Slashdot Mirror
Free Web Hosting a Fount of Malware
daria42 writes "It looks as if free Web space services are increasingly being used to host spyware, with Internet security firm Websense claiming more of such dodgy material was found on free hosting services during the first two weeks of July than in May and June combined. "These fraudulent, free personal Web sites have an average lifespan of two to four days, making them difficult to trace," said an executive from the company."
Next thing you know, the malware authors will just host stuff from infected PCs. I'm sure you can run a basic web server pretty easily.
Considering that it is in their best interest to make their scams believable, I'm actually surprised that they would refuse to pay for legit hosting. I'm guessing hosting costs are a tiny portion of the profit they expect to make.
Of course, these idiots who use free web space are probably bottom-of-barrel scum.
There are 11 types of people. Those who understand binary, those who don't and those who are sick of this lame joke.
Only people with money can get on-line. The vast majority of blogs and forums out there (Slashdot included) are populated entirely by people wealthy enough to afford an Internet connection of some sort. You don't see working-class people at the library updating their politiblogs because OMG did you see what Koz said this morning about the deficit what a total wonk I am totally trackbacking him right now!!!
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So you refuse to visit any site at a big name free host.
That means you're saying people only have a valuable opinion or can provide useful information if they're willing to pay you to listen to them. What a dangerous attitude.
Besides that, there are thousands of free web hosts just because you know the names of 10 or so of the largest doesn't mean you aren't visiting others.
Even if the majority of dodgy sites are hosted on free sites, the majority of content on free sites can be quite valuable.
As part of political free speech it should be constitutionally protected that free sites can operate without collecting personal information if they want. If the government forces personal authentication, they can track you if they don't agree with what you say. That will inhibit what legetimate messages you're comfortable posting, and it would be a serious blow to free speech.
Calling them a "Security" firm is whitewashing who they really are.
read the article on Censorware.
That means you're saying people only have a valuable opinion or can provide useful information if they're willing to pay you to listen to them.
Alternately, you're saying that you have no interest in what poor people have to say.
I hope you're not serious.
People that don't know even the basics of HTML, or how to create a website shouldn't be allowed
You're right, only people who already know everything should be allowed to attempt anything. Let's keep math books out of schools and close the freeways, because only mathematicians and NASCAR drivers have any right to numbers and cars. I don't know about you, but my first site was almost 10 years ago on Angelfire, and it was crap as all of them are. Then I bought books, viewed source, and have done a number of sites professionally with all that fancy high-tech wizardry I never would have even known existed if I hadn't started somewhere.
Maybe this would also get rid of the million's of those MySpace or Piczo type websites that plague the internet with the writings of illiterate 13 year old girls.
Sure, their sites might be pointless and juvenile, but I can't remember the last time I spent an hour reading a site before slapping my forehead and saying "Oh, now I understand why this sucks, it was written by a 13 year old!" That just doesn't happen, because the only people who ever end up at those sites are the 13 year olds who write them and their other 13 year old friends. This "plague" does not affect most people in the slightest, and if it affects you then perhaps you shouldn't be allowed to use the internet because of a lack of basic navigation skills.
People can be so quick to discourage and dismiss beginners, it makes me wonder how anybody ever learns anything.
If you get nervous, just remember that there are a few billion other people who don't really give a damn.
An couple of hours at many internet cafes cost more than a year worths of hosting simple html-files on some places..
This is pretty bad, I was applying for a job - I was contacted by someone who said they were with a large employer here in CA, after some short question and answer they emailed me some forms that I was to print out and fill in, and fax back. Part of the process before any real interviews was a "background check" form. That form had everything an identity theif needs, ssn, old addresses, Jobs, Date of Birth all kinds of thinks. That added to the fact that these people's email address differed from the employer the said they were from.. It turns out that the applications and the Job was on the up and up, but I wonder...
Alternately, you're saying that you have no interest in what poor people have to say.
Actually, before these sites became such a wasteland of porn spam and malware, I stopped visiting them because they were some of the worst abusers of pop-ups, pop-unders, and other annoying advertising methods. The growing abuse of these services by spammers and other scum merely cemented my resolve to avoid them.
Sure, you lose out on some gems, but there is MORE than enough out there in the areas I will visit to compensate for what I'm missing. The amount of interesting information on the Internet increases faster than any one human can keep up with (except for my friend who, after a badly broken leg and 3 months on bedrest, came back to work and said he used all that time to "finish reading the Internet"). If my filters leave out some valuable voices in the free-web-o-sphere, I've still got LOTS of interesting and valuable choices remaining.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
This is extremely short sighted. When I graduated high school I had a decision to make. Proceed onto college at a very good and prestigious school, or continue my life of amateur and professional ski competitions (err... the stuff you see in the X-games if you watch that kind of thing). I chose college because I didn't know where I'd be at 30 after a skiing career. Most of my friends went the other route. For three years many of them have been in various ski bum situations where they are homeless living out of a van, or going couch to couch. Internet forums, postings, and bloggings via the public library were the only way for my friends to stay in contact with the outside world and keep up to date on competition updates or aiding the search for sponsorship opportunities. Conversely if you were someone who was out of work and money was tight. You might use the library to search for work, or keep a resume or blog on free hosting in order to better chances (however small) at future employment.
The public library provides free web access, but not webspace.
You have blinders on.
The assumptions you make in this reply are ridiculous. If you own skis you are not poor? This assumes the skis are recently bought. Of course you totally ignore the possibility that they were owned before someone was a ski bum. Slacker living off other people? Tell this to the hundreds of ski bums who spend their nights working restuarant jobs to make rent in the small apartment they usually share with 4-5 other people. Come back home? You assume their parents support them being ski bums... I can tell you that this is definitely not the case. This makes it sound like any struggling artist or writer who is out living in a similar manner doesn't have it rough because they could easily just return home. Besides, who says these ski bums, or artists, or writers are complaining. They're attempting to live their dream! The fact that free hosting services help legitimate people who are currently financially strapped is a postive thing! The fact that people always have a choice to lead a different life that may be more financially secure is a piss poor argument for requiring payment for web services. The world would be pretty stale if everyone only took paths that were financially conservative from a well-being standpoint.
A dollar, a stamp, an envolope, and the need to fill them all out by hand are all part of the cost.
Doing that with the latency of snailmail certainly sets the opportunity cost too high for a site that's going to make less than a dollar.
At the very least, it separates the wheat from the chaffe: spammers won't use it because it costs anything, and they can get a site from the totally free content providers, whereas honest people will use it because the quality of service is so much higher than a spam-allowing service.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!