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CERTStation Threat-Level Aggregator
sloit writes "Just spotted, the CERTStation Threat level Aggregator displays the current threat level, in real-time, as assessed by 8 of the Internet's leading vulnerability watch services such as Symantec Threatcon, ISS Alertcon and SANS Infocon on one publically accessible Web page. Well, that saves a lot of daily trudging!"
Fine, fine, I guess. But with all those flicks and ticks and whooshes, isn't this the most annoyingly designed page *ever*? I can barely see anything. I think I'm about to have an epileptic fit, and I'm not epileptic.
Man wird am besten für seine Tugenden bestraft.
You beat me to it. This has got to be one of the most annoying sites I've seen. Based on the premise of the article, I made a quick bookmark - then I promptly deleted it. Yuck. Hard on the eyes, CPU, and useless besides.
...breaking down threats and dangers in to colors like magenta, cyan, mauve, ash, and indigo, rather than actually telling us what the threat is, is a great way to communicate to the populace the danger they should think they are in, and thus keep control over the small minded populace.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Wow, with my Linux box, I can't see any threats at all! Linux makes everything more secure!
Seriously thats an fugly page, all the flash is just gonna bog it down when the thousands pour in to look at it. Maybe they should streamline it more if they need all that flashy stuff.
I think its nice because I can forward the page to my boss and justify a whole bunch of hours online surfin' the web. He'll be too busy figuring out what the hell those animations mean.
--MaxPowerDJ
> the CERTStation Threat level Aggregator displays the current threat level,
Well, it does if you have Flash installed.
Which makes the page 100% useless to all those who do not.
Making a page useless to a proportion of your viewers, in exchange for (supposedly!) looking better, is a poor exchange; even more so when you consider that Flash sites in practise often violate user-interface guidelines and are a nightmare for users.
My view is that the larger the number of people involved, the more strongly the decisions taken gravitate towards the worst possible choice.
This is why they have Flash on their site.
If just one reasonably talented bloke had been given responsibility for the site, it would, I think, be likely to be useable and functional.
Companies that make their business on selling virus checking software will almost always over-exaggerate the threat. I'd be shocked to see Symantec and McAfee show anything much lower than their showing (yellow). It is in their best interest to keep the perception of impending doom alive and well.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Who the f*ck posted this article? -- Astroturfing his own site, no doubt.
In any case, this is the FUGLIEST site I've ever seen anywhere. Bar None!
Flash. Bah! Humbug! -- I won't visit it again. Ever.
slashvert
Sent from my desktop computer
I am glad that there aren't audio snippets associated with the visual, otherwise it would be the loudest website in the world.
It is great to have the data available, but to have it that animated. I haven't even seen "High Tech" displays like that in the movies / tv, where everything has to have a wow factor.
The data is cool enough, no need to flash the heck out of it.
The vertical ticker on the right showed 10 flaws in Firefox and 8 flaws in Thunderbird. Oddly, it didn't list Internet Explorer, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Vista, Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.
But it's kind of fun watching all that useless eyecandy swooshing by so fast that I can't read it, while imagining that I'm Jack Bauer. Best of all, if my boss comes by, it looks like I'm actually working!
Pft... I liked it better the first time something like this came out, when it was called the Threat Down
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
I'm sure all eat my words and someone is going to love that overly flashy page but hey for the moment we have a consensus. What i would like to know is how do these places the info is being grabbed from determine threat level? Then again I think I have gotten one virus in the past 8 years. I just don't open emails that I don't recognize and I sure as hell don't download attachements from them. Yes I know you can get virii other ways but that is the most predominant.
WTF?
What a strange site. Very busy, if your machine is infested with flash, useless otherwise.
/. to place an advertisement on their front page in the guise of a normal article.
After finding a few places on the site which claims the service is free in exchange for personal information, I found an order site that wants a US$5,000 sign up fee, plus US$1,020/year subscription. Just another commercial site that has paid
There doesn't seem to be anything there that a person responsible for security couldn't cobble together as a normal part of their job. But they only have to get a few gullible companies to sign up to earn back their hiring a couple of ADD afflicted flash developers.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
I must have woken up in an alternate universe this morning. Their threats by product doesn't list a single Microsoft Product, nor Linux. Now I know there's got to be something for both of these.
The same with light yellow.
The same with light green.
I'm guessing that they didn't want to over burden anyone's video card or monitor.
And the little "sparkticker" or whatever at the bottom is totally unreadable.
But it is incredibly useful to know that the "REMLAB web mech designer" has a vulnerability. And I am totally being sarcastic. There are 8 flash links there. And that's the kind of content they felt was necessary? You're looping static TEXT. You are fucking morons!
...is that you can now see some graphics. Before you had to grep for it.
No sig for now.
NT
This is good, but this is better.
If it's supposed to be a tool for nerds, they fucked up bad. They should know that we don't like being forced to use flash (although we mind to different degrees...) If it's supposed to be a tool for the general populace, well, then I don't see a problem. I can tell you that when I loaded the page and saw like eight flashblock icons, I said "fuck this" and closed the browser tab. Requiring a ton of flash movies for something that could and should have been done with zero of them is a sure sign that I don't want to get involved.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I guess the 'future of security management' was invented "War Games" era, and for some reason it's really important to have an incredibly busy display, even when nothing is going on. With the 'scrolling' information, you can't even tell anything at a glance, and there's no search. One thing is for sure, these guys seem to know nothing about information display design, although I guess I'd consider them if I needed some Flash done for a video game.
I think I just had a seizure watching that page. Too much movement.
If you just want the useful tidbit, embed the Threatcon indicator.
Dekker Dreyer
There are two RSS feeds, one above the ticker and one below the vulnerabilities by product, which need to be shot. The one above the ticker moves so fast you can't even read it. Did these people even preview the page before making it live?
I was just thinking yesterday of doing a paranoia web page, aggregating warnings from various sources.
A web page with a good-looking version of this info, suitable for display on large screen displays, would be useful.
Exactly what I thought when I first saw it... worthless piece of flash wizardry.
This is another demonstration of Slashdot editor incompetence. The Slashdot story is apparently nothing but an advertisement for a commercial company formerly called Haval-Daar that seems completely incompetent and destined to fail immediately. There is apparently no connection with CERT whatsoever; the name is apparently intended only to confuse. Since the word havaldaar is apparently a Hindi word, I suppose Haval-Daar is a company started by people from India.
Did someone at Slashdot take money to advertise this company?
Let this be a lesson to those who spend a lot of time playing video games when they could be learning to be socially competent: If you don't learn about the people around you, you will eventually sink to the bottom of business.
--
U.S. government incompetence
All you need to know is when the next Presidential election is, and you know when the next state of alarm will sound.
Currently hooked on AMP
Didn't even see anything on there about blackwatch plaid... psh
Sig free's the way to be.
Even the company name has been chosen to be conflated with CERT. What a bunch of bollox.
I'm sorry if I haven't offended anyone
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
Because usually he is stupid enough to tell them that their blind. Telling people about their shortcomings doesn't win any friends.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
This would be a lot more useful if it were an RSS feed.
girl on /. posting :P
guys, get her !
Correction - "the're", not "their".
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.