[Haifux] Is the risk real? (Was: New mail icon for Thunderbird over Gnome)

[Nadav Har'El]

On Mon, May 14, 2012, Eli Billauer wrote about "Re: [Haifux] Is the risk real? (Was: New mail icon for Thunderbird over Gnome)":
> Exploiting machines as a platform for your own nasty business is
> probably the most common reason to attack a personal desktop. It's
> also the situation with the least local damage: You fix the problem,
> apologize, and go on with your life. I would say upgrading all the

And how exactly do you "fix the problem"? It's not as easy as you think
to clean rootkits, viruses, and so on. Most of the time, you end up
reinstalling the machine - which is anything but easy.

Moreover, it's not easy even *knowing* that you're infected. Most people
will simply never know - they may feel something is a bit strange, but
never know why.

> time is worse in terms of efforts, and the number of mishaps you're
> expected to have (I'm still working on getting this mail sent out as
> plain text after upgrading my Thunderbird).

My update efforts, on Fedora, can be summarized by running "yum update"
every day (not really an effort, can be done automatically), and
"preupgrade" (a full distro upgrade) twice a year. That's it. And I'm
not only better protected, I also have new and improved software all the
time. I don't know why anyone would want look for alternatives.

Nadav.

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |                    Monday, May 14 2012, 
nyh at math.technion.ac.il             |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |The meek shall inherit the Earth, for
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |they are too timid to refuse it.