Whatever happened to the "electronic pearl harbor" which was predicted in the late 1990s ?
On 29/11/2007, Ed Porter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Regarding the extent to which hacking has been funded by multiple > governments read > http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2932083320071129?feedType=RSS&fe > edName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true > > You can be sure that AGI will be used for such purposes. > > Ed Porter > > -----Original Message----- > From: Richard Loosemore [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 8:22 PM > To: agi@v2.listbox.com > Subject: Re: Hacker intelligence level [WAS Re: [agi] Funding AGI research] > > > Ed Porter wrote: > > Richard, > > > > What ever happen to the Java concept of the sandbox, that totally safe > play > > space for code from over the web. I assume it proved to be a pipe dream, > or > > was it that the market placed demanded to break free of the sandbox, so > the > > concept never got a chance. > > Well, what I was talking about were macroviruses: they are macros > inside Microsoft word (and similar in Outlook etc). > > So if you pick up a word document from somewhere, and it has virus > macros in it, they can get copied to your main template and sit there > waiting for the day when they are triggered. That avoids the Java > sandbox entirely. > > The viruses in Outlook are worse because they are so fast acting. The > last I heard Microsoft had made sure that these could run with as little > restriction as possible, but I do not know if these can do something > like format your hard drive. > > Microsoft has consistently ignored the appeals of the AntiVirus > community to stop putting features in their apps that look tailor-made > for virus writers. At the largest AV conference in the world in 1997, > which I attended, there was only one delegate from Microsoft - he was a > junior level systems admin guy, and he was there (he said) to learn > about the best techniques for defending Microsoft headquarters from > virus attacks. > > There are some who believe that the main reason that Microsoft inserts > so many powerful, virus-friendly mechanisms into its products is because > the U.S. government has an urgent need for trapdoor mechanisms that let > them build various interesting pieces of software (e.g. key loggers) so > they can monitor people who are not fascists. > > > > Richard Loosemore > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Richard Loosemore [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 5:53 PM > > To: agi@v2.listbox.com > > Subject: Re: Hacker intelligence level [WAS Re: [agi] Funding AGI > research] > > > > Ed Porter wrote: > >> Richard, > >> > >> To the uninformed like me, can you explain why it would be so easy for an > >> intelligent person to cause great harm on the net. What are the major > >> weaknesses of the architectures of virtually all operating systems that > >> allow this. It is just lots of little bugs. > > > > It would be possible to write a macrovirus with a long incubation > > period, which did nothing to get it noticed until D-Day, then erase the > > hard drive. > > > > It only needs a lot of people to be using Microsoft Word: this by > > itself is (or was: I am out of touch) the main transport mechanism. > > > > There are some issues with how that would work, but since I don't want > > to end up in Azkhaban, I'll keep my peace if you don't mind. > > > > The only thing that might save us is the fact that Microsoft's > > implementation of its own code is so incredibly bad that when it > > duplicates macros, it has an alarmingly high screw-up rate, which means > > the macros get distorted, which then means that the virus goes wrong. A > > really bad virus would then show up, because broken viruses (called > > 'variants') can cause damage prematurely. Then, it would get noticed. > > > > > > > > Richard Loosemore. > > > > ----- > > This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email > > To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: > > http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&; > > > > ----- > > This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email > > To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: > > http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&; > > > > ----- > This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email > To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: > http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&; > > ----- > This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email > To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: > http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&; ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=70257164-ecde5d
