niliin - Slashdot User

Yahoo! Answers, A Librarian's Worst Nightmare 252

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday December 10, 2007 @05:44PM from the group-think-not-good-think dept.

Slate has an interesting look at the realm of online question and answer forums. Yahoo! Answers is boasting over 120 million users and 400 million answers placing it just behind Wikipedia for most visited education/reference site on the internet. While this may be a great insight into crowd mentality and search preferences, it seems to be a "complete disaster as a traditional reference tool." "For educators fretting that the Internet is creating a generation of 'intellectual sluggards,' the problem isn't just that Yahoo!'s site helps ninth-graders cheat on their homework. It's that a lot of the time, it doesn't help them cheat all that well. [...] Like Yahoo! Answers, Wikipedia isn't perfect. But for savvy browsers who know how to use it, Wikipedia is an invaluable source of factual information. In the last two years, there's been a heated debate over whether Wikipedia is as trustworthy as Encyclopedia Britannica. This obscures a crucial point: Wikipedia is at least reliable enough that such a question can be asked. Take my word for it--no one is going to make any such claims about Yahoo! Answers any time soon."

Major Flaw Found In Security Products 153

Posted by kdawson on Thursday June 28, 2007 @12:11PM from the deploy-the-captchas dept.

ancientribe writes "A stealthy and potentially dangerous bug has been discovered in security products from eight different vendors, including Check Point Software, according to an article in Dark Reading. The so-called cross-site request forgery (CSRF) lets an attacker access the user's network and even conduct transactions on behalf of the user. It could affect over a million installations, but so far, Check Point is the only security vendor to step up and patch it. This vulnerability is found in most everything with a Web-based interface, including printers, firewalls, DSL routers, and IP phones." An article on the vulnerability from last fall quotes Jeremiah Grossman, CTO of WhiteHat Security, who calls CSRF "the sleeping giant" vulnerability: "It's not seen as a vulnerability because it works like the Web works."

Comment Security doesn't stop at the OS (Score 1, Insightful) 513

by niliin on Wednesday August 23, 2006 @01:45PM (#15964021) Attached to: Windows vs Mac Security

Good artical, however I think the point is realtivly mute. It is true that currently OSX by default is less stupid then windows. However, I think it is truely the end user that decides how vulnerable a system is by what they do with that, OS independent, I could have a XP, OSX, and lets say Mandrake box, and they could all be equaly vulnerable depending on what I have done with them. With a straight base install, I would say windows would be at the bottom of the list, however, after you install a few firewalls on that box, put it behind a router(includes it's version of cheap firewall) it becaomes safer.

So, I don't think out of box security has much importance as whether or not the person using it does. If you browse less then reputable sites you will get attacked, and no mater how good your secruity is some will slip through. So the key is, don't connect your box to the NET :)

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