I'm seeing a lot of suspicious emails today with an attachment in the 44k-47k range. Reminder: never open an email attachment that you weren't expecting.
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<img align=left src="http://picturehost.net/b0b/ManzBob2.jpg" border="0"><small> Bobby Lee</small>
-b0b- <small> quasar@b0b.com </small>
System Administrator
Another Virus Attachment Going Around
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There was a very good 2-3 page article in the magazine section of the Sunday New York Times several weeks ago about the virus writers and virus senders. Seems that the virus authors are not the ones actually putting the infection out on the net. The authors (who were portrayed as European high school kids with lots of time on their hands) put the viruses and documentation about how to use them out on IRC chat channels for review and download, and let some other "script-kiddies" do the "mule" work of launching the "payload" onto the net.
It's unfortunate that Microsoft's software is full of holes, but it would be the same no matter where the software comes from. Software cracking is a big puzzle and, for some, these puzzles are an enjoyable challenge. You can't create uncrackable code. All you can do is make it really really hard to crack. No company can afford to fund the level of research $ to create impenetrable code that will withstand the onslaught of hundreds of thousands of unpaid (free) hours that will be spent by "puzzle solvers" to crack the code/break the system for free
DeCSS (to crack DVD's) was created on the cheap. Because the system has been hacked the Media industry now stands behind the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) as their defense. It used to be that if you cracked a code it was OK. Now it's illegal to crack a code even if you know how or even if it's stupidly easy.
Just my 2 cents.
It's unfortunate that Microsoft's software is full of holes, but it would be the same no matter where the software comes from. Software cracking is a big puzzle and, for some, these puzzles are an enjoyable challenge. You can't create uncrackable code. All you can do is make it really really hard to crack. No company can afford to fund the level of research $ to create impenetrable code that will withstand the onslaught of hundreds of thousands of unpaid (free) hours that will be spent by "puzzle solvers" to crack the code/break the system for free
DeCSS (to crack DVD's) was created on the cheap. Because the system has been hacked the Media industry now stands behind the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) as their defense. It used to be that if you cracked a code it was OK. Now it's illegal to crack a code even if you know how or even if it's stupidly easy.
Just my 2 cents.