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.
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.
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