__/ [ William Poaster ] on Thursday 01 June 2006 11:33 \__
> On Thu, 01 Jun 2006 01:32:49 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | A woman from Greater Manchester has become a victim of an internet scam
>> | in which hackers hijack computer files and blackmail owners to get them
>> | back.
>> |
>> | The new phenomenon, known as Ransomware, means victims cannot access any
>> | of the files stored in their My Documents folder.
>> `----
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/5034384.stm
>>
>> Windows: Insecure by design.
>> --Roy Culley
>
> It was on BBC "Northwest Tonight" last night (Wednesday). She clicked on a
> pop-up window which told her a virus was on her machine & she would get a
> free scan. At least the security expert that Gordon Burns interviewed,
> said it was "affecting the M$ Windows platform which quite a few of us
> have at home". He advised everyone using M$ Windows should have adware &
> spyware programs, as well as an up-to-date AV.
> At least he pointed out that it was M$ Windows that was affected, & not
> just "computers" which journalist often say.
Well done, whoever he was and whatever his name is. A colleague of mine spoke
to me just half an hour ago. He supervises an MSc student at the moment and
he struggles to get Java working on Windows (wait, I'll get to the point!).
I advised him to use SuSE as most cluster machines are dual-boot anyway. To
cut to the chase (Hollywood speak), I then came to mention choice of
platforms. It was then that he pointed out that a virus had been spreading
throughout the entire department infecting many machines in the past week. I
knew nothing at all about it. Until I told him otherwise, he was sure that
viruses could spread to my Linux box as well. We are talking about a
50-year-old who works with computers regularly, by the way... in an academic
setting... quite worrisome...
To carry on this discussion, he said that the IT department has spent _a
long_ time fighting that viruses (now I know what they are doing all day
long!). They even said that _hardware) will need to be replaced as a
consequence.
At the end, I had him quite keen to migrate to Linux, at some stage. I would
not put any energy into it, but at least he now considers it. I also had him
accept and nod to the fact that Linux will take over soon. He said that much
of the staff here uses it already, quite happily so.
He listened to the show you mentioned last night and he also said that, in
the midst of this discussion, Macs and Linux workstations (he pronounces it
Lie-Nox, unlike Linus' pronunciation) were said not suffer from the same
issue. I wonder if he listen to the same reporter. We need more of these.
Not only in this context. _ALSO_ in the context of botnets (zombies) and
DDOS attacks; _ALSO_ in the context of spam.
Allow me to import some bit of dicussion that tickled a nerve:
__/ [ William Poaster ] on Thursday 01 June 2006 13:51 \__
> On Thu, 01 Jun 2006 13:18:33 +0100, RPH wrote:
>
>> William Poaster <wp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>> news:pan.2006.06.01.11.37.21.147517@xxxxxxxxxxxxx:
>>
>>> On Thu, 01 Jun 2006 11:38:35 +0100, RPH wrote:
>>>
>>>> Mark Kent <mark.kent@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>>>>>
>>>>> The more this kind of thing happens, the more people are going to be
>>>>> looking for secure alternatives. The MS-sponsored FUD (we've seen a
>>>>> lot of it here from the astroturfing crowd) is going to struggle to
>>>>> overcome problems as serious as this.
>>>>
>>>> Unfortunately I don't recall anything in the mainstream news reports
>>>> yesterday that made it clear that this incident was down to
>>>> deficiencies in Windows, all you got mentioned is 'computer virus'.
>>>
>>> See:-
>>> Message-ID: <pan.2006.06.01.10.33.45.921315@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>) Date:
>>> Thu, 01 Jun 2006 11:33:46 +0100
>>
>> I did read that after I posted, but certainly on PM on Radio 4 I didn't
>> hear any mention of Windows (mind you I was preparing dinner so probably
>> wasn't listening that closely) and I don't recall anything other than
>> computer virus being mentioned on the national news. Kudos to your BBC
>> local news for pointing it out.
Indeed. Thanks for pointing it out. I nearly gave up on the BBC, particularly
for narrow-minded reporting. I believe that, on the other hand, they were
the first deliverers of a paragraph stating that Windows is popular among
botnets. The paragraph was embedded near the end of a long article though.
>>> FYI, 'computer virus' generally means windows, as few other platforms
>>> suffer from that crap.
>>
>> *I* know that and most people in here know that. The point is that Joe
>> Public probably doesn't, so it gets accepted as a general computer risk
>> rather than a Windows risk.
Right on! This remains a reality. SPAM and Web attacks are also assumed to be
just a 'computer thing' -- a certain innate nature is you like, rather than
a largely-Windows-attributed issue.
> Yes. IMHO it's sloppy journalism, just as 'crackers' have now become
> called 'hackers' by the popular press. The only thing on the BBC website
> that tells you it's M$ Windows is the reference to "My Documents" folder,
> but you'd have to know that's a M$ thing. None of my linux distros have
> that particular folder.
True indeed. I am participating in innocent hackers lists (e.g. WordPress)
and people get the wrong impression out of this. But why? Hacker is not
cracker. I just modify code. That's what Open Source is about. They still
prefer to portray this as rebellious communism. Let us *not* forget that
media is funded by many companies with interests. This includes Fox News,
CNN, and (MS)NBC. I had a long discussion about this over lunch. The context
was actually politics and pharmaceutical companies.
>> I try to educate the family in these matters, but their eyes glaze over if
>> you try to explain computer stuff to them. At least I've managed to wean
>> my in-laws from IE and OE to Firefox and Thunderbird.
>
> And that's the trouble, ignorance & apathy. IMO that's why M$ gets away
> with what it does.
It mustn't. That's the creed justifying my presence here. People must speak
out because mainstream media will rarely do it, unless pressured to do so by
its audience (readers, listeners, or whatever it may be). When new facts get
accepted, they are no longer a taboo and no longer raise a brow.
Best wishes,
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | "These characters were randomly picked"
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