On Sun, 5 Aug 2001 09:58:51 -0400 Joel Hammer wrote:
> Although people are putting in more effective firewalls and other
> preventive measures, it is very likely that these worms are already in place
> and may have been in place for years.
> So, I have to conclude that it is very likely that there are numerous
> stealth worms out there, sending back to homebase passwords, data files,
> source code, etc. from whatever computer system they happen to infect. Once
> infected, a system might stay infected for months or years. They would be
> like a chronic disease, not causing much in the way of obvious symptoms or signs,
> but potentially quite damaging in the long run.
> There are those who consider paranoia simply an increased state of
> awareness.
> Joel
Certainly Mattel was doing this. I read a story a few months ago about a guy
who noticed that (while on an airplane) his laptop kept trying to get an
internet connection. It was a game his kids had loaded, trying to phone
home and tell Momma about the local digs. Mattel had "forgot" to tell people
about this option in their games.
Hopefully a few folks are sniffing their traffic to look for just such a worm
trying to phone home. But I agree that the risk is very real. At least as
plausible as actually using the transmitted EF to read passwords and such.
--
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| Alan K. Jackson | To see a World in a Grain of Sand |
| [EMAIL PROTECTED] | And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, |
| www.ajackson.org | Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand |
| Houston, Texas | And Eternity in an hour. - Blake |
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