Is Obsolescence Good Computer Security? 490
caesar-auf-nihil asks: "I was recently considering a switch from dial-up to something faster (either cable or DSL) but my friend recommended against it since he said I was more secure staying with Dial-Up. His argument was that my connection's slowness and 'not always on' connection gave me better security since I was less of a target for many security threats. Now, I have never gotten infected, nor do I believe my machine is infested with spyware and/or controlling programs as it runs fine, but I wonder if the obsolescence argument is really good or not. Does Dial-Up really protect you or is this a false sense of security and I should just go ahead and pick a faster service and make sure my firewall is a good one and my virus definitions are always up to date?"
Not true (Score:5, Informative)
Go with broadband. (Score:0, Informative)
You have a stupid friend.
If you want true security... (Score:1, Informative)
Simple answer, no (Score:5, Informative)
You could get hit by a worm just as easily - they attack by IP address and are indescriminate about where they attack - they don't care how fast your connection is.
As for spyware and the rest, if you're using a slower net then probability is that you'll browse less and be subjected to less risk, but in general the argument used is complete and utter rubbish - there's no additional security to be gained by dialup.
Jolyon
I think.... (Score:3, Informative)
Buy a router, your computer will have the SAME security it would have through dialup....
you'll still have to deal with viruses and backdoors from emails, malware, etc,
Dial-up for security... don't count on it (Score:3, Informative)
One problem with dial-up is that you probably won't have a hardware firewall/router between your computer and the internet. Many folks with broadband access have some type of a router with a firewall/NAT built-in. Not everyone does, but some do, especially people with wireless setups, although that introduces its own security troubles.
The point is, if you think about security (which means you have to be aware of all the types of security threats to begin with, not just focusing on one or two that your friend told you about), you'll be able to take proactive steps to make your computer(s) more or less secure. Otherwise, you're leaving yourself open to becoming a zombie just as much as the other millions of computer users out there.
upgrade (Score:3, Informative)
If you need (unsecure) windows for anything, use vmware player [vmware.com] (free), or wine [winehq.com] (free), or if you need to play games with 3D acceleration then cedega [transgaming.com] (nonfree).
Remember about http://www.openoffice.org/ [openoffice.org] for office work, http://www.gimp.org/ [gimp.org] for drawing, http://www.k3b.org/ [k3b.org] for burning DVDs... and the list goes on and on.
ps: I've got some karma to burn, so here I'm whoring
Re:Yikes (Score:4, Informative)
Dude, wow, wow, wow... Is all this supposed to make him switch to broadband with an easier mind?
You don't need to freak him out. All this can be said in a much simpler fashion:
- Leave autoupdates on your windows ON, it'll take care of itself
- Download and install : ZoneAlarm for your firewall, and AVG Free for antivirus. Both free, user friendly and do their job.
- Download and install Firefox for your browsing needs.
And dial-up is indeed fake sense of security, so there.
That's
Re:In other good advice .... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Dial-up does not make you more secure (Score:3, Informative)
You could just get Linux and DSL... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Dial-up does not make you more secure (Score:5, Informative)
Not to mention you can't exactly throw a Linksys router (hardware firewall) inbetween you and the wall when you are on dialup.
Perhaps you've never seen one of these [multitech.com].
We used to sell them to customers too far out in the sticks to get anything but dialup but whom wanted extra security or the ability to network multiple machines. We even had an entire office once that did all of their billing to an AS/400 via a dialup. It was all terminal based so the dialup worked just fine. At peak hours they had 11 people all doing billing at the same time. And you know what's really sad? They could do it faster on that terminal system then any GUI that has come since.
Ditto when I worked in the insurance field. We absoletely hated the new version of our agency management system when they moved to Windows. When will interface designers learn that it's faster if you don't have to take your hands off the keyboard every three seconds?
Re:Dial-up does not make you more secure (Score:5, Informative)
Generally speaking, sharing any connection is best achieved with an external router and not via a computer. That way if your Gentoo machine falls over or you need to reboot, it won't take out the connection for everyone else. YMMV.
Generally speaking, sharing a connection with Linux will give you useful hands on experience with iptables and it's a million times more flexable then any hardware router and about $60 cheaper.
Re:Yikes (Score:2, Informative)
Doing this will make your system much less vulnerable to nasty malware programs, as if you're running as an administrator, and you run them, they have complete access to your computer.
Re:Dial-up does not make you more secure (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Oh dear god what a stupid idea/concept (Score:4, Informative)
Well if the PC isn't connected, it can't download updates to Windows (patches) and its Anti-Virus/Firewall/Anti-Spam etc. So when it is connected it will probably be a poor position security wise. From a practical perspective has anyone tryed to keep a PC "all patched up" over dial-up? Takes forever to download the patches, it isn't actually practical. So no, getting proper security utilities in place (and setting them up correctly) then connecting via ADSL (or similar) will probably improve the security. One tip though - don't get your friend to set it up.
Very good point (Score:3, Informative)
Besides, the dialup doesn't really make you more secure. It's slower, so the amount of harm you can do to others by some worm is lower, but I can assure you, you can still get infected. I bought a new laptop while I was on a trip somewhere (long story), and while I was on the trip I used the dial-up modem on it for a couple days. During that short period of time it picked up a virus.
So get DSL and get a firewall. Firewalls will kill the vast majority of attacks. Sure you can still get crap through e-mail and websites, but then at least you're at the controls and can avoid screwing up too much.
Not any safer (Score:5, Informative)
Time from dial up connection to blaster hit: 8 seconds
Time from dial up connection to Nimda Hit: Two and a half minutes
So no, it's not safer.
Re:Broadband Plus OS X (Score:1, Informative)
Because Microsoft makes it easy, and possible. A computer is not a living organism. It should not be any more susceptable to a virus than your toaster. Microsoft put the ability to execute code into their applications and file formats where that kind of thing doesn't belong, and they did it on purpose. In 1995 Bill Gates even bragged in The Road Ahead that other software vendors thought they were crazy when they were talking about building a programming environment into Word and were talking about every program having its own built-in programming environment that users could use to extend the functionality of the software. (See the recent WMF vulnerability for another example of this. "Hey, let's make it so that a picture file can execute code!" was not an accident, it was a Microsoft design decision, a philosophy which has guided their software development as long as they have been a company.)
Yes, more research has gone into exploiting Outlook than Notes or Eudora. Why? Because Microsoft made Outlook so that it could arbitrarily execute code! This was not an accident, is was an intentional decision. Same for the way they designed Office, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, IIS 5.0, etc etc etc. They build programs that scream "hey! Give me your code and I'll run it! Any arbitrary code, I'll take it!", what do you think is going to happen in a world where computers are all networked together?
Your pedantic bullshit about "technically macro viruses are not Windows problems because they run on Office" is no more well reasoned. By that logic IIS worms, Outlook worms, Messenger worms, WMF vulnerabilities, etc., are not Windows problems either, since they all need another piece of Microsoft software to be running in order to do their dirty work.
Do you see the common thread here? Pick up The Road Ahead and read about Bill Gates's software design philosophy in his own words, about building all of their programs so that they can accept and run code, building all of their file formats so that they can contain embedded scripts, and then tell me again that that design philosophy has nothing to do with the virus problems in Microsoft software.
Dailup comparatively worse. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Dial-up does not make you more secure (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Dial-up does not make you more secure (Score:2, Informative)
You've just described Obscurity OF Security or Security WITH Obscurity, not Security THROUGH Obscurity. The parent was correct. You are not. I will not bother explaining the difference since you are an anonymous coward, but if you compare the two descriptions, you will see.
Re:Odd Question (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Dial-up does not make you more secure (Score:2, Informative)
I paid $60 for my router. I got 802.11g and four ethernet ports on it. How is a PC with a wired card, wireless card, and an external switch to be had for free? I'm also quite certain my dedicated router uses a lot less power than running a PC all the time. Especially if you're talking about an old junker PC you had laying around or got for free.
No, sir, Linux on your old junker is rarely cheaper than a budget router.