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U.K. Says Botnets Good Sign
An anonymous reader writes "A UK government official has claimed that botnet infections should be celebrated, as they prove that Britain is a prosperous place with high broadband take-up. Is this an interesting new spin on hacking attacks, or sheer madness?" From the article: "The suggestion that botnet infections have their positive side sparked some surprise within the audience. One attendee pointed out that he 'wouldn't want the value of being number one in infections to be extended to bird flu'."
As a UK citizen and windows user, I help out by.. --NO CARRIER-- Buy v1agr4 n0w!1 p1ll5 4 ch34p!
Politician says something moronic about the internet... I'm shocked and horrified.
it shows the healthy consumption of motor vehicles by our populace, a sign of a prosperous and strong economy. Putting regulations in place to require cars to have locking doors might slow the distribution and growth of cars.
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
saying that herpes is good thing, because at least you're getting some ass!
Of course, it's not even necessarily an indicator of rapid broadband takeup. It just means too many of the users are pathetically unsavvy and that the government isn't creating enough of an awareness about this sort of security issue.
Living in the UK myself, I can tell you that I still know lots of people who don't have broadband, and many of those that do are so uninformed that I don't go near their computers for fear of punching them in frustration.
What the heck is that government official smoking?
Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
Thanks to Bill & Company for creating new metrics to measure civilization's progress.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Damn, weird reaction, maybe one day we'll see Mac OS XII computers get infected with lots of viruses and Apple will be just glad "Now we're so big that we can directly compete on the attacks and virus with Microsoft's Windows"
You just got troll'd!
Nigel Hickson, head of European e-commerce and telecoms regulation at the DTI,
This idiot should be sacked immediately. Someone with such a powerful position should not be so ignorant. Given that he is so ignorant he should be removed from his position immediately.
While I can see where the official is coming from, there's another thing to look at. The massive presence of botnets also shows the dominance of Microsoft in the field. Perhaps the officials should point out that the botnets could be reduced or eliminated by changing to alternatives such as Linux or BSD. Heck, even OS X would be better than Windows from a security point-of-view. So while it is indeed a great thing to celebrate that the UK has such broadband penetration, we need to remember that the market is dominated by the OS which allows botnets to begin with.
Is this an interesting new spin on hacking attacks, or sheer madness?
It's sheer madness. There's NOTHING positive about botnets. Hello??
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
And all those e-mails coming from Nigeria. They must have a really highly developed IT infrastructure.
How did "sees silver lining in botnet cloud" become "Botnets a Good Sign".
The official quite clearly said "I'm not saying bots are a good thing".
Still, at least it wasn't a dupe.
Similarly, if a NIH official pointed out that "The rise of obesity in the West is better than malnutrition", that wouldn't be a endorsement of obesity, merely a reasonable nuanced assessment of facts.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Saying "people are maliciously exploiting our technology is great because it means we have technology!! is not addiquate logic unless just having technology was your only goal."
I do security
Said governemnt official has apparently been replaced by a short shell script...
...in bird flu"? Why, it shows you are a hub for both migratory birds and a popular tourist destination for those from the Far East.
Next up, how malaria shows you have abundant surface water.
Sorry, evolution will be banned in America, we'd have to be "Intelligently Redesigned".
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
In truth, most PC users are happy to install antivirus software, sales people will push it on people..
The problem is that most of these people who install antivirus software (esp. Norton and Mcafee.. the top vendors pushed by sales reps.) have an unpleasant experience. It slows down their computer, it fails to protect them from {{trojan:general}}, and many consumers feel like they are being scammed.
There is another problem too.. people feel that "antivirus" software should be enough. These are the people who buy antivirus software at "bargain prices" that doesn't include a firewall (which is probably good because it would drive them nuts.) or spyware protection.
These security systems are indeed scams. Norton Internet Security 2006 is practically an advertisement for their Systemworks package. The web browsing security is rated as "limited coverage" because it doesn't include parental controls. Instead of blocking ActiveX using a white list, they use a blacklist. Only minor vendors like Panda actually ensure your Windows Updates are applied. People feel ripped off when the trialware that ships with most PCs wears off.
The security software vendors, the retailers, and the computer manufacturers can all do better. The government needs to rate security software, and comission studies to find out why people aren't applying them.
Cybersecurity is something they can actually do something about.. combatting terrorism (especially to our allies) is a much more vague proposition.
the major UK broadband providers, NTL/Telewest (Cable) and Wanadoo, BT, Tiscali, etc (Asynchronous DSL) provide ethernet or USB modems rather than proper routers, meaning unpatched PCs tend to be taken over by RPC infections relatively quickly.
Also, because of the purchasing price disparity between the UK and the USA (a US$399 PC might cost UK£399 here), system builders tend to skimp on the additional software provision, as on a spec sheet, throwing in a copy of MS Works often looks better than a decent software firewall. 30-day trial AV subscriptions are also disappointingly frequent
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Saying anal sex is good because it works on both sexes is like saying Java is good because it works on all OSs.
Swaziland celebrates achieving a 64% HIV infection rate as evidence of the virility of their menfolk.
Back in February, when few had a clue that our totalitarian Government was plotting the creation of a database on citizens 20x more intrusive than anything else on the planet, Richard was busy trying to explain it to any MP who would listen.
He was also one of the few who understood the 'Nazi Enablement Act' which granted our Government unlimited power under the law.
And he questioned the Government on who DID actually seize Indymedia servers.