I think they call them "The Underground". Or, in popular parlance, "The Sewers"

...smells like a rotten egg to me.

Really? Having any random browser installed does not make a PC any less or more secure? Please, please tell me you are not in any way affiliated with any environment subject to federal regulations.

Prime example:
Let us say your environment is exclusively a MS shop. You have all the development resources, security resources, and vendor support to ensure that environment is safe, secure, and compatible with your applications. Then, bam, a problem shows up. Joe User cannot use X web application. Security starts seeing strange traffic coming across the network, traffic that is malicious in nature. Lo and behold, that is because Joe User installed a browser not supported within the organization, which, in this case, happens to be copy of Firefox 3.5 (http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox36.html). Suddenly, your organization has just been hacked, corporate data is being siphoned off the network, federal regulators are crawling down your boss's throat, the organization gets hit with a huge fine and other costs related to the data breach, and why?

Because you believed that installing any old browser on any system in any environment doesn't make the PC any more or less secure.

Moral of the story? Don't be a fucking idiot, and understand the need for prioritization and standardization within a corporate network, especially one of those corporate networks that is subject to regulatory oversight regarding information technology.

Never worked on one, have you?

If you did, then you would know that directly linking through Cat5 doesn't work. The serial cable that Cisco ships with their gear may have an RJ45 end on it, but it ain't anywhere near Cat5.

Not too mention that whole cable-terminates-in-a-serial-end thing. But hey, I guess you you are smarter than the engineers that say "ship this cable with our gear".

Webcams hardly equal a lojack. Seems to me, this whole incident is nothing more than the reflection of our society's values of surveilance absent privacy, all in the name of security of course. As is said on The Simpsons, "Won't someone think of the children?!?"

RTFM, or use Google. Don't be a sarcastic moron when you obviously fail at having the skills to do so.

Seriously, PAE? Come on now...

Even with PAE, then yes, you get the privilege of having your 32-bit OS running on 64-bit hardware access more than 4GB of RAM, but why? Haven't gotten a working crack of Win7?

At this point in the game, those that still run 32-bit OS's on hardware from 2 standard lifecycles ago just need to give it up and stop. 64-bit is where it is at.

if Google Buzz can kill Twitter. Seriously.
Though I do wonder what Ashton Kutcher will do... hopefully, crawl back in his hole and never come out again.
Twitter is a plague that must be killed. If anyone can do it, Google can.

I wasn't worried... due to the last, and only, four months of service with them, I am already on the "special caller" list.

Moral of that story?

Don't be a dumbass.

Absolutely correct. There were many things he *could* have done, but that his pride as a "security consultant" (and I use that term very loosely) *wouldn't* let him. Personally, he's best off where he is going.

Perhaps, in time, when he gets out he will have a new perspective on life. Probably not.

Won't ever happen as long as I continue to have conversations like with their "tech" support:

Comcast rep: I don't see any problems in your area
Me: Please check again. I am seeing high lag, dropped packets, and randow route changes in the Comcast network.
Comcast rep: Everything's okay within 750' of your location.
Me: The problem isn't there, its further out Actually, it's at [ip address] which is [hostname], and is probably near [address]
Comcast rep: Wow, how did you see that?
Me: Traceroute
Comcast rep: I need to learn to do that

Those records are sealed by court order. At least, that is what my therapist tells me.

Poster is exactly correct, please mod parent up, and mod GP down.