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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."
I'd say that the gov't should make these companies provide more authentication, but all it would do is prove a barrier against legitimate users while the criminals would just find a way around.
Outlawing free/homesteading sites would be likely be found unconstitutional in the U.S. and it would be a big fight to remove the safe harbor provisions for such sites to make them responsible for their users' malicious activities. I really don't know what we could do at a legislative level. At a personal level, I just refuse to visit any sites at angelfire, geocities, et al.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
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.
I've been paying GoDaddy to host my Malware all this time?!
Spammers and crackers abusing free internet facilities?! Perish the though.
It's not just fake hosting services with malware and other phishing scams. It's getting so that one gets suspicious of any kind of new service that crops up on the web. The other day, I got excited seeing this service that promised to turn my blog contents into a printed book. I tried it, but then got worried that it was a phishing scam. And cancelled my attempts to use the service. What does mean for the promise of "web services" in general? More on the "blog into book" experience here: ahref=http://mp.blogs.com/mp/2005/07/s_11.htmlrel= url2html-21790http://mp.blogs.com/mp/2005/07/s_11. html>
The dilemma is... if they got rid of free hosting. Then only those who can afford $$ monthly hosting bills can host. It's tough to shoot for democracy when only people with money can have a voice online. Let's not tear down the tree and the whole neighborhood due to a couple bad apples.
Does anyone know how effective these schemes really are? Is there a study that measures how effective this is?
The type-in is called a CAPTCHA (an acronym for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart"). They can be fairly effective, but all they do is block robots from setting up an account. If I need 10 accounts, I don't necessarily need to automate it. CAPTCHAs are more often used effectively to block bulk botting stuff like blog spam, signups for free mail accounts, or other services (like whois at Netsol.com or Godaddy.com) prone to abuse and they can work well if well designed. But, again, they're to prevent robots from doing something, not humans.
Now, as CAPTCHA's get more obscured to try to defeat more sophisticated OCR elements, they become more difficult for humans to read. I recently developed one that I may use on some of my sites that uses identifying the contents of pictures. Demo here. Some of the people I've had test it said it was fun and they actually played it like a game.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
Calling them a "Security" firm is whitewashing who they really are.
read the article on Censorware.
Actually, fount is the British and the old poetic spelling of font. When this spelling is used, it generally means a fountain, spring, or source. Using the modern spelling, a font refers to a basin for baptizing people or holding holy water, (sometimes also called a laver), although it can refer to the old useage as well. However, I don't think the word can be used to mean "plethora".
...En að Besta Sem Guð Hefur Skapað Er Nýr Dagur
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.