National Smokeout Day has been very successful in getting people to quit
smoking for those wanting to quit smoking. It is not perfect because
smoking
is an addiction and only stupid people smoke anyway these days so it
is hard
to persuade them to stop.
Personal Firewall Day is only one of many possible approaches to
improving
security on home machines. Too many people on this list have binary
minds.
Either it works perfectly or it doesn't work at all. This may be OK for
logic circuits,but it is not valid for humans and computer users are
human
not mechanical.
Microsoft sells lots of software for two main reasons:
1/ It is installed on machines when delivered (which is why they were
convicted of being a monopoly in desktops).
2/ Because most desktops run Windows, most software aimed at desktops
runs
only on Windows.
So you are not going to get MS off the desktop. How else are you
going to
protect the Internet and other computers from these users. A personal
firewall is much better than closing your eyes and saying "run Linux,
run
Linux". A separate firewall between the modem and the box is probably
better
and they don't cost that much (about $50-$100) and they can act as a
switch
for a home network as well.
-----Original Message-----
From: full-disclosure-admin@lists.netsys.com
[mailto:full-disclosure-admin@lists.netsys.com] On Behalf Of cdowns
Sent: January 15, 2004 11:57 AM
To: tlarholm@pivx.com
Cc: bugtraq@securityfocus.com; ntbugtraq@listserv.ntbugtraq.com;
full-disclosure@lists.netsys.com
Subject: [Full-Disclosure] Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day,
help the
cause
Out of curiousity, you cant get people to stop smoking with the
"National Smokeout Day" what makes anyone think that this would do
anything ?
Most people consider thier computer the equivelent of a hammer ( a
tool ), in the toolbox at 4:00 pm sharp until they start thier next
workday.
maybe im wrong, I wish the best on this.
~!>D
tlarholm@pivx.com wrote:
I just wanted to remind everybody that tomorrow is Personal Firewall
Day.
http://www.personalfirewallday.org/
The Personal Firewall Day is a campaign designed to raise awareness
about
the dangers we face without a personal firewall. Security experts
such as
yourself are encouraged to use the occasion of Personal Firewall Day to
share your expertise and advice with your lesser technologically skilled
friends and family, and help get them secured by installing a personal
firewall - this could be as simple as helping them turn on the XP
firewall.
Direct them to the website where they can learn more about personal
firewalls and other layers of protection.
Compromised end-user machines affect us all and the Internet as a whole
when they are used as zombies for DDoS networks or proxies by criminal
spammers, and your personal effort can help remedy this.
PFD is a direct result of the discussions that originated from the
NTBugtraq Retreat '03, and would not have been possible without the
dedication and hard work put into the project by Paul Robertson,
director of
risk assessment with TruSecure and the original proponent of the idea.
Regards Thor Larholm Senior Security Researcher PivX Solutions 24
Corporate Plaza #180 Newport Beach, CA 92660 http://www.pivx.com
thor@pivx.com 949-231-8496 PivX defines "Proactive Threat
Mitigation". Get a FREE Beta Version of
Qwik-Fix
<http://www.qwik-fix.net>
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