Compromised within 4 Minutes!

I was reading an article about MS on Wiki for science and tech class at school, and i came across this:

A study conducted by Kevin Mitnick and marketing communications firm Avantgarde found that an unprotected and unpatched Windows XP system lasted only 4 minutes on the Internet before it was compromised. [5] The AOL National Cyber Security Alliance Online Safety Study of October 2004 determined that 80% of Windows users were infected by at least one spyware/adware product.[6] Much documentation is available describing how to increase the security of Microsoft Windows products. Typical suggestions include deploying Microsoft Windows behind a hardware or software firewall, running anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and installing patches as they become available through Windows Update.

That...that's something isnt it lol.

Mac is power.

#436239

Old news is so exciting. :slant:

How many morons run a completely unpatched XP install in real life?

Can we get a post with a bigger "DUH" factor... nope.

#436247

I believe rjohnstone is on zeh mullah

#436248

Is it not 2007 not 2004 or did I miss something last night?

#436250

talk about unpatched vista systems pleaaasse

if ur trying to be retro, how long would a windows 95 system last?

#436259

Well, it's not so rare. A friend of mine, studying Computer Science at the University, a PC user since he was 10 (1992, 386sx) and not a total moron, is running an almost naked XP system for the past year claiming it's only temporary (until he fixes the SATA raid). He was totally naked (no AV, no firewall, no antispyware) until someone got his WoW info and ****ed with his account (ie. stole all the good items)

Since that he was convince to put ZoneAlarm and antivirus, but still won't put any antispyware, and most of the times forgets to turn ZoneAlarm on... still says it's a temp situation.

PS. He still hasn't installed SP2. Says it's too much fuss for a temp system.

#436265

I have yet to do any updates on my windows xp machine, and its still running fine.

#436290

Stay out of Porn site you will last for 40 minutes

#436293

like rjohnstone said... DUH !!

#436294

Stay out of Porn site you will last for 40 minutes

good one!

but yeah, seriosly it depends... if you just log on to google.com and sit there for 4 minutes do u really think much would happen?...

just get AVG free and avoid the obvious bad sites and you'll be right.

(and make regular updates, and get a spyware remover, do regular system scans, backups, monitor msconfig, acvoid pron sites, crack sites, scan torrent files, sc-... its times like these I feel like being a fanboy- get a mac).

#436303

well, it's been four months (to the day!) since i last formatted and reinstalled xp. here's what i have for security: windows defender, spyware blaster, windows firewall, mozilla firefox. and, i'm behind a router. i do an online a/v scan every other week or so, just to be sure, but i've been totally clean for four months now without a/v software. and not every site i go to is as squeaky clean as google or a-s, if you catch my drift.

so, i think the right combo of software/hardware and common sense (sure, annakornikova.exe sounds tempting!) is all it takes.

#436333

Well, it's been a year since i last reisntalled xp, all i have is the windows firewall and all i run is Firefox with a secured WEP wireless network.

#436346

Well, it's been a year since i last reisntalled xp, all i have is the windows firewall and all i run is Firefox with a secured WEP wireless network.

that's what i'm saying. good man!

#436352

I only have SP2 and nothing is patched. Don't have AV or spyware/adware programs. Just don't click on everything you see, and use Firefox w/ NoScript.

#436361

Running Firefox instead, you add two or more hours to your lifespan unpatched.

Oddly, AFTER I finally got SP2, with no security apps in my comp for months before this, I got one or two little spyware buggers that I kicked out. Apparently, Windows Defender didn't find them, but Ad-Aware did. Hmmm.

You can wonder what antispyware app I'm using now. I'm also running Avast! for AV, because it's not only free but looks nice and behaves better, considering AVG was also giving me a ridiculous number of false positives over Java. I verified the mess, and indeed, they were just that-false positives. Sorry, AVG.

#436373

I run xp with SP2 and I have encountered no problems. Only using Trend micro as my anti-everything, there have been no virus's or anything detected since I booted up for the first time. The only reason Windows systems get hijacked more often is because they are the largest part of the market (a very very large part). If macs could sell as much as a Windows operating system then a programmer would write a program to infect them. it is just more efficient to create a program which detstroys 80% of the computers rather than wasting your time killing only a the few which are macs...

I have nothing against macs but people have found what the majority use and have put more time into compromising their computers

#436384

I have a firewall on my router, SP2, windows auto-update on, recently I installed KAV and I never really liked or used any other AV. I can't remember when I reinstalled windows last time, but it's been years.

P.S. Off-topic..I also use a host file, what do you think about that? Do any of you use it?

#436402

i've used a host file in the past. it's a pretty good idea.

#436403

a friend of mime knows nothing about PC got a dell from his cousin keep bugging me checking out

his Dell, believe it or not it actually last him 40 days and die.

#436430