I have no solid information at all
that indicates that any Microsoft
operating system is more secure than
Windows XP SP3 with the latest
Microsoft patches. None. No such
information at all.
For all I know, all Microsoft
patches for later Microsoft operating
systems are only for bugs in
those operating systems and not
for bugs in the XP version I am
running.
I have no even reasonable information
that there are any security bugs
in the XP installation I have.
I have no reason to believe that
Windows 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 is
more secure than XP;
as far as I know, XP is more
secure than those operating systems.
And similarly for Windows Server.
How the heck Flash could give
malware to my XP system is beyond
me, and I've seen no explanation.
XP should be able to run any
user mode software at all
safely. I have heard no claims
that it can. It it cannot,
then I very much want to know
why not. For decades several
time sharing
systems apparently
could run any
software at all,
including operating systems,
safely.
These systems are essentially all
multiple virtual memory
systems built on the Intel x86
architecture with
hierarchical file systems
with capabilities and access
control lists. If there are
security holes, I sure as heck
want to know why; but apparently
there have been security holes,
and I never got even reasonably
good information on why.
A few years ago, I saw that
Microsoft had patched a
security hole caused by
a buffer overflow bug.
Outrageous that Microsoft
should still have buffer
overflow bugs.
I intend to bring up an instance
of a recent version of Windows Server,
but I have no solid information or even
an idea, none, not
even zip, zilch, or zero, what the
situation is on bugs or security.
I would have no idea at all on how
to run a secure Windows system
attached to the Internet.
Looking around at my XP system,
I was just outraged to the point
of screaming to discover that
Microsoft had started some
message service that was later
seen to be a security risk. I didn't
ask for that message service.
I wasn't informed that it was
running. I wasn't using that
message service. I had no
intention of using that message
service. What the heck other
obscure, hidden, secret software
is Microsoft starting, not telling
me about, and that could infect
my system? I'm torqued.
But there isn't much I can do about
it.
To me, that moving to
Windows 10, that apparently
keeps phoning home, would
solve security problems instead
of causing them is a
really bad joke. Windows 10
apparently has a lot of new
software that likely has
bugs. That new Microsoft software,
I want nothing to do with it.
Also I have long been totally
torqued off, even screaming,
as I clicked and clicked and clicked
and said over and over and over,
for years, to NOT, under any
circumstances at all, NEVER but NEVER,
ever, read any removable media
unless and until so instructed.
Don't look at it. Don't check it.
Don't permit even a single bit
to be read at all. Of course,
if you automatically
read and execute software
from removable media, you should
be dragged by two horses in opposite
directions. But such screaming
didn't work.
Yup, USB thumb drives are a special
case.
Instead, of course, I want
IP port by port, program by program,
each DLL one at a time, and
anything and everything else,
what the heck is running on my system,
why, and what the heck the
risks are. But I have no
reasonable way to get such information.
For my startup and its Web server,
for now it will store nothing or
next to nothing
on users -- no cookies, user IDs,
user passwords, etc. My site
makes no use of cookies. Users
don't login or give passwords.
Users don't give e-mail addresses.
Yes, the Web site log file
likely has the user's IP address,
but actually that does not
much identify a user.
Maybe at a high end site, are
supposed to put outside of
a computer running Windows
some special boxes.
All IP, maybe even all
Ethernet, traffic flows through
these boxes, and they
check, track, and analyze the heck
out of every packet, every bit,
that flows through. That data
plus some more such tracking
on Windows may be enough. But
I have no idea what such
boxes or associated Windows
programs might be.
Of course, the server should
make no use of wireless.
That a server could
get malware from a USB
drive is outrageous.