The BBC's Honeypot PC

Alex Pontin writes, "This article from the BBC shows how vulnerable XP Home really is. Using a highly protected XP Pro machine running VMWare, the BBC hosted an unprotected XP Home system to simulate what an 'average' home PC faces when connected to the internet." From the article: "Seven hours of attacks: 36 warnings that pop-up via Windows Messenger. 11 separate visits by Blaster worm. 3 separate attacks by Slammer worm. 1 attack aimed at Microsoft IIS Server. 2-3 "port scans" seeking weak spots in Windows software." The machine was attacked within seconds of being connected to the Internet, and at no time did more than 15 minutes elapse between attacks.

Comments

Re:Well Duh!

[Mister Whirly]

Use your computer all you want. Just don't set it up yourself if you don't have a clue what you are doing. Simple. (I realize it was a pseudo-attempt at humor, but fell way short. Until you can prove that you are a stand up comedian with at least 50,000 DVD sales, don't attempt to make jokes. You're endangering the rest of society by doing so.)

Doesn't Ubuntu have ssh?

[Grendel Drago]

I think the standard Ubuntu install has ssh (22) active by default. And there was a remote exploit for ssh a few years ago, wasn't there?