"Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." ― Robert Frost
Let us show you the road less traveled.
We at The Zeldaserver Project would like to share with you a solution we discovered and have been using since 2008 to prevent malware infections while browsing the web. As hard as it may be to believe, we have not had a single computer that was using a Zeldaserver Antimalware Server to browse the web get infected in all that time. We would like to tell you how we have been able to do this. So, sit back and relax while we reveal this amazing solution to you.
In the year 2008, like many others, we were dealing with the growing frequency of malware infections on our workstations. With each infection we would spend several days sweeping the box with multiple anti-virus utilities. If we could not get comfortable with the state of the computer we would have to strip it clean and rebuild it from scratch. All of this put the workstation out of service for several days. Something we had to deal with to keep its user working. So, absent a viable solution, we created our own. And that has made all the difference!
Our number one objective was to keep the user working. To keep the network working. To keep the business working. Given that the infections were coming from their web browsing activity we decided to move the web browsing off the workstation and put it somewhere the infections would not matter. If we got the risk off the computer to begin with, then the user could just keep working while we took care of the infection. If we got the risk off the network then no one else had to worry about it as well.
To accomplish this, we put a Microsoft Remote Desktop Server on the other side of a router. So that it could get to the internet, but it could not get back to the workstation that was using it. With this the first Zeldaserver Antimalware Server was born.
We fully expected the Zeldaserver to get infected just like the workstations, so we prepared for its recovery, and we told everyone to not do any of their critical needs on the Zeldaserver. That means no passwords, no credit cards, no access to critically important information. All of these critical needs still had to be done from the local computer, not the Zeldaserver.
What we found was an 80 / 20 split where 80% of the user activity was on the Zeldaserver and 20% was on the local computer. What’s more, we found that virtually 100% of the risk of browsing the internet lived in the 80% of the browsing that was being done on the Zeldaserver.
All of the decisions about what is done on the Zeldaserver and what is done on the local computer is executed by the local user. It is the user’s responsibility to critically assess what they want to look at and from where it should be looked at. We found this to be critical to the Zeldaserver's success, and it makes each user hyper aware of what they are doing on the web.
The success of this solution is quite evident over time in that not a single computer that has been using a Zeldaserver to browse the internet has been infected since we created the first one in 2008. That is a long time to go without a single infection.
In addition, we have never had to clean a Zeldaserver. In all this time we have never found where a Zeldaserver has been infected. We do regular scans with multiple products, and we configure real time scanning on each Zeldaserver. With all of this, we have never found an infection.
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For more than thirty years, people have been producing malware. Within this same period of time, many different technologies have emerged to try and protect us from this growing malicious invasion. Despite the very best of efforts, the world of malicious software has only grown larger by the year.
There are more than half a million new malicious programs discovered every day. This is why we are losing. We are being overrun. What this problem needs is a major paradigm shift. In other words, we need to greatly change the way we think about a possible solution. Something that cuts to the root of the problem and disrupts the very premise upon which it operates. What do these malicious programs need to infect your computer? They need "You"! They need "You" to trust them. Let me explain.
Trust + Vulnerability = Exploitation
We "Trust" the computer to be clean when one out of every three computers is infected with malware.
We "Trust" our technology to be secure when all technology, by definition, is vulnerable.
We "Trust" the internet to be safe to use when it is more like a walk through a minefield.
So how do we solve this problem? If the "Vulnerability" will always be there, then the only thing we can influence is the "Trust". If we break down the "Trust", then there can be no "Exploitation". This we can do! This is what makes the alliance between "You" and the Zeldaserver so critical to solving this problem.
Technology "alone" cannot overcome "Trust"... The alliance between "You" and a Zeldaserver can!
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In 1951, David Wheeler became the first person to be awarded a Ph.D in Computer Science. Dr. Wheeler is famous for stating the following:
"All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of abstraction.” ― Dr. David Wheeler
The alliance between You and a Zeldaserver Antimalware Server is the “sine qua non”, or the Linchpin, of what makes the use of this solution successful. Not only are you trying to protect your work environment from these malicious programs, but you also have critical online relationships that could be very harmful to your business if they were to be exploited by one of these bad actors. The alliance between You and a Zeldaserver will keep your computers clean and protect your work environment.
A Zeldaserver Antimalware Server allows for a duality in your browsing activity. It is your job to discern between that which is critical and needs to be protected and that which does not. Everything that you discern as critical should be done from the local computer. Everything else should be done from the Zeldaserver. In the Dead Zone.
The use of the Dead Zone will remove about 80% of your web browsing from your local computer. This, in turn, removes the vast majority of the risk. The 20% that remains on the local computer should be everything you do on the web that you want to protect. This separation, by "You", will place everything that would put you at risk in the Dead Zone. This will create a clean environment from which everyone may work and freely perform all the work that the business needs. As a side effect, we have found a great reduction in non-work-related use of the internet. In part, because it makes people realize that the internet is no playground.
Now, intuitively, this may feel backward. Many will want to think that the Dead Zone is where that which they want to protect should occur, but this is wrong. Think of the Dead Zone like a black hole where these malicious actors are swallowed up and never make it to your work environment. The 80% that is the non-critical web browsing that you do will contain almost 100% of your risk. This 80/20 split keeps your local computer clean so that you may use it for what you discern as critical.
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A Zeldaserver Antimalware Server creates a Dead Zone. Any malware that finds its way into this Dead Zone is completely isolated from anyone, or anything. This Dead Zone is completely foreign to the malware. It does not expect to find itself in such a place.
Let's say this in another way...
From where you are, you can see and use the Dead Zone. From the Dead Zone, nothing can see you or even know that you exist. This is a very different experience for the malware. One that it is not built to overcome.
This Dead Zone protects you and everything else your business is doing from anything malicious that may have found its way into it. These bad actors find themselves marooned in the Dead Zone.
Imagine this…
Imagine you went to sleep where you do every night. When you wake up, not only could you not see, but you were in a completely different place. All of your assumptions about where things are located and what those things are would be completely futile. This is what the Dead Zone does to the Malware.
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Joseph Hillarie Pierre Rene Belloc was born July 27, 1870, and died July 16, 1953. He was a prolific English author during the early twentieth century. Despite his life vastly proceeding the age of the computer, he had a keen insight into technology and its relationship with man.
“The machine does not control the mind of man, though it does affect the mind of man; it is the mind of man that can and should control the machine.” ― Joseph Belloc
A Zeldaserver solution is an alliance between Man and Machine. Each user of a Zeldaserver must draw a line between that activity on the web that is critical and must be protected and that which is not. The discernment of this line will, and should, be in a different place for each user and this discernment is free to change as the needs of the user change.
This dynamic discernment by the user cannot be achieved by any technology. It is only this critical alliance between Man and Machine that is able to do this.
This alliance combines reason (your thinking), self-discipline (your control), and authority (your command) with the technology to produce the critical aspect of a solution that is able to overcome a long-standing problem. In other words, it gives you the tools to be in control and make the decisions that actually solve this problem. This is why this alliance works and technology alone will not.