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The True Story of Website Results

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the crass-are-always-greener dept.

Henry V .009 writes: "Salon is running a story on a dot.com called Website Results. Maybe you've heard of them. Viral Spyware makers. My God, these people are sick. Interview question: 'Imagine there's a peasant somewhere halfway across the world. If you could push a button and kill the person without getting caught, would you do it for a million dollars?' 'For them, it was yes, in a heartbeat.'"

5 of 643 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What you won't see... by CProgrammer98 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You mean like this button???

    --
    And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour Isaiah 3:5
  2. The Connection to the Flowgo Incident by Alien54 · · Score: 5, Informative
    these are the guys who were involved in the Flowgo story from last April:
    Under the auspices of their newly founded company, Intellitech Web Solutions, the three devised a plan to strip the visible front end off the toolbar, leaving only its snooping back end in place.

    According to former Intellitech employees, the company also polished up some code designed to automatically and silently install the mutated toolbar when an Internet user viewed a specially designed Web page.

    "At that point, it started to become a virus," said a former staffer who worked on the project.

    Last March, Intellitech began to seed the Internet with copies of the backdoor program, using specially designed pop-up ads it purchased at sites, including the family entertainment portal Flowgo.com.

    In violation of Flowgo's policy, the pop-ups automatically sent visitors to another site, where, according to virus researchers, special code exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and forced the spyware onto users' computers.

    From the end of the article (last page)
    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  3. Re:Sick? by Drath · · Score: 3, Informative

    The statement doesn't make the assumption of you getting found out. It's supposed to be a test of personal morals. If the only thing keeping you from murder is the fear of being chastised by others then you would fall to the yes side of this test.

    Similar but not entirely related was the Milgram Expriment. A volunteer was told to give increasing electric shocks to a "subject" in the next room when the subject in the next room answered a question incorrectly. Now the guy in the next room wasn't really getting shocked but he was yelling like he was. The researcher was collecting results on how these volunteers ability to morally detach themselves from the act by saying he was told to do it.

  4. see Milgram's depravity study by ChrisCampbell47 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Imagine there's a peasant somewhere halfway across the world. If you could push a button and kill the person without getting caught, would you do it for a million dollars?

    Psychology 101 -- in the early 60's, Stanley Milgram wrote the book on how depraved people can be.

    http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm

    What he was really studying was the varying levels of conformity (or conformability) in various cultures, and how willing people are to follow orders, even when those orders are morally wrong.

    --
    One simple rule for its versus it's
  5. 24/7 Media is not a good guy by Animats · · Score: 3, Informative
    The story seems to present 24/7 Media as the heroes, more or less. They're not. 27/7 Media was basically a spammer that got big enough to go public. Their stock peaked around $60; it's now $0.20. I've had them on Deathwatch since late 2000. They're still hanging on, but the stockholders lost everything.

    The company is still issuing happy talk press releases, but most of the press releases that mention them mention lawsuits. "... Files Suit Against Merrill Lynch and Henry Blodget on Behalf of Investors of 24/7 Real Media, Inc."