow traffic on that
DD> port.

 I know how it gets *in* but how does it get run... at STARTUP, or
something? Is it actually rewriting the REGISTRY?

DD> (The Sasser worm could spread through Win 95/98/Me too)

 How?

BL> Apparently, it infects any machine to which you connect, and
BL> its effect is to become TSR and reboot... continually. 

DD> _IF_ it can connect Bob. Read your Linux security blurb, it
DD> says to close all ports you're not using. Windows doesn't read
DD> that blurb, it has ports open and welcoming all over the bloody
DD> place. 

 I *know* how it gets in... how does it get RUN?

 I remember a few years ago, when Keith ran a fancy new firewall that
monitored all his ports. He said he was getting an average of two or
three attacks every day! And some of them were persistent.

 Life is too short to waste it stuffing around with making my PC safe
from the Internet. It's easier to simply not connect. I have learned,
that no matter how smart you are (or think you are) there is always
someone a dollar ahead and a day early. The Internet connects you to
the entire world, and it is the height of hubris for you to say that
you can beat them all. If Bill Gates can't beat them...

DD> Do not connect a Windows machine directly to the outside world
DD> without first installing a firewall package that isn't made by
DD> Microsoft. 

 It's not just Microsoft, David. Any well-known firewall runs the
same sort of risk of penetration - especially if they use the same
Windows O/S. I've seen it happen with Borland and Norton. They are
really just another version of Microsoft. To be safe, you need to
write your own... or do as I propose: don't connect Windows at all.   

DD> Of course, that still leaves viruses and trojans..... Do not
DD> run untrusted executables (and trust very few). 

 This is the problem - whom do you trust? My answer is no one.

 I plan to set up two machines: the Linux gateway that runs 24/7 but
with *no* product on it. Anything I produce will be kept on the other
machine, on another hard drive with a plug I can pull, physically. If
I must run an executable, then I'll do it on the Linux machine. If it
becomes infected then stiff shit... I'll just reload the entire
machine. This Linux installs in ten minutes.

Regards,
Bob

    

--- BQWK Alpha 0.5