On Thursday October 9 2003 08:08 am, HaywireMac wrote:
> The recent report by the CCIA gave us an academic viewpoint as to
> why Windows is a blight on the Internet.
>
> This article provides a concrete example as to why Windows
> machines should be disconnected from the Internet, quarantined,
> and otherwise shut out, wherever possible, until MS decides to
> take responsibility for this outrageous lack of security.
>
> http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60747,00.html
>
> Quote:
>
> "According to Tubul, his group controls 450,000 "Trojaned"
> systems, most of them home computers running Windows with
> high-speed connections. The hacked systems contain special
> software developed by the Polish group that routes traffic
> between Internet users and customers' websites through thousands
> of the hijacked computers."
Well, many big ISP's are doin somethin about M$ users.
Unfortunately they don't get it right a lot of times. Most all
medium to small ISP's do nothin. For example, just this mornin I
got an email from SBC DSL Services. It said in part,
"Failure to act may require us to temporarily suspend
your service."
and
"Unfortunately, we have reason to believe that your computer
has been infected with a variant of the Blaster worm
(also known as Blaster.D and Welchia) and that it is
continuing to infect other computers. Because of the
nature of this particular worm, you may not notice any
effects right away. However, the worm on your system could
have significant impact on others. It is necessary for us
to request your immediate action in order to help protect
all SBC Internet Services members."
[went on to give M$.com links to clean my computer and to call SBC
when this was done]
..........
There's not one byte of Microsoft or any other Winsux virus
transport software installed on this computer. So I called SBC, and
fortunately got a woman who realized that Linux is incapable of
getting or spreading M$ viruses. She put me on ignore for a while,
then came back an told me I should disregard their email, an
apologized. Said my use of 100% Linux and absolutely no M$ software
would be noted in my SBC account records.
Still if I showed up to them as a false positive, I can only
wonder how many infected Winblows users they miss detecting. OTOH,
disconnecting many Winsuz users, even just the infected ones, would
put any ISP out of business. Big or small. Specially since a lot of
Windoze users refuse to believe they're infected, or do anything
about it even if they are. Usual response is "I'm not havin any
problems. Besides I have a virus checker and use Zone Alarm." (both
of which are cruel jokes). I can only wonder if I might have
showed up in SBC's logs as receiving infected email from Winsux
users. Probly most of whom don't realize (or care) that they are
spreading viruses and fsckin up the Internet.
--
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
