I remember setting up a fresh XP install for a friend, and within seconds of plugging in the ethernet cable Internet Explorer started opening tons of flashing ad windows everywhere. Firewall wasn’t on by default I guess? LOL
I also remember that system messenger exploit that could send spam as system “OK” prompts to any XP machine. That was wild.
That’s a really good point. Maybe that was cool before the Internet was swarming with exploit-sniffing bots, but nowadays? I can’t even imagine!
I’ve seen some videos where people open port 80 on their home network running something like PFSense. In seconds it’s like "Now_all_of_China_knows_you're_here.jpeg" LOL.
I still talk with folks about what an unmitigated security disaster it was prior to SP2.
I remember setting up a fresh XP install for a friend, and within seconds of plugging in the ethernet cable Internet Explorer started opening tons of flashing ad windows everywhere. Firewall wasn’t on by default I guess? LOL
I also remember that system messenger exploit that could send spam as system “OK” prompts to any XP machine. That was wild.
Also if you had gotten a cracked “no key” version it would have come with malware
Yeah the crazy thing is that most people were using ADSL connections directly from their computer, without a router.
Raw dogging the internet with no firewall, that was wild.
That’s a really good point. Maybe that was cool before the Internet was swarming with exploit-sniffing bots, but nowadays? I can’t even imagine!
I’ve seen some videos where people open port 80 on their home network running something like PFSense. In seconds it’s like
"Now_all_of_China_knows_you're_here.jpeg"LOL.