Security defined: Freedom from risk or danger; safety. Freedom from doubt, anxiety, or fear; confidence.
Who is responsible for my computers security? You guessed it, me! I lock my house, I lock my car and I pull that zipper on my pants up several times a day. Would I think of hiring someone to follow me around and lock my doors and pull up my zipper? Why do so many companies think they can sell security as a service? With all the breakdowns we have suffered visa vie viruses and worms, they obviously haven’t been doing a very good job (yet they have thrived by contributing to the current climate of fear).
I back-up importaint files, Hard Drives fail, that’s a fact of life.; I grab those updates as soon as they are offered, I've got a good firewall (enabled)! I have disabled HTML email, and even if they tell me I have won a million $ I don’t open uninvited attachments.
Where are all these contaminated emails coming from? When I do a DNS search on the ones that land in my inbox I have discovered a pattern; they all come from broadband ISP accounts. Broadband DSL and Cable ISP’s are selling internet access, (access works two ways) their minimum requirements of Windows ’95, 50m of HD and 32m of RAM are maximizing their profits at our expense.
As developers, we are learning about security, it all begins at code level.
We live in a networked world; we need to educate our neighbors, if we are all secure we will fulfill the promise of the information age.