Is AmigaOS secure enough to use online?

@ssolie
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Just jumped into the thread and saw this. Great news and job

My A1 and 2 wintel machines are connected to a Netgear router/firewall... Only the windows machines get problems once in a while (tough a lot less since I stopped using MSIE )...

Jerry

@zool
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Are you sure? I don't remember it having any open port (first thing I did when Ihad AOS4, I nmap-ed the it)

Jack

@NTN
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True and it's good. But that's easy. No other AOS had an open port (no tcp/ip stack). And I don't thing they (nmap) bothered collecting any identification of any network service available on AOS.

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However it's certainly not sufficient. Every protocol has to have the highest (if it is possible) security-wise level.

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A bit paranoid look on this: it is good untill something happens

Jack

geesus i think some of us have been windows users to long, i have never worried about my amigas online security.. the only time ive ever worried is when someones handed me a floppy disk.. anyway if your on to it enough you can avoid 90% of cyber nasty's and just have to worry about everyone else paranoia..

ZanT

yes i use windows.. no i dont have any problems..(other than mental)

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Why sister?

Because they can......it will happen.

@Mitch

The FAQ you started looks very promising. You may want to include Roadshow also though as it is the TCP/IP stack that comes with OS4.

Thank you and I will.

I was wondering if it might not be worth limiting the FAQ to the Amiga itself and general issues and ask the people behind OS4Depot to allow us to put advisory notices on software packages on there like they have comments. I don't know if aminet could support the same because that seems like a much older technology without a database behind it.

A little mentioning here, so that this thread doesn't scare some people sleepless. ;)

It's allways a security risc as long as something is connected to something else that reaches out of the inbound zone.

Full security is when the cords are cut off, or at least unplugged. ;)

If one where to compare security between for instance AmigaOS and Windows (because I know Windows since a long time). Even though Windows has a lot of programs and utilities for security, I think that AmigaOS is a lot more safe without anything.

Still, this can change over time.

The absolutely best solution is to connect through a firewall of some kind.

Browsers and mail is a potential risc, and has little to do with the operating system, so the problem is not so much AmigaOS. AmigaOS is not even close to Windows with all its inner connections by scripts to make things easy to use, but insecure as hell for beginners to handle. Even though I don't use AmigaOS 4, I don't think that even RoadShow has any of that potential riscs that Windows has. The greatest risc on the Amiga are the different 3rd party software that can be used and that's where the focus should be set.

Take care of a problem att the core - not it's symptoms in the operating system. That would be a good paroll for AmigaOS (and so far is, I think). Please don't demand that AmigaOS should have to use that armada of security programs that Windows has to use - that is only there for dampening symptoms, mostly not taking care of the problems.

Why should it be possible to delete files remote from a webserver on a client? Why should functions as this even be enabled, whithout the users knowledge? Microsoft claim that they do so because it makes things more easy. Maybe it was so in the beginning but today that ease of use demands a battery of software to cut some edge of the problems this ease of use was supposed to give.

Scripting is good and nice. Interconnections between different softwareres is powerful - up to a certain point. Windows is a great exampel of when this has gone long beyond that point a think. The user can easily do many things, but is (as a novice) not aware of the risc.

Luckily this is not the case with AmigaOS - mostly at least. And please let it stay that way. Don't demand a new Windows. Demand a light, powerful OS that makes it worthwhile to use instead of Windows. Do stuff the Amiga way.

Anyway, it's good that somebody is writing a guide to open the eyes of the potential risc of being connected to the internet. But please don't scare people.

I once got a virus on a Windows machine that started copying a mail all over that machine. Not long after that, it found a way to copy itself over Samba, to my Amiga. But as soon as i disconnected the Windows machine, the copying stopped - of course. The virus had no code to run on the Amiga.

This could very well happen on the Amiga in the future, so an open eye to the potential risc is good. A preparing for what to do if this becomes a reality is good.

And ...


to write a virus to attack Os4 you would need an AmigaONE to code it on.

Well we're awash with those aint we !!

But, Yes. We need anti virus stuff.

I think A modern browser is a higher priority though.

You can wipe hd0: and reinstall fresh with only a very few niggles to programs on other partitions. Like assigns etc.

you could even save out user-startup to hd1: Backup.. even the whole friggin os can be stuffed in hd1:backup and then copied across.

Wrong. AmigaOS4 runs 68k stuff seamlessly. It also runs scripts. You can also cross compile code for AmigaOS4 without using AmigaOS4 or an AmigaONE.

So please don't be complacent.

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Well, it's never happened to me since the year 2000.

I can honestly say that I have not been troubled by a virus or trojan horse since 1997.