Digital BW, The Print

A friend of mine has been running XP pro for a while now with no
antivirus software and no firewall except the one that comes with
windows, and hasn't even installed SP1, despite my advise against it.
She hasn't noticed anything out of the ordinary that would indicate
infection (is there a way to check btw?). The only problem she has is
that any site using applets shuts down her browser (no Yahoo Pool!),
which I'm told was a fix in SP1.  My friend uses either Mozilla or
Firefox I think, and a couple Yahoo accounts for email (one a junk
account for entering into websites that catches spam, another as her
main account that is spam free).  She's been set up for a year or so
now, and so far so good.  I realize that this is risky behavior, but
to me it dispells the mith that "your computer will be hacked and
hijacked or otherwise rendered inopporable within an hour if left
unprotected on a broadband connection."  Maybe she's just been lucky.
Who knows.

I believe the most secure way to protect your digital photo setup, if
one has the means (which I currently don't btw)and is that concerned,
 is to set up a separate computer dedicated specifically to photo
manipulation and printing, keep it off any network, and don't let
anyone else touch it.  

my 2 cents
john


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Anthony G.
Atkielski" <anthony@a...> wrote:
> Andre writes:
> 
> > According to Internet Storm Center (ISC), an unprotected computer
> > (security updates not installed)has about 20 minutes survival time
> > before it becomes infected by viruses.
> 
> That's a fantasy.  It implies that viruses can magically infect a
> computer without any human interaction, and that just isn't true.