Hello Margot, Sunday, September 7, 2003, 1:57:45 PM, you wrote:
M> I have relegated the Win98 PC to a dark corner. It gets dusted off M> and switched on once a week, when I have to use IE6 to access one M> of my bank accounts because the bank's software runs on M$ with M> ActiveX controls. They say this is for "security reasons" (!) - They might be wanting to snoop on your computer more than they would be allowed to do with just 'browsing' capabilities. If they read/write files, registry entries, etc it could be more reassuring to them. M> I'm still trying to persuade them that for "security reasons" I M> should be able to access my account using linux - no luck so far, M> but I'm still working on it! Security is different, depending on which end of the pipe you are on. >From their point of view, they would prefer to have you wide open and exposed in every way, so they can snoop, probe, etc as much as they want. M$ hears this, and complies with this wish quite well. They cater to THIS end of the pipe, not your end. >From your end, security means having everything as closed as possible, with access and functionality strictly under your control. Nobody from the other end can snoop or probe without your permission, and even then, there are tight restrictions. M$ is as deaf as possible to this idea, and provides as little of this as they can get away with. Consider, for example, the wretched firewall in XP. It gives the illusion of protection with much less actual protection than is available from many other firewalls. The M$ solution to this is to make it as difficult as possible for competing firewalls to work well with XP. Either linux or a nailed down Win machine looks much too fuzzy and uncertain to many businesses at the other end. Thus the great push for 'trusted computing'. Keep in mind that any trust in this model will be STRICTLY from the other end of the pipe, NOT your end. In fact, your end will probably be FORCED open without your control. A few more BIG nails in the privacy coffin. -- rikona mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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