I had thought I replied to everyone's reply to my little checklist. But looking at this thread, I obviously did not. So I will now..
The gasp about linux (I know you were not offended or anything, godaigo)... I truthfully believe that if it works for you, then you should use it. It's that simple. It is true that I am biased towards *BSD, Solaris, etc. But that doesn't mean others can't use Linux. Anyhow, I've been much more tolerant and I will admit that it could be worse and there are some good things in Linux too. As far as reasons for me preferring unix over linux.. well, that's for another discussion. Though, I will say that there is a site (can't think of the url) about how linux sucks.. but anyhow.. forget me talking about linux.
About firewalls.. Yeah, I agree that a good firewall system MUST have 2 or more firewalls with different rulesets, and ACLs are also a good point you made. It's just more protection. Simple as that. And truth is -- with different rulesets, you can make things much more complex. And in this case.. complex = more secure, I'd say. Well it could be less but don't think so in a lot of cases.
For credit card stuff..
I actually agree with both Will and Cobby. It is true that companies store it for convenience, but.. is convenience worth the losses (even if only cancelling charges and getting new cards) one can encounter when trusting someone *ELSE* with their credit card information ?
I really don't think it's worth it. And personally, even though there are neat things one could buy over the Internet (including stuff I collect), I wouldn't [1]. And let's not forget that a lot of the time the information is breached not by the actual transaction. No, it's that the information is stored on a PUBLIC (i.e., connected to the Internet; hell, even on a network connected to the Internet) machine. When that machine (or any machine that can access the goat machine) is compromised, guess what the intruder will find ? Customer information.. End of story.
Does anyone remember any of the times that someone intruded upon some company's network and posted all the credit card information they found... on index.html ? Quite scary. Bad enough when it's only one person.. imagine thousands of people's credit card information posted. Scary. What is really shocking too, is that how the public seem to think they've seen it all, and know it all.. but they really don't. I remember I was talking to my step mom (I think around this time last year) and I was talking about how credit cards should not be given over cables and wires. She wouldn't even let me finish. She just said she's seen it all. I know she doesn't even realize how much more is possible.
No network is secure enough to do that I would say. Like Will said, too, it's not just the outside.. it's the inside as well. Thus it is by no means secure enough. Ever.
[1] Okay, so though there are neat stuff on the Internet, I really do not believe it's secure enough (above). But it is also in my opinion that there are less secure ways of giving info. Cordless phones are so easily invaded it's scary. A five year old could solve a crime if his folks had a scanner. He could just be playing with it and hear something and remember.
Hell, while I don't remember this, something happened when I was a child (5 years old or less). We were moving and my mom put a hammer in some chest (I think) just because it works fine to do so. (Weeks or months ?) later, my mom or dad was looking for the hammer and could not find it. But you know what.. I was there when they put it in the chest. I went right over to the chest, opened it and my folks had it back. Same applies to scanners. What would happen if the kid happened to hear a convo and then somehow was indirectly involved.. even if their folks were just dicussing it.. the kid could just reveal it without a second thought. I do believe similar things have happened because a kid overheard or saw something. If a kid can.. what makes anyone think an adult cant' ? I sure as hell don't. Truth is.. cordless phones aren't secure. Hell, even phones with cords could be breached.
Anyhow, thanks for replying folks.. I think this was posted around the time I got VERY sick from a med.. horrible GI problems (uh, which I already had so made things worse).
Which was also the time I wasn't posting much of anything for quite a few months...
Met
