There you have it. Anti-malware cannot fix that other OS. You need to re-install/restore from a backup. It’s easier to install GNU/Linux if you don’t have a backup. Check out Debian GNU/Linux or one of my videos:
Just choose “Install” and choose “desktop” and “standard system” when choice of installations comes up. Takes 10-15 minutes from a CD or an hour or less from the web with a broadband connection for a newbie on a newish machine. That other OS can take hours, even on a new machine.
With OEMs gearing up to ship Android/Linux on ARMed PCs of all kinds, we will have a happy Christmas. What will the world think in 2012 when M$ finally releases “8″ on ARM and folks figure out that it costs $100 more per small cheap computer than Android/Linux and is no more fun? With no retail monopoly left, M$ will be cut down to size, just another competitor in a large field of competitors.
I was surprised to see Brazil in the list of systems compromised by “Anonymous” recently. To demonstrate the compromise, /etc/passwd from some systems was published. GNU/Linux has a simple and reliable system of authentication which should prevent access to that file except by root, the administrative user. The actual passwords are not revealed but the usernames and real names of accounts are in there as well as user and group id numbers and /home directories.
A clue to the nature of the compromise comes from others in the list, Zimbabwe, Anguilla, Mosmon Council in Australia,… The latter included MySQL database dumps from “teens.mosmanlibraryblogs.com” and other sites. Mosmon Council also ran Lose 2K until 2008 when they switched to GNU/Linux on web servers. They have announced the breach: Mosman Council is aware that an organisation has hacked Council’s websites and is making that content available for download.
However, no ratepayer information from Council’s internal systems has been accessed.
The hack was made via an sql injection exploit on a subsidiary website deployed some years ago. The hack was able to initiate a ‘data dump’ of some of our public-facing websites. The information being made available is essentially what you are able to access when browsing our websites. The web editors’ passwords are encrypted, and are now being changed.
There has been no unauthorised access to Council’s internal systems.. In other words, Anonymous has likely picked some low-hanging fruit on the web. It happens. One weak password is all it takes. One web application allowing in SQL injections is all it takes. One discarded hard drive not properly wiped is all it takes.
That Anonymous had to reach so far to find low-hanging fruit gives us hope that more challenging targets are a lot more challenging. It’s passed the time where everyone has to work towards better security.
They had to combine all kinds of disparate units into a whole and used facilities in “7″ to do that. They had to reduce the burden of password resets and used facilities in “7″ to do that. They had to implement a VPN and used facilities in “7″ to do that. They plan on saving “£85 million over 25 years” thanks to pouring £millions into M$’s coffers every few years? M$ saw these suckers coming. “Generally speaking, Microsoft’s involvement meant they were writing software amendments for us as needed. They were very committed and very responsive to our needs.” except they could not monitor their systems in real time but only got to see logs from yesterday, in the interests of efficiency…
Twits. They could have done all those things for free using GNU/Linux, the flexible OS.
Instead, by assuming that other OS will be involved, Wiltshire Council nails itself to the cross of M$’s lock-in, making future freedom all the more painful.
It really is unfair. Google can get 99.9% just by running a good application on GNU/Linux. On a cluster, doing better is even easier. With re-re-reboots, malware, phoning home and that other OS doing whatever it wants when it wants, M$ is at a severe disadvantage in the reliability department. From the end-user’s perspective, the openness of Google Apps also makes flexibility a huge convenience factor on top of the reliability. ““The initial reason we looked at Google Apps was cost savings, but the on-going value of access to information from anywhere totally independent of the device is where we’re seeing the real gain,” said Scot Adams, the CIO of Cadillac Fairview. “ M$ gives first-class access only to users of its own OS and desktop applications… That’s a shrinking market.
UPDATE An article on NetworkWorld reveals that M$ is holding back on “Office365″ so as not to kill the cash-cow, M$’s office suite. So, M$, is not “all-in” but just wetting the toe.
My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.
My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.
I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.
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