LinuxPlanet: The Real Lessons of ILOVEYOU

[ Thanks to Kevin
Reichard for this link. ]

“There are some extremely important lessons to be learned
from ILOVEYOU and its clones, and the computer professional who
fails to notice them now will surely be taught them more forcefully
later. Here are a few of the more important ones:”

“The Visual Basic scripts that did all the damage did the damage
only on machines running Microsoft software. They were able to do
the damage only because Microsoft added that capability as a
“feature.” As it happens, the architecture of the Windows operating
system is such that it is particularly vulnerable to malicious
attacks of this sort; Linux, the other Unices, and the MacOS
isolate the user from the system such that damage is minimized,
unless the system administrator has intentionally defeated security
safeguards.”

“Despite all the reported damage, ILOVEYOU was an amateurish
script. … f this is what child vandals can do, what do you
suppose real experts could do? How do you know they aren’t already
doing it? How do you know they aren’t already doing it to you? If
you think some virus scanner or flimsy firewall with its default
settings maintained will protect you or your company, you are
probably wrong.”

Complete
Story