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Topic: Beware of email from Cinevizion
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Frank Cox
Film God
Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011
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posted 09-17-2019 04:09 PM
Most of those types of email rely on things like malformed PDF, XML, ActionScript and the like to compromise your computer. As the largest "soft target", exploits that run on Microsoft Windows are the most heavily used for those purposes.
Windows is also a monoculture. Everyone uses the same desktop and the same programs to do the same things, so a flaw in, for example, the default PDF viewer that "everyone uses" will affect the majority of installed systems even if the underlying operating system is not being exploited.
Windows is also a black box where nobody really knows what it does internally and it's really difficult to check under the hood for rogue processes.
And by design (a single-user desktop operating system), Microsoft Windows installations suffer from the Dancing Pigs problem. Anybody and his kid or his dog can download something from a shady website without realizing the consequences.
Ultimately, you're far better off using an operating system that isn't Microsoft Windows to check your email and, preferably, to do everything else that you want to do on a computer as well.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 09-17-2019 04:52 PM
The problem with advising against the use of Windows altogether is that it is like advising against the use of automobiles. Boycotting Windows carries significant disadvantages and obstacles. Your business may rely on applications software, the functionality of which cannot easily (or even at all) be reproduced under another desktop OS. If it is, the learning curve needed for you and your staff to come up to speed with the alternative could be significant. And other operating systems, especially MacOS, will restrict your choice of hardware more than Windows likely will. While a lot of cybercrime involves Windows-specific malware code, not all does: phishing emails directing you to a phony website has the potential to work on any browser, for example. Therefore, you have the false sense of security risk, too: "I'm using a Mac, Ubuntu, or whatever, so the bad guys can't touch me."
There are also ways to mitigate the risks of Windows, which in many cases will not be as disruptive or as costly as moving to another operating system. Use a relatively secure browser (e.g. Firefox) in conjunction with script-blocking plugins (e.g. NoScript), an email client configured such that it does not automatically download embedded images, a decent firewall, and use common sense, and you have effective protection against most threats.
I am by no means a Microsoft fanboy: my computers all dual boot to Windows 10 and Ubuntu, and I am probably using the latter around two thirds of the time. But there is a reason why Windows is so widespread: it supports a huge range of hardware, most professional applications software is designed for it, and it works reasonably well, most of the time.
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