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Posts Tagged ‘Security’

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Thurrott Just Can’t Mention Microsoft Without A Crack About Apple

In General on Wednesday, 10 June 2009 at 11:47

In a quick blurb on the Windows IT Pro site, Paul Thurrott states that Microsoft is sending a record number of security fixes this month. OK, fine, that’s probably a good piece of information for the “Windows IT Pros” the site is there to serve.

But we also get this little bit:

Although the volume of fixes Microsoft announced is reminiscent of what Mac OS X users face from Apple on a far more haphazard schedule

Sure, Paul. Whatever. You know what? The first commenter on your post is on to something. It seems kind of a “jacka$$” thing to say. I’m not sure how that’s supposed to serve the “Pros” you’re ostensibly speaking to.

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The Microsoft Security Redefinition Campaign Rolls Onward.

In Uncategorized on Thursday, 24 January 2008 at 11:40
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Just as they did at the 90, 180, and 270-day mark, Microsoft has cherry-picked and juggled statistics to arrive at the conclusion that Vista is more secure than XP, Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Mac OS X. Oh please.

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Apple’s Thinking Is Just Fine, Thank You.

In General on Monday, 1 October 2007 at 19:26
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TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld provides an indication of why Business 2.0 went under with a post on Apple that claims Apple is thinking like the phone company and Jobs should “think different.” For any writer to imply the iPhone is something the phone companies would ever have produced is reason enough to ignore the post completely.

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Microsoft Windows security revisited: One reason I’m Macintosh bound.

In Uncategorized on Wednesday, 8 August 2007 at 23:07

I wrote about Microsoft’s latest security ploy last month (link at the end of this article). This is a “prequel” to that piece…

For the six years prior to January of this year, these were the perceptions about Microsoft Windows’ security:

1) It is weak.
2) XP SP2 is going to fix it.
3) It is weak.
4) Internet Explorer 7.0 is going to fix it.
5) It is weak.
6) Vista is going to fix it.

Those are simple, but they sum it up well.

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I’m back. A quick look at some events this past week.

In General on Saturday, 4 August 2007 at 8:27

Well, I’m back from the “out of town” portion of my vacation. I still have a few days off and some projects planned at home, but I’ll get to blogging as well. For my first post since coming back I’ll highlight some of the stuff that went on while I was gone. This is stuff I may have written complete posts about had I been here.

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Microsoft: Building better security through statistics.

In Uncategorized on Saturday, 23 June 2007 at 11:48

Just as it did last quarter, Microsoft’s own security report says Vista is more secure than other operating systems.

In order to pull this off, Microsoft had to redefine how to measure security. In their world it isn’t about actual attacks, but rather a game of statistical juggling.

You know the saying: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Can we get back to reality? What matters are actual attacks in the wild. Was my system compromised (applications act funny, popups from nowhere, lost data, system degraded, crashes)? That’s what users care about. By this obvious measure Windows has always been a virus and malware magnet. There’s no denying this. It’s why antivirus and anti-malware software is a requirement on a Windows system (including Vista). No reputable party disputes this. No wonder Microsoft had to redefine security metrics!

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A million malware sites. Ouch!

In General on Wednesday, 23 May 2007 at 12:36

According to Google’s online security blog, their initial review of “suspicious” URLs has revealed one million malware-infected sites.

Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? Well, according to them it’s basically good news:

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