OT: Microsoft is really annoying

[Bernard Devlin]

>>
In any case, since I have "disassembled" the Internet Explorer in the
way I described in my last post, I am - until now - no longer the
target of such annoying intrusions, or is this merely a coincidence in
time?
<<

I think the risk is too great to assume your PC is now safe.  At the
very least there can be keyloggers and screen-capture software
installed.  Such malware is designed to NOT draw attention to itself.

I think all Windows installations must be assumed to be toxic.  I've
seen people do comparisons of umpteen different anti-virus solutions.
Most of the AV solutions had a 10% miss rate on viruses that were
known to be on the machine.

Any institution should be running a standard, automated build, and
Windows installations should be replaced very frequently.  When I was
in charge of a NT/Win2K network, that's what we did.  At the time
there was no solution we could buy in, so it fell to me to develop the
solution.

My experience last week has just meant I've made the final leap away
from Windows as anything more than a toxic OS.  It's no wonder that I
know several people who've suffered identity theft, and at least two
of these were professional IT staff using Windows.  For at least 5
years I've advised all my friends and family to just buy a mac.  None
of those mac-only users have suffered identity theft.  I'm not even
entering into the argument about whether or not windows is insecure by
design - it is just obvious that it is the largest target.

Bernard