Hi This is a follow up from my earlier mail - about the crappy Ubuntu review on BBC.
before you folk get your bazooka's and flamethrowers out - i suggest you get a bit paranoid, and yes they are out there to get just you. Check the following article out - where supposedly Gizmodo had some scareware on the ad's on their websites and the fault has been laid on the admin's who were running "LInux production servers" (see entire article below) I have a few simple points to make which are 1. There is a covert and concerted effort to spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) about Linux and its various version, its not surprising that newsites like BBC are doing this because they have a history of being "embedded" with powerful forces 2. There is an intent to make Linux look less than pleasant - the same things that are said offensively can be said with a politer tone if the intent was to be fair, and in the Ubuntu blog from BBC posted earlier the author had no "Intent" to be nice to Ubuntu and decided to use the offensive way. 3. The problem i have with the article below is that is says nothing about which types of OS / and OS folks that are vulnerable to the scares promoted by scareware and neither does it lay the responsibility on the people responsible for verifying that the ads were from the corporartions they claimed to be be from. The Linux admin's "blamed" for missing the scareware is just one part of the story. ram BBC NEWS Scareware launched from tech blog http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8328399.stm Visitors to technology blog Gizmodo are being warned that they could have picked up more than tips about the latest must-have gadget. According to security firm Sophos, the website was delivering advertisements "laced with malware" last week. A statement on the Gizmodo website admits that it was tricked into running Suzuki adverts which were in fact from hackers. It follows a similar problem on the New York Times website. Last month the New York Times' website was targeted by a gang of hackers who purchased ad space on the site by posing as internet telephone company, Vonage. In both cases the adverts served up fake anti-virus software - known as scareware. Scareware attempts to convince users that their computer is infected with viruses and trojans, and tricks them into downloading "remedies" which are harmful and can be used by criminals to get at information such as credit card details. Really sorry Gizmodo gets a huge amount of traffic with more than 3.1 million page views per day. It has issued an apology to readers. "I'm really sorry but we had some malware running on our site in ad boxes for a little while last week on Suzuki ads. They somehow fooled our ad sales team through an elaborate scam. "It's taken care of now, and only a few people should have been affected, but this isn't something we take lightly as writers, editors and tech geeks," it said in a statement on its site. Blaming the fact that staff used Linux operating systems on their production machines for "not noticing sooner", it advised concerned users to load some up-to-date antivirus software and "make sure your system is clean". "By hitting one of the biggest blogs in the world, these hackers are aiming high," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "What is particularly audacious about this plot is that the criminals appear to have posed as legitimate representatives of Suzuki in order to plant their dangerous code on Gizmodo's popular website," he added. According to security firm Symantec more than 40 million people have fallen victim to scareware scams in the past 12 months. The firm has identified 250 versions of scareware and estimated that criminals can earn more than £750,000 each a year via such scams. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/8328399.stm Published: 2009/10/27 15:27:06 GMT © BBC MMIX Print Sponsor Advertisement -- ubuntu-in mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-in
