how safe is win98 in 2009?

[fourjohnny67]

we have a windows 2003 domain which is behind a cisco pix515e. We have around 80 users who mostly use XP and some win2000 desktops. We also have around 5 win98 PCs that are lightly used mainly to run some older legacy apps. However, some users do use it for browsing with firefox.

I was just looking for some opinions on how dangerous this is since win98 cannot and has not gotten any windows security updates in quite a few years. Does the firewall give us enough protection? how could those win98 machines be compromised?

thanks,

john

 

[Grenage]

I would personally disable Internet access of any kind on windows 9x machines. There are many, many ways the machines could become compromised

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer

 

[itsp1965]

Definitely disable Internet access for these hosts. There have not been any MS patches made available for this OS in the longest time.
You'd also be hard pressed to find any personal firewall, antivirus, antispyware, etc... that are supporting the OS
Recent examples of exploited bugs that have patches available for Win2K and higher don't exist for Win98, therefore you are opening yourself up to possible infections.

 

[TechyMcSe2k]

kill them or get with your network team to segregate their traffic from the rest of your network.

 

[fourjohnny67]

ok, that is what i suspected. the admin here doesn't feel that it is a hazard since we are behind a tightly secured firewall. I feel browsing is an issue because bad things can come in that way regardless of the firewall. What i am not quite sure is if we disable browsing on these machines...is that sufficently secure?

thanks for the replies

 

[Grenage]

You will probably be 'ok' if you block the ability to access the internet. A tightly secured firewall will do sod all to preventing malware and viruses getting onto the workstations.

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer

 

[58sniper]

the admin here doesn't feel that it is a hazard since we are behind a tightly secured firewall.

Are you doing content monitoring? A firewall isn't a one-stop-shop to keeping your environment safe.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

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