Note: This is a 3 part Article and a long read. You can download the entire Audio Version Here

Ok, Quick Recap.

We are in some big, big trouble.

I wish I could say Technology is going to save us, but its not. It’s going to boil down to personal responsibility when you or your users access the Internet.

As a professional security technician I can tell you we have enough on our hands dealing with the holes in windows the exploits, viruses and the spam that we need your help with the biggest liability in this scenario.

THE USERS

We need to make sure your users of the Internet use it wisely. Adhere to your companies Internet Usage Policy.

But I can trust my users to behave cant I?. NO, now your just being naïve.

I frequent public Internet forums and regularly see users asking how they can bypass their own internal content filters that would allow them to “do what they want” on the Internet.

Giving your staff unrestricted access to the Internet is like giving them a really big hammer, eventually something is going to get damaged.

So if we can’t rely on Windows and you can’t trust your users will the next version of Windows be any better.

Well yes and no. Microsoft is awake now and knows that maybe we are not all going to play nicely together.

As a user of Windows Vista you will be operating in a limited account basis, this means when the system wants to do anything potentially “high level” the system will ask you for example “Hey do you really want to e-mail everyone in your contacts are you sure?”

As Vista is currently 16 months away it’s difficult to tell how good this is all going to work in practice.

Going against Vista is:

1) Its going to be the most targeted high profile Operating System in History from its first day of release.

2) To retain backward compatibility a lot of Vista’s internals are the same as Windows going all the way back to Windows95.

Oh Come on DiPonio, there must be a happy ending to this story.

Sorry folks it’s not going to happen remember Users+Windows+Internet=Trouble.

Based on what I know today, it’s going to be a very long time before things get better.

Personal Responsibility is your only hope.

Thanks for reading.

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