Tue, Sep 28 2004 21:37
bradley
So I'm trying NOT to freak out here
Boss/partner brings in his HP laptop so I can upgrade it to Windows XP sp2. [It's the really cool HP with the built in ten key that all us bean counters go ooooohhhhhhhhhh] So I boot it up to begin the upgrade process and there's a spysware scanner program on it. Oh cool, right?
Uh...no, not so cool. I didn't install it. Where it came from, I'm not exactly sure. Fortunately I do some hunting that it is a freeware spyscanner so I'm not freaking.... completely...but still it points out that “social engineering” can easily trick someone into downloading a program and installing it.
Because he has full rights to that machine, he can install anything without thinking of the consequences.
I/We need to get used to running as a plain user. There was something I read a night or two ago that Network Quarantine/protection would be huge for us good guys in the year ahead at the same time Social Engineering would be huge for the bad guys.
Filed under: Security
![[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.]](http://www.sbslinks.com/images/headertop.png "There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not!")