There's various drive by attacks (when you visit a certain webpage, it can take advantage of an exploit say, with Flash, Java, or OS specific bug, to infect your system). Linux may be a little more immune in the sense that most of these type attacks target Microsoft and Apple systems mainly since Linux is not widely used to be a target, but that will change. Even now, Apple systems are now feeling the heat as they take a bigger bite of OS market. The good news is that Linux get patched timely and often (every other day, when I open my Ubuntu VM and check for updates, there are several). Not the case with Microsoft and I suspect Apple either. Still, I don't worry too much about drivebys. As for your older system, it probably doesn't support virtualization acceleration either so that pretty much limits you but trust me when I understand why folk keep older systems. Even the one I use now (barebones it was) was a gift from my brother (last system was 8 years old before I upgraded; originally, it had Win2000 which I later upgraded to XP Pro a few years later. lol). My current system I got as a Christmas gift in 2008. Installed XP and in November 2009, I upgraded to Win7 Pro (cost me $90 or $99; not sure exactly anymore since it was a preorder that Microsoft touted the summer earlier). Been more then quite pleased with Win7, but I don't browse with it either which is probably why it's been so robust. lol

Take care dd. Poor guy I am and hope my current system will last me a few more years.

Anything that could happen in general really. EMP explosions, solar flares, and who knows maybe an asteroid.
I was watching a documentary the other day and scientists that watch the skies can not watch all of it.Most is still un observed.They said on the show that we could spot one coming and have only a month to kiss our selves and our arses good day. So kiss the kids and loved ones every day and show them your love because you just never know.

Doesn't concern me, noscript blocks all java & flash unless I specifically allow them.



But that's not the only reason why linux is harder to target - no attack can do anything if I don't give it permissions, since my web browser doesn't run with root permissions it can't do anything to anything except to the files in my home directory. And I back up those regularly. And any OS bugs get quickly fixed on linux since it's open source and there's lots of people constantly working on the source code.



Yeah it's mainly about the money, by which I mean the money I don't have...



The entire universe could just end one day, there's no way of knowing... oh and we might all be brains in a box in a very elaborate computer simulation, there's no way of knowing that either...

Thing is, I'd rather not spend my time worrying about things that are unknowable - if things like that happen then they happen and that's that, it's not like any of us are going to be here forever anyway so it's best to just concentrate on living your life the best way possible in the time you have available. Living is no fun if you spend all of it worrying.

Agree 100%. Take care dd.

I still think that speaking of doomsday internet disasters is bollocks. Yes, the dnschanger virus/trojan exists and has existed for about a year. The major anti-virus people are aware of it and as far as I know the virus/trojan is included in the normal definition files and would be picked up and sent to the sin bin if detected. Anyone who has a regular AV update and assumes safe internet practices should not have any problems.
I simply fail to see how a few DNS servers from the FBI have saved the internet world until now. I would imagine that probably most dns servers are located outside the USA. Simply repairing the DNS definitions in your lan settings would not be a lasting solution as any visit to an "unclean" site would re-infect you.
Anyway , I will wait until the 9th of July and living in Australia I will cry wolf through my Ubuntu machine if something happens. That way the USA people on the forum have about 10 hours to prepare and shut down!
BTW the 2k problem was not a virus, it was a deficiency in programming, and was taken very seriously by all big institutions. A lot of money was spent on re-coding and testing and therefore there were very few problems.
In this case, apart from thousands of reports by "experts" in magazines and forums very little has been done by Microsoft (the biggest player in this impending disaster ) and the Anti Virus agencies.
Apart from Bell(Canada) issuing a warning other major isp's have done almost nothing. I dont think AT&T, Telecom, Telstra, Optus and other major providers and there are some very big isp's in Europe and Asia have done anything except allow the "experts" to debate the problems on their technical forums, but not one concrete statement from them to say that their dns servers are being protected in any special way.
I am not an expert on dns hierarchy and who or what maintains the master copy (if their is such a thing) Anyhow that is my opinion and I'll stick with it. I sincerely hope that I am right!

I grew up during the height of the Cold War. I remember air raid drills in grade school. And the Cuban missile crisis - watched the latest developments every night on TV. And MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction)... And fallout shelters...

Loss of Internet capabilities seems rather trivial in comparison...

If you think about it... who profits most about viruses?

Answer: anti-virus companies.

So, I wouldn't be surprised if one day it's discovered that anti-virus companies are paying people to write & spread viruses... after all, it's what keeps them in business.

Yes dd.
Like the DEA and the war on drugs.
Gerard.

You often make a lot of sense but your bordering on paranoia here IMO.

Pretty good analogy actually... although I'd say the organized crime benefits possibly even more from the war on drugs...



No but seriously, think about it for a bit... anti-virus software is a huge business, even though a lot of them offer free solutions for private users, they also have more advanced, paid plans for both private individuals and businesses...

The whole approach of using an anti-virus software as a primary means of security is a flawed one at best. It requires the user to maintain a constantly growing database of virus & malware information on his computer, results in a slew of false positives which hurts smaller software creators, and at best it's just a race against the inevitable - new viruses (virii?) are constantly being written...

So one can but wonder, who exactly profits from this situation?

The most obvious answer is the anti-virus companies - they make money by marketing their software to the public. They benefit from the perception that anti-virus software is just something that is a "necessary evil" when you deal with computers.

Another answer is hardware manufacturers, who benefit indirectly - they can keep selling faster and more expensive systems to end users when growing anti-virus software and other security patches for badly-coded os:s keep slowing down the older computers.

And of course Microsoft benefits as well - they benefit indirectly from the perception that anti-virus is something that is simply necessary - it takes the attention away from the flawed design of their operating systems.

So we already know the last two are in cahoots, the only question remains is if the first one is in on the deal... the answer is: maybe???