4 ms·

"Even if Kaspersky were spying for the Russians, they won't give a damn about your porn, tax cheating, affairs, your padding of expense reports, or whatever the

by zby 8y ago

"Even if Kaspersky were spying for the Russians, they won't give a damn about your porn, tax cheating, affairs, your padding of expense reports, or whatever they find on your computer" How can you be so sure about that? You never know what they would need from you. You write on HackerNews - you are probably a computer professional, maybe an admin somewhere, but maybe you just know someone and you'd be useful to put pressure on that person? Think about the Swiss banker from the Snowden leak: """ The Guardian said Snowden described a “formative” incident in which he claimed CIA operatives were attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information. The operatives purposely got the banker drunk and encouraged him to drive home in his car, he told the newspaper. When the banker was arrested for drunk driving, an undercover agent offered to help “and a bond was formed that led to successful recruitment”. """ The American agencies don't need to blackmail you - they can get access in many other ways.

bluGill 8y ago
True, there is that danger. However I have to trust somebody - I don't write anti-virus software. I suppose I could, but it takes time to get expertise in that, time that I wouldn't get to spend with my kids. Not to mention working alone I couldn't fight all the attacks on my computer in a timely manor without help, and thus I still have to depend on other people who might or might not be trustworthy.
- macintux 8y ago
  You could use a platform that doesn't require anti-virus.
  - sigfubar 8y ago
    Platforms don't require AV software: people do. A security-minded user could live in Windows and never catch a virus. On the other hand, I've seen careless individuals become infected with the worst malware by downloading the wrong thing to their Mac.
    - craftyguy 8y ago
      By choosing Apple or Microsoft products, you are still going with a company under US jurisdiction, which is silly if you wanted to avoid US AV companies for that reason.
      - sigfubar 8y ago
        Oh, certainly! I'd even go as far as call irresponsible the use of any closed source software in situations that call for tight security. In this sense, choosing Mac, Windows or PutinOS (oh, how I wish such a thing existed!) carries exactly identical consequences.
        craftyguy 8y ago
        > PutinOS It's like Red Star OS, except it uses you!
        Fjolsvith 8y ago
        Virus protection for the masses.
    - anfilt 8y ago
      However, you still can get a virus from an exploit one without a patch deployed or a zero day. This require no action of your own. Although keeping your system up to date lessens the risk. It's not zero though. Moreover, if your running anything that is not very niche or custom system people are probably targeting it. I am not sure I would call BSD niche enough. Also, even if you are using a niche system that does protect you against a targeted attack. If you were a government a target attack is much more likely. Honestly, unless you have 100% bug free software and hardware, and its designed with security in mind. The possibility of malware taking advantage of bugs exists. Moreover, that excludes social engineering and getting someone to do something stupid. Even if the system normally is extremely secure. If we are getting super serious considering all the firmware that exists in a computer. If a system ever ran code you did not audit you can never be sure that system is secure. Even if you have an AV. You would have to re-flash any firmware that could be written to by the CPU, and reinstall the OS as soon you ran code that you did not audit. I doubt there really is any system except small embedded systems that you can audit all the code that closely. Modern systems just have too many layers.
  - bluGill 8y ago
    That isn't perfect. Viruses have been written for linux. It is harder to get them to spread, but they still are possible. There have been numerous vulnerabilities in various parts of the ecosystem - X is a nightmare for example. I actually do run FreeBSD. I'm not so arrogant as to believe that the system is perfect, though there are a number of factors that make it more secure than average.

by zby 8y ago

bluGill 8y ago

True, there is that danger. However I have to trust somebody - I don't write anti-virus software. I suppose I could, but it takes time to get expertise in that, time that I wouldn't get to spend with my kids. Not to mention working alone I couldn't fight all the attacks on my computer in a timely manor without help, and thus I still have to depend on other people who might or might not be trustworthy.

macintux 8y ago
You could use a platform that doesn't require anti-virus.
- sigfubar 8y ago
  Platforms don't require AV software: people do. A security-minded user could live in Windows and never catch a virus. On the other hand, I've seen careless individuals become infected with the worst malware by downloading the wrong thing to their Mac.
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    By choosing Apple or Microsoft products, you are still going with a company under US jurisdiction, which is silly if you wanted to avoid US AV companies for that reason.
    - sigfubar 8y ago
      Oh, certainly! I'd even go as far as call irresponsible the use of any closed source software in situations that call for tight security. In this sense, choosing Mac, Windows or PutinOS (oh, how I wish such a thing existed!) carries exactly identical consequences.
      - craftyguy 8y ago
        > PutinOS It's like Red Star OS, except it uses you!
        Fjolsvith 8y ago
        Virus protection for the masses.
  - anfilt 8y ago
    However, you still can get a virus from an exploit one without a patch deployed or a zero day. This require no action of your own. Although keeping your system up to date lessens the risk. It's not zero though. Moreover, if your running anything that is not very niche or custom system people are probably targeting it. I am not sure I would call BSD niche enough. Also, even if you are using a niche system that does protect you against a targeted attack. If you were a government a target attack is much more likely. Honestly, unless you have 100% bug free software and hardware, and its designed with security in mind. The possibility of malware taking advantage of bugs exists. Moreover, that excludes social engineering and getting someone to do something stupid. Even if the system normally is extremely secure. If we are getting super serious considering all the firmware that exists in a computer. If a system ever ran code you did not audit you can never be sure that system is secure. Even if you have an AV. You would have to re-flash any firmware that could be written to by the CPU, and reinstall the OS as soon you ran code that you did not audit. I doubt there really is any system except small embedded systems that you can audit all the code that closely. Modern systems just have too many layers.
- bluGill 8y ago
  That isn't perfect. Viruses have been written for linux. It is harder to get them to spread, but they still are possible. There have been numerous vulnerabilities in various parts of the ecosystem - X is a nightmare for example. I actually do run FreeBSD. I'm not so arrogant as to believe that the system is perfect, though there are a number of factors that make it more secure than average.