Posts by Gordon Fecyk

Make me.

Extra-sincerely, me.

Seriously, this attitude doesn't help any.

Northern Manitoba.

I'm willing to bet that other first world western countries have worse water quality than Spain.

Like over here.

Where have you been?

I'm just waiting for someone to release a Shoecake

Plenty of shoe cakes available.

Why blame MSIEXEC for Java exploits?

Disable windows installer service so s**t can't be installed willy nilly by users who don't know any better

Great, yet another pundit who thinks they can maintain Windows better than Windows can. Do you even know what the Windows Installer (MSIEXEC) service is? It's not Windows Update. You disable Windows Installer then you can't install anything made by anyone made anywhere. That includes built-in components.

And what the hell does MSIEXEC have to do with Java exploits? MS abandoned their Java implementation yonks ago, and modern Java runs in user-space exclusively.

If you want to stop users from installing stuff willy-nilly, do this.

Good: We can stop using Origin then.

Along with PC games that insist on making us compute recklessly just to play them.

Sucks to be in your family then.

A applies. B, well, that's not my fault.

Where were you the past thirteen years?

If they split the OS into admin space and user space and denied write access to anything in admin unless logged in as admin, then windows would be a fook sight more secure.

Windows had this since NT 3.1, but didn't really support "non-NT" applications until Windows 2000. UAC on Vista took this further. Don't blame MS for people not using it, or vendors not respecting it.

Here's how it's done on Windows 8.

OK let's try this again: It's Intel hardware though

I also tried Windows 8 Pro, but despite installing all of Intel’s driver updates, I was still unable to get a realistic score out of Futuremark’s PCMark 7. Windows 8 itself refused to give me an Experience Rating, bailing out on the video part of its tests.

So 8 wouldn't give a rating without a supported video driver, then. This is Intel we're talking about, so this will get sorted in a hurry. Does the 7 driver work in a pinch?

Wouldn't be the first time with driver problems. Intel's latest Win7 HD driver (March 2013) introduced mouse pointer lag on an HP Elite 6200 desktop PC. Had to revert to their December 2012 driver to undo it. Other commentards would blame IE10 for that.

Then SANS needs to stop cheapening Armageddon. And Pearl Harbor. And September 11th.

Catch phrases that invoke disgust:

"Digital Pearl Harbor."

"Digital Armageddon."

"Digital 9/11."

No one died due to any event reported using these catch phrases. Real people died in the real events. That is my problem: Cheapening the memory of real life events that killed real people.

If they want to stop disgusting me, SANS needs to stop using them.

1024x768 was a minimum for MS Store apps since launch

This rule change was for OEMs, not for the OS, PCs upgraded with it, or for applications using the new UI.

I hit the vertical limit when trying to find a resolution to record my Windows 8 Safeguarding series; At 1280x720 the UI would run, but apps designed for it would not, telling me the res was too low. Desktop was still OK. 1280x768 worked though, as did the oddball 1262x768 I ended up filming the series in.

Say what you want about the UI but don't say it's in alpha. The OS still hasn't crashed on me and it works as they designed it. Maybe not how you would design it. Of course, I don't run it on garbage hardware.

I was waiting for this...

Actually, the sheer irony here is that Internet Explorer has had TLS 1.2 support since IE8

...actually, IE depends on the crypto suite of the host OS. On XP, only TLS 1.0 and previous SSL versions are supported. To do TLS 1.1 and 1.2 in IE, you need Vista, 7 or 8, or corresponding server version.

And there are too many banking sites that don't have TLS 1.1 or 1.2 support in their servers. I can't cite any one bank out of good conscience, but I can say that Symantec doesn't enable it on their MessagelabsSymantec.Cloud pages. I had to argue with a support droid about that. (ugh, you know I used to like Messagelabs).

Looks like I need to crack the message of keeping malicious software at bay

A running theme I'm seeing in the feedback, is I need to make sure other defences (outbound firewall especially, but also turning off UPnP) are working in case malicious software somehow runs on a PC.

My problem is I'm trying to prevent malicious software from running in the first place.

At the risk of sounding like I'm from space, if I can stop unwanted software from running in the first place, I don't have to worry about unwanted software communicating outbound, or requesting open ports from UPnP routers, or using raw sockets, or taking over my display and trying to extort me for money, and so on.

It sounds deceptively simple, and perhaps that's what's confusing the mainstream computer user.

"[s/When/If] the ports open again..."

The article mentions blocking L2TP and PPTP VPN ports (and more specifically protocols) but what about TOR restricted to ports 80 and 443 - does that still work?

Application filtering for HTTP and HTTPS exists, as does transparent proxying. If a US business can do it, you can bet Iran is doing it, and very likely with software authored in the US despite export controls.

They keep saying that...

A great Redmond plan to get Linux on the desktop?

Then it hasn't worked in twelve years. Wasn't the Windows 95 Start Menu the first thing that was supposed to make people move to Linux? Or was that product activation on XP? UAC on Vista? The Start Screen on 8?

I'm still waiting.

I have. Right here.

Has anyone considered what it *really* takes to go completely malware free?

Part 1. More parts are following, along with using Software Restriction Policies in coming parts.

Someone better explain that to Canadian cellcos

Supposedly this a loan and not a subsidy.

Like, say, anti-virus firms?

So, they're going to do something about that unpatriotic group of American companies that have their manufacturing done in China? I skim read it; have I understood this correctly?

I sure hope so.

"Classic leftie style?"

Classic leftie style[...] It's really rather frightening how often that a lie or inaccuracy is repeated a few times and then becomes effectively an incontrovertible fact.

Like, say, "Obama is a muslim?" That's not exactly "leftie style" yet it is incontrovertible fact among certain sects of non-lefties.

Where's the foot-in-mouth icon?

The even like / dislike count suggests there's some truth and some exaggeration to this

It's nice to know I wasn't the only one scared away from Linux by hostile technical support.

Now you just need the nice ones to get on the cases of the not-so-nice ones and make them stop biting the n00bs.

Complain about the weather...

...or do something about it.

Seems like a sensible approach. Or is BlueGreen asking for too much in this place?

There's vigilance, and there's paranoia

And this: "...that you know of..." is paranoia. Lovely technique to sell security products. Not so lovely a technique to do actual security.

Understanding how Windows really works goes a long way to preventing exploits. I've said many times before that there's better security built into modern versions of Windows than any security product you can buy for it. Even a non-security product can prevent malware before so-called security products can; in that case, it was Microsoft word, which could stop Word macro viruses before anti-virus products could.

Give the fellow credit for doing something pro-active. If you really are trying to sell something, it's better than blasting them for not using the popular security-blanket-of-the-day.