diolma opened this issue on Aug 12, 2005 ยท 35 posts
JHoagland posted Sat, 13 August 2005 at 12:12 PM
A few thoughts:
Many IT departments are bound by the bureacratic rules of the corporation. I worked for a large company back in 2003. I was the first person in our group to get Windows 2000 (mainly because I had the oldest computer, so I was first in line to get a new one). And at the time, the company was still debating the merits of upgrading from NT to Windows 2000- almost 3 years after the OS was released! The big issue is how the latest OS (and the latest patches) will affect the development teams, the customer service users, and everyone else.
So, how can users expect to keep up with the latest patches if the IT department can't install the latest software?
But, for the home user:
Set your Windows Update to "download and install automatically" or at least "notify me of updates". You absolutely can not be using an unpatched version of Windows. (And why there are still "critical" security holes in Windows XP, released how-many-years-ago, is another issue.)
Absolutely do NOT use Internet Explorer. While it may have rated the highest for security, it is still the largest target for hackers. You may be taken to a site (or be served a "hacking" banner ad) before you get the chance to install this week's updates. Would you rather use IE and risk having to re-install Windows or just switch to Firefox?
As a side note: the only real way to remove adware and spyware is to reinstall Windows. I know that sounds drastic, but some spyware will actually remove or block the installation of programs like AdAware and Spybot. Some spyware will lurk in the registry or hide under a different name: a friend of mine had spyware in the Startup folder with the name of "Intel power tool".
And, please, NEVER, EVER click on a link that says "Update your PayPal information by clicking here: http://216.34.45.67/paypal/update.php"
The real PayPal will send to a link that looks like: "https://www.paypal.com/..."
And never ever click on a link that claims to be from PayPal, but the return address is "sample@escape.ru"... I seriously doubt that the real PayPal sends its email through a Russian server!
But, DO forward these types of e-mails to PayPal so they can (hopefully) track down the people responsible for these e-mails.
--John
Message edited on: 08/13/2005 12:15
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