Tuesday 24 February 2004

'I have an antivirus program that I'll monitor myself'

Dear MS:

With regard to the XP SP2 Security Center, specifically the dialog depicted here. Please could you add a checkbox labelled:

I am not an idiot, and do not require an anti-virus program

Thanks.

Seriously, I believe that anyone practising safe computing does not need an anti-virus program. The rules basically boil down to:

  • Don't run file attachments to emails.
  • Don't open emails from people you don't recognise
  • Keep up to date with security patches
  • Be wary of what you download

Follow these and you'll be fine.

I was a little concerned earlier today when our router logs indicated that my computer was sending arbitrary data over UDP to an external port 1434, which is SQL Server's well-known service discovery port. It turned out to be Enterprise Manager trying to discover whether a colleague's server was running; he doesn't register with our DNS server, whereas I use that as the primary DNS (we have a partly implemented domain) and instead of finding his computer name, it found computername.co.uk. Thanks, TDImon!

Bet they were pleased to get udp/1434 traffic...

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