> You are confusing viruses and script kiddies. Different things. > Different methods of attack. > Not necessarily different. Many of today's email based viruses are created from Virus Generation kits, not skilled writers, usually by the same Script Kiddies that attempt defacements of websites. That being said, you are correct in that viruses are not necessarily the same as a defacement, etc; another point that gets confused in the article by Mr. Skoll as he uses numbers based on server defacements to back up his ideas regarding email borne viruses on Linux vs Windows. Rarely are email borne viruses utilized to deface a web site. Instead they serve mainly to disrupt messaging services, and sometimes carry damaging payloads that may alter / delete data from the infected system. As you state, nothing compares to an alert and cautious user. Even Win9x can be used semi-securely if the user of the system is cautious regarding what emails to open, not enabling File and Print Sharing, etc. I use Outlook as my primary email client, and I LIKE it (no flames please), but I do not open emails that look suspicious. We have had our fair share of email based viruses at work, but my systems have never been infected unknowingly. Unfortunately in any group of people, you will have a few that are not as diligent in security practices as they should be and are more susceptible to Social Engineering, "forget" to install that patch that they were warned to install, and open file shares with default permissions. These systems create a problem for the rest of the network, but can be found and remedied with a proper security team. John
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Jul 17 2002 - 14:55:50 PDT