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I think the fact that consumers don't feel like they have an alternative is a problem. Also, remember many people use their computers for purposes that require

by c3534l 9y ago

I think the fact that consumers don't feel like they have an alternative is a problem. Also, remember many people use their computers for purposes that require no security measures be taken. Who cares if someone hacks a computer that is only used for excel and casual web-browsing?

serf 9y ago
it's not about the use-case of the victim, it's about the system resources it adds to the pool for the attacker to use as they wish. Now add "offline" to your list and i'd agree. Every online node is a potential threat not to just the direct victim but to potentially anyone else on the net.
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- Jach 9y ago
  I've been watching my friend deal with Windows 10 shenanigans for over a year. Occasionally he'll get it to a frozen point where it won't secretly update and break everything, won't transmit all sorts of information to HQ, and won't reinstall Candy Crush. He's convinced that most malware would be more respectful with his hardware resources than that OS. When you make the prevention worse than the disease, don't be surprised that the disease gets an upper hand.
comex 9y ago
> Who cares if someone hacks a computer that is only used for excel and casual web-browsing? I’d say most users would care if all their Excel documents got encrypted by some ransomware. Backups help, but they’re not a silver bullet, and the type of unsophisticated user you’re depicting probably doesn’t have them anyway. Aside from that - does that casual web browsing include anyone checking their email? If so, now the attacker can probably get full access to their email account(s). Even a purely automated attack can send spam or scams to the user’s contacts, which is bad, though arguably not the end of the world. If a human attacker is targeting the user individually, they can do much worse - starting with using the email account as a stepping stone to all their other accounts, and limited only by their imagination. I suppose that most users aren’t likely to be targeted in that way, but you never know.
gspetr 9y ago
There's usually more to that than those 2 use cases: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/10/the-scrap-value-of-a-hacked-pc-revisited/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/10/the-scrap-value-of-a-hac...

by c3534l 9y ago

serf 9y ago

it's not about the use-case of the victim, it's about the system resources it adds to the pool for the attacker to use as they wish. Now add "offline" to your list and i'd agree. Every online node is a potential threat not to just the direct victim but to potentially anyone else on the net.

deleted 9y ago
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deleted 9y ago
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Jach 9y ago
I've been watching my friend deal with Windows 10 shenanigans for over a year. Occasionally he'll get it to a frozen point where it won't secretly update and break everything, won't transmit all sorts of information to HQ, and won't reinstall Candy Crush. He's convinced that most malware would be more respectful with his hardware resources than that OS. When you make the prevention worse than the disease, don't be surprised that the disease gets an upper hand.

comex 9y ago

> Who cares if someone hacks a computer that is only used for excel and casual web-browsing? I’d say most users would care if all their Excel documents got encrypted by some ransomware. Backups help, but they’re not a silver bullet, and the type of unsophisticated user you’re depicting probably doesn’t have them anyway. Aside from that - does that casual web browsing include anyone checking their email? If so, now the attacker can probably get full access to their email account(s). Even a purely automated attack can send spam or scams to the user’s contacts, which is bad, though arguably not the end of the world. If a human attacker is targeting the user individually, they can do much worse - starting with using the email account as a stepping stone to all their other accounts, and limited only by their imagination. I suppose that most users aren’t likely to be targeted in that way, but you never know.

gspetr 9y ago

There's usually more to that than those 2 use cases: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/10/the-scrap-value-of-a-hacked-pc-revisited/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/10/the-scrap-value-of-a-hac...