Windoze of Mass Destruction?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

Perhaps my job has made me jaded and cynical, but is anyone else uneasy with the current position of the swiss cheese of security that is the Windows operating system?

It touches the lives of most people on a daily basis. I have not stats to site…I’m purely making an observation based on my experiences. Most people either have a Windows machine, know someone who does, or works for someone who does.

Most people who have Windows machines at least know enough to run Norton. Many are even know setting up personal firewall software, and as soon as they figure out how to configure their settings so as not to fire off abuse complaints about their own services and processes, their reports can be actually usefull.

However, the daily flow of virus morphs continually set the bar higher and higher…and the viruses get stealthier and more complex. Detection and removal becomes more and more technical for the end user. The knowlege gap between the people who purchase and use hardware/software/services and the people who can easily become unauthorized users of that hardware/software/service…gets wider and wider.

A well-planned trojan can easily be used in virtually any type of DDoS attack imaginable, with a fair amount of success, and there are enough ignorant and infectable machines out there to keep trying untill “they” find the magic combination.

The important variables become who are “they”, and what would “they” do with that magic bullet?

I am not saying that I have no faith in our benevolent or even neutral hackers…I just think they are overshadowed by the lure of money and the amount of people who are willing to do whatever they can to get it.

Curious as to what other dopers think…

#2

My apologies for the spelling…and I am making a very sweeping generalization when I say that “most people’s lives” are touched by Windows daily…most people in the US, and certainly enough to be signifigant if the OS were to cause some sort of internet-borne melt down…those are my assumptions, and I’m stickin’ to em…for now…

#3

I feel your pain. My biggest complaint is in regards to Microsoft’s server applications, such as the Microsoft SQL Server that fell victim to that worm (Slammer, was it?) that immobilized a good portion of the net a few months ago. An internet accessible server running Microsoft software is like juggling a bar of soap in the prison shower: it’s only a matter of time until you get brutally violated.

Security in Windows itself, while certainly bad, isn’t the largest problem. The VAST, VAST majority of the time, the users get infected through their own doings. If an attacker can convince the victim to execute his code, the security war has been lost, regardless of anything else you do.