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In My Humble Experience...

blackepyon01@... 15th Sep 2009

The biggest problem that I have, isn't viruses or phishing. Most people run at least basic AV protection on their machines. My problem is the users themselves.

I run a pretty tight setup at the school where I work. Active directory with group policies, Symantec Endpoint Protection, a Linux firewall/internet filter (Ubuntu/Squid), nobody on AD is admin to their profile or to the machine.

However, personal laptops, which many people like, cause they can take it home and work on stuff, and it's "theirs", are a huge security risk. Most of them run some kind of AV as well, and I don't let them bring their laptops if they don't.

The issue is that most users tend to be very "non-educated" (I want to use bigger words, but I will refrain). They will click on everything on the internet which says: "click me!" and install messanging programs, optimizers, fake AV and anti-spyware, every P2P program under the sun, the list goes on.

While this is usually not an issue if they don't connect; if they DO connect, by network or by removable media, they bring their crap with them. And while my network is fairly secure, all that crap is guaranteed to try and access the internet and will ball-up the network if their are lots of them. Not to mention the risk that some of that stuff is actually capable of hacking/infecting network PCs remotely, even though I try to keep my PCs up to date with their security updates.

And that's just PC users. Mac users get lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that Macs can't get viruses. They can, and though they may not exibit symptoms, they WILL pass them on without the user ever knowing about it.