On 4 Sep 2006, at 2:06PM, William T Goodall wrote:
On 4 Sep 2006, at 3:05AM, Andrew Crystall wrote:
On the other hand, you're comparing the time a computer can be
connected to the internet, entire unprotected, before it picks up
nastyware. Which a variety of free firewalls and virus scanners
protect against.
But most people aren't non-technophiles like you and don't know how
to protect themselves against malicious intrusions. And a computer
that's part of a botnet launching DoS attacks and mailing millions
of spams out through its unknowing owner's cable or DSL connection
is very far from useful.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4685238.stm
"Statistics gathered by security firm Ciphertrust reveal just how bad
the problem of botnets is getting.
"Every day we are detecting more than 250,000 connecting to the
internet and sending mail," said Paul Judge, chief technology officer
at Ciphertrust.
"That's unique machines that have never done it before," he said.
"It's a distribution platform that is becoming more popular for
attackers."
Mr Judge said the count of new bots had hit 250,000 every day in
November 2005 and had stayed at that level ever since."
[...]
"Most zombies are recruited by viruses and trojans. Some of these
backdoors into computers are installed if users visit the wrong
website in so-called drive-by downloads but many are e-mailed and
rely on naive users opening infected attachments."
[...]
"Botnets were used as hosts for pornographic or illegal material,
launch pads for spam and phishing mail messages and some are used to
knock websites offline unless a ransom is paid.
Mr Lovet said there was evidence that a lot of companies hit by
botnet attacks that bombard them with data, pay the ransom because it
costs so much more to be off the net.
"They do not want to disclose that they paid because it's not good
for business," he said."
--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
And yes, OSX is marvelous. Its merest bootlace, Windows is not worthy
to kiss. - David Brin
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