Re: [Amps] Power Transformer

[David Kirkby <david.kirkby@onetel.net>]

Tomm Aldridge wrote:

> ... and what does Intel have to do with MS being targeted by hackers 
> and spammers???  It is interesting to note that most high performance 
> WS and servers are IA powered and that they are completely OS agnostic. 

With one very uncommon exception (Windows NT on on the Alpha processor) 
Windoze only runs on Intel x86 (or Intel x86 compatible CPUs).

The vast majority of Linux users use Intel x86 CPUs too, so bugs in code 
that is used on UNIX and Linux systems will tend to have exploits 
designed to exploit x86 compatible CPUs. A bug for example in the Apache 
web server (which runs on Windoze, Linux, Suns's Solaris, IBM's AIX, 
HP's HP-UX etc etc) could leave all systems open no matter what CPU they 
use - x86, SPARC, Itanium and so on. However, any that try to run 
arbitrary code will most likely be written to run x86 instructions.

I'm well aware Intel Itanium CPUs are very high performance, and I would 
swap my Sun UltraSPARC for Itanium CPUs any day, but Itanimum systems 
are expensive.  So I'm not saying Intel are to blame, but by not using 
an x86 compatible CPU, I do reduce dramatically the chances of being 
compromised.

There are many steps you can take to improve security, which in a rough 
order of effectiveness might be

1) Stop using IE and Outlook, and switch to Mozilla.
2) Stop using Windoze and switch to a UNIX, Linux or Mac system.
3) Stop using Linux on x86, and switch to CPUs that are not x86 compatible.
4) Keep the computer switched off
5) Destroy the computer completely.

(I'm talking here of only the sort of system you run, not patches, 
firewalls etc).

> I run XP on both my (PII and PIII) machines here at the QTH but I do 
> not have either Outlook or ie on either.  I use Mozilla exclusively 
> for both browsing and mail and have so far avoided any MS viruses. 

You have done (1) above, but there are still many exploits of Windoze 
that don't use either of those methods of attack.

I don't run Outlook on my PC, but my wife's grandchildren use the 
machine and managed to get me a virus I think via an exploit of MSM 
messenger.

Despite the fact one of my SPARCs is open to the world as a web server, 
with http://www.g8wrb.org/ and many other sites on it, the thing has 
never been hacked. I see plenty of attempts, but most will never succeed 
on a SPARC processor.

Some have critisised Intel for not making the Itanium x86 compatible, 
whereas AMD's high spec rival, the Opteron is backwards compatilbe with 
the x86 instruction set.

Dr. David Kirkby, G8WRB.


> INTEL INSIDE!
>
> Tomm Aldridge
>
> David Kirkby wrote:
>
> > Will Matney wrote:
> >
> > > From the above, if all the members of this list or everyone with 
> > > contesting.com e-mails would or need to check their computers for 
> > > this "sober worm". Most anti-virus makers should have updates to 
> > > clean an infected computer if it is found. Hopefully it will be 
> > > found and my e-mails will drop back down to a normal rate =)
> >
> >
> >
> > All members that are running Windoze you mean!!
> > Sorry, I had to add that.
> >
> > Dr. David Kirkby
> > (Sun Ultra 80,  4 x 450 MHz UltraSPARC II CPUs, 4GB RAM.
> > Totally incompatible with Windoze and totally immune from its many 
> > problems.)
> >
> > INTEL OUTSIDE !!!
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Amps mailing list
> > Amps@contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps


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