Security through obscurity or obfuscation is usually no security at all in the end. A good example is Blue Ray encryption or the Sony Playstation which in the case of the former is now completely broken and in the latter is on the way to being completely compromised.. Regards. Tristram Llewellyn Sight and Sound Technology Technical Support www.sightandsound.co.uk Mail: Tristram: tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Technical: Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx General - info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Phone: Support line: 0845 634 7979 Sight and Sound Technology Limited is a company registered in England and Wales, with company number 1408275. Sight and Sound Technology Welton House North Wing Summerhouse Road Moulton Park Northampton NN3 6WD VAT Number - GB 860 2121 66. -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Clive.Lever@xxxxxxxxxxx Sent: 01 February 2011 10:34 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: careful regarding a phone call i just received Hi Tris, perhaps they don't want to tel their enemies what they are doing, and in this case the enemies are the hackers and malware developers. Best, Clive Clive Lever Diversity Advisor 01622 221163 (extension 7000 1163) Room 1.15, Sessions House, County Hall, Maidstone, ME14 1XQ. Diversity is a strength and we will value and harness difference for the benefit of all service users, the individual and KCC. -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tristram Llewellyn Sent: 01 February 2011 10:27 To: 'access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: [access-uk] Re: careful regarding a phone call i just received Macs have nothing like the number traditional viruses or Trojans, those that are known are relatively few in numbers. Meanwhile Apple very quietly patch security holes often without telling the community what it is they have just fixed. That Apple are patching the operating system is great however the reluctance to let us all know what they have done is not and contributes to a general level of ignorance for all. Comparably in the PC industry even if Microsoft doesn't bark (which mostly they do these days because they have so badly embarrassed in the past) there are hundreds of security researchers all working away to find the next exploit being used by hackers and a ton of academic researchers too. So although it looks really had in Windows (and sometimes it really is) we at least know somewhat the state of play because it is in everybody's interest to know and nobody is (or should be) fooled. An example of how this might change is the episode with Facebook and other social networking site security resulting in the Firesheep extension for Firefox that allowed people on open wireless networks to take control of other user's pages. This security whole is just as wide on the Mac as it is on Windows and has the same consequences. It is not a Mac or Windows specific problem but both systems are affected equally. Browsers whether on Mac or PC are all almost universally vulnerable to malformed input into them (a technique known as fuzzing) and can be made to crash which means there is an exploit in there. Likewise JAVAscript is something even Mac owners have to run on their computers in order for pages to work yet its power is considerable and if wielded maliciously will cause a problem on any platform. Safari along with most other browsers currently available are not fully sandboxed and have considerable scope to manipulate a target system bypassing most traditional anti-virus systems. Viruses and Trojans are relatively complex forms of attack that take time to develop but with the power of the tools available today you don't necessarily need to create a virus or Trojan to cause trouble but at the moment it is easier and Windows is the low hanging fruit. Regards. Tristram Llewellyn Sight and Sound Technology Technical Support www.sightandsound.co.uk Mail: Tristram: tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Technical: Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx General - info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Phone: Support line: 0845 634 7979 Sight and Sound Technology Limited is a company registered in England and Wales, with company number 1408275. Sight and Sound Technology Welton House North Wing Summerhouse Road Moulton Park Northampton NN3 6WD VAT Number - GB 860 2121 66. -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Gordon Keen Sent: 31 January 2011 19:47 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: careful regarding a phone call i just received So people have been saying for years now, how many actual mac virus events have been found in the wild? Despite this, I and other responsible mac users have virus protection software installed just to ensure we do not infect - inadvertently - unsuspecting windows users. Regards G From glorious Devon, England. On 31 Jan 2011, at 18:02, George Bell wrote: > "the Mac operating system is a time bomb waiting to happen" > > What an absolute master of understatement, Tristram! > > George. > > ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- > ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] > ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: > ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > ** and in the Subject line type > ** unsubscribe > ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the > ** immediately-following link:- > ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] > ** or send a message, to > ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq > ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. 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