Comments on: Agnitum provides “research” into Vista Firewall. http://www.computerdefense.org/2007/01/agnitum-provides-research-into-vista-firewall/ Sharing my thoughts with the world. Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:08:36 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Terces http://www.computerdefense.org/2007/01/agnitum-provides-research-into-vista-firewall/comment-page-1/#comment-3455 Terces Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:56:37 +0000 http://www.computerdefense.org/?p=196#comment-3455 I agree, he kind of whined for a bit regarding the manual setup. All I could think when reading the write-up regarding the manual setup was "how many programs do you friggen use?" I mean come on... even with 50 programs that needed internet access you'd be sitting there for what... 25 minutes - that's just a one time fee to fine-tune your firewall; no big deal. Gimme a break... what makes anyone think security should be fast and free? Also. Vista sucks. DRM piece of crap... hardly an OS. I agree, he kind of whined for a bit regarding the manual setup. All I could think when reading the write-up regarding the manual setup was “how many programs do you friggen use?” I mean come on… even with 50 programs that needed internet access you’d be sitting there for what… 25 minutes – that’s just a one time fee to fine-tune your firewall; no big deal.

Gimme a break… what makes anyone think security should be fast and free?

Also. Vista sucks. DRM piece of crap… hardly an OS.

]]> By: .:Computer Defense:. » Microsoft Firewall Bashing… Didn’t Agnitum Already Try This? http://www.computerdefense.org/2007/01/agnitum-provides-research-into-vista-firewall/comment-page-1/#comment-2996 .:Computer Defense:. » Microsoft Firewall Bashing… Didn’t Agnitum Already Try This? Fri, 16 Feb 2007 07:38:10 +0000 http://www.computerdefense.org/?p=196#comment-2996 [...] First, I’d like to look at the first sentence here… then I’d like to point out to Mr. Gralla that these are the Outbound Allow rules that he was complaining about only paragraphs before. Then he mentions the fact that Vista lacks a user friendly “Allow this program to access the internet” pop-up box.  I covered this previously in my Agnitum post but I’ll address it again. You see software that provides these pop-ups makes it very easy to fool the user… they also allow the user to become complacent. What Microsoft has done is similar to iptables in Linux and ACLs in Cisco routers. You need to predefine programs that are allowed to access the internet. Let’s take my HTTP/HTTPS malware above and let’s name it firefox.exe. Next, let’s install it to C:Program FilesM0zilla Firefox. Most users are going to see that pop up and quickly allow it if the functionality exists (such as the functionality in Norton Security Suite or ZoneAlarm Firewall)… Why? Users like to “click-through”… they think that having the firewall is enough. I commend Microsoft for not including the user-friendly pop-up boxes… This is actually a great improvement to the security provided by firewalls. We all know that a balance must be found between security and user friendliness… This option sure beats providing enough user friendliness that you allow the users to make the firewall useless. Users will allow firefox.exe when they configure their Windows Firewall… then the malware at C:Program FilesM0zilla Firefoxfirefox.exe will be silently blocked. [...] [...] First, I’d like to look at the first sentence here… then I’d like to point out to Mr. Gralla that these are the Outbound Allow rules that he was complaining about only paragraphs before. Then he mentions the fact that Vista lacks a user friendly “Allow this program to access the internet” pop-up box.  I covered this previously in my Agnitum post but I’ll address it again. You see software that provides these pop-ups makes it very easy to fool the user… they also allow the user to become complacent. What Microsoft has done is similar to iptables in Linux and ACLs in Cisco routers. You need to predefine programs that are allowed to access the internet. Let’s take my HTTP/HTTPS malware above and let’s name it firefox.exe. Next, let’s install it to C:Program FilesM0zilla Firefox. Most users are going to see that pop up and quickly allow it if the functionality exists (such as the functionality in Norton Security Suite or ZoneAlarm Firewall)… Why? Users like to “click-through”… they think that having the firewall is enough. I commend Microsoft for not including the user-friendly pop-up boxes… This is actually a great improvement to the security provided by firewalls. We all know that a balance must be found between security and user friendliness… This option sure beats providing enough user friendliness that you allow the users to make the firewall useless. Users will allow firefox.exe when they configure their Windows Firewall… then the malware at C:Program FilesM0zilla Firefoxfirefox.exe will be silently blocked. [...]

]]> By: .:Computer Defense:. » Bashing other people’s products to sell your own… http://www.computerdefense.org/2007/01/agnitum-provides-research-into-vista-firewall/comment-page-1/#comment-2940 .:Computer Defense:. » Bashing other people’s products to sell your own… Thu, 15 Feb 2007 07:46:12 +0000 http://www.computerdefense.org/?p=196#comment-2940 [...] Agnitum provides “research” into Vista Firewall [...] [...] Agnitum provides “research” into Vista Firewall [...]

]]> By: .:Computer Defense:. » Company B is better than Company A, Claims Company B http://www.computerdefense.org/2007/01/agnitum-provides-research-into-vista-firewall/comment-page-1/#comment-1862 .:Computer Defense:. » Company B is better than Company A, Claims Company B Fri, 26 Jan 2007 04:28:12 +0000 http://www.computerdefense.org/?p=196#comment-1862 [...] So Microsoft responds… They provide Windows Firewall and Microsoft Anti-Spyware… What do the PPSSs do… they cry that these products are useless. More press coverage. So Microsoft responds by improving the Windows Firewall in Vista and improving Windows Defender (Previously Microsoft Anti-Spyware). Now these PPSSs nitpick and point out minor problems, while avoiding the flaws in their own software… They provide their own “market research” that’s so heavy with bias you can feel it without reading their “research”. I had blogged previously on Agnitum doing this with the Windows Firewall in an attempt to pump up the publicity for their Outpost firewall. [...] [...] So Microsoft responds… They provide Windows Firewall and Microsoft Anti-Spyware… What do the PPSSs do… they cry that these products are useless. More press coverage. So Microsoft responds by improving the Windows Firewall in Vista and improving Windows Defender (Previously Microsoft Anti-Spyware). Now these PPSSs nitpick and point out minor problems, while avoiding the flaws in their own software… They provide their own “market research” that’s so heavy with bias you can feel it without reading their “research”. I had blogged previously on Agnitum doing this with the Windows Firewall in an attempt to pump up the publicity for their Outpost firewall. [...]

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