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Posts: 2,355 | Thanked: 5,249 times | Joined on Jan 2009 @ Barcelona
#23
Originally Posted by pichlo View Post
I know that especially Linux users like to think in terms of root vs non-root and yes, root can cause a damage to the system, but the days when the system was the part worth protecting are gone by at least two decades. Wake up to the 21st century, people. The system is replaceable. The bits that need protecting are your user data. Those do not need a root access to be compromised.
Sorry but also wrong.


There's still a _huge_ difference between "oh, perhaps this thing deleted all my documents" and "oh, perhaps this thing deleted all my documents, corrupted my word processor so as to silently capture all my future keystrokes and insert random typos and/or menacing insults, backdoor every other program, insert a non-removable piece of itself on my firmware, which will corrupt every future backup disk I insert on my computer while trying to restore my documents (worse: do it silently), propagate itself through my cloud backup systems (if I have any) to my other computers, corrupt any type of version history-like backup system (e.g. time machine) that would have allowed me to undo the actions of the malware, etc. etc. long etc.".

Things have not changed that much in the 21st century. Not in this area. It is one thing when malware/an accident can destroy your documents. It is another thing when malware/an accident can destroy your documents, anyone else's, and the operator's backups.

Last edited by javispedro; 2016-08-09 at 18:24.
 

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