On Thu, 01 Jun 2006 16:53:52 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> __/ [ 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.
Unfortunately I forgot his name, & for whom he worked. :-/
I was concentrating to what he was saying at the time.
> 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...
Yes, it is rather...
> 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.
They haven't specifically stated it's windows on the website item (the URL
you posted), but "My Documents" rather gives it away. I've pointed this
out to them, saying the security expert being interviewed by Burns stated
that it was the Windows platform, & shouldn't their site reflect this? No
reply, & the site hasn't changed.
>>>> 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.
Absolutely!
>> 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.
Quite right, it's not. Two entirely different things.
> 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.
Agreed, Roy.
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