Sean DALY
Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:17:34 -0700
I listened to a discussion on the World Service radio The World Today programme yesterday morning, and I was disturbed at the sloppy reporting: although botnet machines are exclusively running Windows because of the poor Microsoft security model, this was not mentioned. In fact, OSX was cited as being as vulnerable as Windows, which is just silly. Although the three basic steps to security cited (patching, firewall, and antivirus) are useful to a general nontechnical audience, it's not a minor point that in the past ten years there have been thousands of virii, keyloggers, and rootkits which have attacked Windows, while those attacking GNU/Linux and OSX can be counted on the fingers of one's hands. An opportunity was also missed to mention looking for the SSL encryption lock icon, and in this connexion how modern standards-based browsers such as Firefox also indicate status in the address bar. The legal implications of purchasing a botnet of over 20,000 machines are indeed questionable, but I certainly agree that raising consumer awareness on the issue is laudable. A pity that key facts were omitted. Sean. On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 12:40 AM, Sam Mbale <smb...@mpelembe.net> wrote: > The idea that botnets — networks of innocent PCs surreptitiously hijacked by > evildoers and turned to nefarious purposes — pose a security threat both to > computer owners and attack targets should be pretty common knowledge by now. > The BBC tech show “Click,” however, felt its viewers could use a graphic > reminder, and in putting one together, managed to stumble into some > decidedly gray legal territory. > > Full story > http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2009/03/bbc-becomes-the-british-botnet-corporation.html > I saw the demo on the 6 o'clock news today, and I did wonder about the legal > implications. > rgds > Sam Mbale > Mpelembe Network > http://www.mpelembe.net > > Follow me on http://twitter.com/mpelembe > > > - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/