Comment

Comment by Valek Hawke on January 26, 2011 at 10:56pm

You know, call me...I don't know...harsh maybe?...but this has gone on long
enough. I hate it that this guy should be the start of it, but publicly execute
him. Almost every citizen in this country and around the world has become
dependent on the net to conduct business and our country's government and
infrastructure are also dependent on it to at least some degree. We have the
ability to track down the source of an outbreak of Mad Cow disease to ONE COW
somewhere in the entire world so don't tell me that we can't track down the
people who write viruses, who hack other people's computers and steal sensitive
information, who spread malware to the same end and whatever else. When they do
find out who the responsible party is then they should send in a spec ops team
with a web cam, execute the individual and post the video to every computer in
the world with the message that "You're Next. We found this one and we'll find
you too - it's only a matter of time. There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
Engage in this activity and you see what will happen". Forget international
boundaries and safe havens. The countries in question would never be able to
prove who did it anyway. But I guarantee you that there would suddenly be a
whole lot of squeaky clean computers throughout the whole of the world - all
thanks to the people who spread this garbage rushing to eliminate any trace of
themselves. Do this and I would be willing to bet my last dollar that this crap
would stop. I'm sick and tired of having to scan every file I download from
"trusted" sites and having to distrust every email I get from a friend that
sends Powerpoint presentations or whatever because someone could be using it to
spread a virus. I'm sick and tired of having to wonder if I have ever used an
organization or a grocery store because I just heard that their database of user
information or credit card info has been hacked or stolen, I'm sick and tired of
wondering every time I log onto my bank's website has it been hacked? Is this a
phishing site now? Yet we pretend to be powerless to stop it.

 

We are forced to put our trust into antivirus and anti-malware products that
are sub-standard at best and pray that their virus definitions don't totally
hose our computers as was the case with McAfee's #5958 (I belive that is the
correct set) or that the virus definitions installed are current enough to alert
us to the presence of and to block malicious code (and they're not...).
Meanwhile the people responsible for writing the code and selling the code or
knowingly making it available for use walk around scott free or at the very
worst get a slap on the wrist, maybe get a little probation and "banned from
using a computer or the internet" - please.

 

Yes, my ideas are quite Draconian at best and even twisted I'll admit. But
put them into practice and watch the problem go away. It might put some A/V
vendors out of business, maybe even all of them (I've always said that the
people who write all of the viruses are sitting right across the cubicle from
the ones writing the definitions) but I can live with that.

Comment by Robert Siciliano on January 26, 2011 at 4:18am

Thanks SSB. Nice hearing from you!

Comment by SassySweetBren on January 26, 2011 at 1:55am

Thanks for writing this.  We all need to be up to date with the latest info you provide.