Comments on: AP tries to stir up security fears

By: Neil T.

Neil T. — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

When you consider that the cost of having data recovered from a dead 20GB HD could be as much as $2000, $200 is small beans for a business.

And incidently the $2000 figure comes from experience. When people say back up your data, they do actually mean it. I imagine most businesses with any sense would have backups anyway that they could restore should a hacker disrupt their data in this way.

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Absolutely right. It is painful to see the look on a client’s face after they’ve (1) had a hard drive crash (2) with no backups and (3) assume that there is some magic service that can bring the disk back from the dead with a few taps of the old magic wand.

When I explain that the cost is likely to be well over $1000 with no guarantee of any data recovery, they blanch.

By: rumption

rumption — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Yes, but don’t forget to place due blame on Microsoft too.

Given the rate at which Internet Explorer critical security bugs are STILL being found despite SP2 I don’t think we’re going to see any lack of worms any time soon.

See http://www.eeye.com/html/research/upcoming/index.html
for upcoming advisories on yet more vulnerabilities, including one not patched for almost 3 months!

No software is perfect but Bill Gates’ promises about ‘the best security response team’ yadda yadda sound like just more hollow words.

By: Zaine Ridling

Zaine Ridling — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

I’ve read a lot of sloppy, dubious tech reporting lately. The main tactic is to insert non-existent or unattributed comments, often starting with “Some inside Microsoft think….”