Hi Gabriel,
On Mon, 7 May 2018 14:02:44 +0100 Gabriel Thullen gabriel@thullen.com wrote:
I am also a Linux advocate, and have been so for years (decades?). That been said, I imagine that there are still more people using Windows XP than there are people using Linux. Last time I checked (october 2017) it was something like 5% using XP and less than 1% using linux, all distros included. We can safely predict that virus outvreaks will be a problem for linux once it reaches 5% or 10% market share...
Most linux viruses have never outbroke and never caused much harm. Linux can be susceptible to other forms of malware such as worms or rootkits, but it hasyet to exhibit a large scale virus epidemic and it isnt because it wasn't tried. Linux is an attractive target because many servers run on it. See also https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linux+viruses&ia=web
Regards,
Shlomi
Gabe
On Mon, May 7, 2018 at 1:51 PM, Shabab Mustafa shabab.mustafa@gmail.com wrote:
I have been a Linux advocate for almost a decade now and from 'my past experience', I can tell you have opened a topic of a huge discussion about people should switch to Linux Desktops (which is off-topic here). But I respectfully disagree with your statement, "anti-virus programs usually do more harm than good".
From a conservative viewpoint, some protection is still better to have than no protection at all. And the example you gave here, an anti-virus mistakenly classified your domain as a potential threat, makes a weaker point. By a few mistakes, we cannot cancel out a million of other successes. A false alarm is yet favourable than no alarm at all.
Shabab Mustafa President Wikimedia Bangladesh
On Mon, May 7, 2018 at 5:56 PM Shlomi Fish shlomif@shlomifish.org wrote:
On Thu, 3 May 2018 19:27:16 -0500 John Bennett jbennett@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello,
Many of you may have been receiving emails in the last 24 hours warning
you
of "Multiple failed attempts to log in" with your account. I wanted to
let
you know that the Wikimedia Foundation's Security team is aware of the situation, and working with others in the organization on steps to
decrease
the success of attacks like these.
The exact source is not yet known, but it is not originating from our systems. That means it is an external effort to gain unauthorized
access
to
random accounts. These types of efforts are increasingly common for websites of our reach. A vast majority of these attempts have been unsuccessful, and we are reaching out personally to the small number of accounts which we believe have been compromised.
While we are constantly looking at improvements to our security systems
and
processes to offset the impact of malicious efforts such as these, the
best
method of prevention continues to be the steps each of you take to safeguard your accounts. Because of this, we have taken steps in the
past
to support things like stronger password requirements,[1] and we
continue
to encourage everyone to take some routine steps to maintain a secure computer and account. That includes regularly changing your
passwords,[2]
actively running antivirus software on your systems, and keeping your system software up to date.
From my experience, anti-virus programs usually do more harm than good.
For
example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_AntiVirus recently blocked my entire shlomifish.org domain because it apparently misclassified an executable download as problematic (and it was built from source using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMake and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppVeyor so it is unlikely that that is the case.). MS Windows' poor resistance to malware and the fact that Windows Update is so dysfunctional (see http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/facts/Windows-Update/ ) are the reasons why I cannot recommend running it as a desktop, and instead one should
use
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux#Desktop - desktop linux or similar.
A little off topic perhaps, but needs to be said.
My team will continue to investigate this incident, and report back if
we
notice any concerning changes. If you have any questions, please
contact
the Support and Safety team (susa{{@}}wikimedia.org).
John Bennett Director of Security, Wikimedia Foundation
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Password_strength_requirements [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ChangePassword _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
--
Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ http://www.shlomifish.org/open-source/projects/fortune-mod/
If a tree falls down in the middle of the forest, and there’s no one
there
to hear it… what colour is the tree? — Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply
.
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe