Re: Point of No Return? Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impo ssible

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

The problem is (in addition to what you mention below) that,
once a machine is compromised, it is simply no longer 'trustable'
because there just too many ways for an attacker to install
trojans/backdoors/etc. for future nefarious purposes.

This isn't just a Windows issue -- that goes for any copmputer,
period, IMO.

I just found it interesting to hear someone echo that statement,
given the current hostile situation/environment that we operate
in these days. :-)


- ferg




-- "Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rMslade () shaw ca> wrote:

> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1945782,00.asp

Very interesting indeed.  Until a few years ago, I was highly incensed at those who 
suggested you had to reformat and reinstall.  It was always, in my experience, 
much easier to kill the beast and go on (with even the most fundamental level of 
knowledge of malware).

(My first experience was a smallish post-secondary school that got some of their 
machines infected with Stoned, and blew the whole network off, re-installing all 
the software *and re-keying all the databases, including the library and all student 
data, by hand.*)

What changed my mind was XP.  Almost as soon as it came out I started running 
into situations where the virus had tangled itself so deeply into the guts of the 
system that you couldn't get it out.  (Of course, it didn't help that once XP came 
out most people were using NTFS, and the good old tools of yesteryear were no 
good anymore.)

[snip]

--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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