Pretty much depends on which is the target crowd of the said zero-day attack I guess. Ideally, all should face similar amount of risk, assuming we all have the same setup. However, the fact is generally each PC setup differs from the other. Each user have different surfing/downloading practices and behave/react differently with common threats. Therefore, the main way for threat to enter/launch differs. Different admins (be it home, governments or corporations) have different level of security knowledge and different implementation of system security policies, be it with what's available in the OS or with 3rd-party tools. That means the mitigation/prevention level differs from one to another...the possibility of the zero-day attack being able to affect/harm the OS/PC differs as a result. I'm afraid I can't make a perfect generalization. It's a vague scenario....
Missing a category TEENAGERS They press on every link - opening emails who is stating , Congratulation you have won a .......... and they can get any Security system to a meltdown. If you see a teenager approaching your PC, take your PC and run. Best Regards
Really? I'm seeing the exact same behaviour from my almost 50 year old parents. Average users, they don't usually have a powerful enough security setup or restrictions blocking zero-day attacks, nor do they know anything about the attacks themselves. They also often run unupdated (vulnerable) versions of software.
You got that right. Teenagers have been responsible for at least half of the PCs I've serviced over the years. It's not just what they click on. It's also what they think they can get away with. I lost count of how many times I removed Kazaa from different PCs, and all the garbage that came with it. That and little apps that used to claim to give fast access to sexual material (and usually installed a dialer). At one time, I was considering making my own parental control hosts file, using the history from a couple of those PCs. It's not surprising when teenagers look for sex sites on the web, but the quantity of sites in the history and index.dat files stunned me. I think that's all they did all day long.
Hmmm... fortunately, I've not found this to be so. Most teenagers I've been in contact with regarding computing habits are more security-aware than a lot of adults that I know! As with everything else in life, it's probably best not to make sweeping generalizations. Or, at least, not let prevailing statistics cloud one's opinion of every person in a particular group. regards, -rich
I would say average users. I work on computers and most of what I have dealt with has been home computers that are heavily infected with viruses, spyware, trojans etc. It is nothing for me to scan a computer and find hundreds of entries. The average home user just does not either know how or just does not take security very serious from what I have seen.
I think Security Knowledgeable Users because most others try to avoid trouble. Security Knowledgeable Users run to it for a test bed with todays whim of a security setup.
Well i can say . . . +1 to teenager in MY EXPERIENCE. All my School friends bring me their PC's for me to fix them and guess what, it's full of toolbars and who know what programs they install. They bring their Modern PC to Stone Age speeds LOL They even had TDSS rootkits o.o
I answered "All of the above". The reason is quite simple: We're all at risk of encountering such threats. The real question, IMO, would be: "Who would be the victims of Zero Day Attacks?" At risk, we all are. Who will become the victims... that's a whole different question.
I with the all of the above crowd. Average Users tend to be click happy. Corporations and Governments sometimes get complacent or efforts are to focused and weaknesses get overlooked. most often the enemy comes from within. Even the security knowledgeable user could get caught with their pants down. Zero Day mean unknown, so you might think you have all bases covered and still get hit. I think chances are better for the home user. At least in the Zero Day arena, most of the time the home user is the root cause of infection and not with zero day threats but already known ones. Corporations and governments are the main targets and I believe most zero day threats are discovered there.
It DEPENDS. Even an ordinary unexpected power failure without having UPS could be more devastating than a Zero Day Attacks...all of your typewritten works was gone in an instant. But I am more worried bout War, real life Catastrophe, Depression and economic sabotage than to Zero Day Attacks.
