Bill Dawg's Journal: the tech press is so cute

OMGzorz! 3 0-days are addressed in the latest iDiot update, everyone apply them teh fast!

Nope. That's only 3 out of however many. Like how I just installed the August MS updates today. Oh noes, BD, you were vulnerable!!! My networked computing machines are *always* vulnerable.

There are probably countless ways hackers can get in to our systems, at any given point in time. The govt.'s of the U.S., China, Russia, the U.K., Israel, and Australia can probably already enter my systems any time they want.

Non-state hackers hopefully haven't gotten in, since I take extensive precautions. And I use multiple layers of security. Stuff that govt.'s can bypass easily by secretly requiring mfrs to put backdoors in things. But I don't think hacker rings can strong-arm tech companies yet.

To have my personal machines hacked, by a non-state actor, would probably require being specifically targeted. And I don't think I'm a target in particular. I'm much more likely to be a victim of hackers via them hacking other peoples' machines, and getting data about me from them.

So I won't be in any big hurry to install iOS version whatever when it's offered. Because tech companies are getting real sloppy about QA'ing these things. I'm manyfold more likely to get impacted by the vendor, by fubaring one of my systems, than a hacker.

From my late experiences with my old Vista system, to what I've been reading (this month's MS updates evidently break web cams and printing), I dread every Patch Tuesday (or Apple update for that matter). It's like facing a monthly reoccurring, scheduled hack attempt on my system, wondering if I'll get bit that month.

I gots firewalls and EMET and "Enhanced Protected Mode" in the browser, but I've got nothing to protect from the vendor except an all-or-nothing switch. (Which apparently you don't get in WIn10. (And if MS can backport telemetry to Win 8.1, they can backport none or limited time only refusal of updates.) And Apple's getting so pushy about updates on the iPhone, they might do the same soon,)