Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1425 mails)

[Anders Johansson <ajohansson@xxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday 06 May 2009 22:46:44 Jim Henderson wrote:
> > You managed to miss my point. If you're running a rogue application, an
> > outbound connection should be the least of your worries.
>
> Sure, it's not the only problem, but again, if your machine is being
> controlled for purposes of spamming the world, I would think that
> something that's in place to prevent that from taking place would be a
> good thing.
>
> > What local root/Administrator exploits do we not know about yet? What
> > happened to that critical presentation you were going to deliver to a
> > customer at 7am tomorrow?
>
> We're not talking about local exploits, though.  Changing the subject
> midstream distracts from the discussion itself.

The topic is security. This whole discussion is a little akin to sending a 
serial killer out on the streets with the proviso that he's not allowed to use 
a crossbow.

"Nobody is talking about killing people with guns! Look, he can't use a 
crossbow!"

The (apparently not so obvious) point is that once you have a local exploit, 
you also have the means to bypass, or completely remove, your ZoneAlarm.

> Depends on the user.  I've seen normal users who use it who do question
> every time i comes up because they do want to be protected.

I've seen it often enough. Even the most arduous user will give up after 100 
clicks and allow full access to their email program (for example)

> It's a combination of technological measures and educational measures for
> the users.  ZA provides a technological measure that does have a positive
> effect - many people voluntarily run it because they recognise they need
> to protect themselves.  Some of those people even pay for it.

No, they run it because they believe the advertising (including free ads, like 
this thread) and think it makes them safe

> That's a  difference between ZA and UAC - UAC wasn't really a user
> choice, it was forced on the users.
>
> Give the users a choice on methods to protect themselves, though, and
> they do take it.  Well some do, and those who don't there's no change
> with.

Sure, and some people try to cure serious diseases with homeopathic 
medicine. It still doesn't mean it works

Anders
-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@xxxxxxxxxxxx