The attached PDF from MAAWG is an informative read. I was not surprised by the number of non-experts that are aware of threats and the number of non-experts in the "it can't happen to me" category. I was banging my head a little bit while trying to educate my dad recently. His old computer that was not retired until recently was a Windows 98 computer on a dialup connection. The virus definitions and other software updates were rarely up to date. He believed that being on dialup made his computer not a target for hackers / scans / probes, etc. That simply is not true. In regards to email it doesn't even know if you are connecting over a dialup or high speed connection. His new computer has a nice high speed internet connection. Again, the updates are usually not applied, and now I don't have access to do them because his Vista computer asks me for the admin password. He is also under the impression that turning off the computer while not on it ranks as one of the best things he can do. I suppose I can't argue against that too much. I think I'd prefer to have it online all the time and routinely picking up it's updates at scheduled times. Do you have any stories to share about out of date computers, needing to help a friend with a virus/spyware/bot infection, or some other relevant observations?
