Slashdot Mirror
Largest Hacking Scam in Canadian History
vieux schnock writes "Police raided several homes across Quebec on Wednesday and arrested 16 people in their investigation, which they say uncovered the largest hacking scam in Canadian history. (...) The hackers collaborated online to attack and take control of as many as one million computers around the world that were not equipped with anti-virus software or firewalls."
With 45 million why on earth would you stay in Canada ? /BookItOutOfCanada
I kind of have to wonder why nobody has proposed some kind of govt subsidized antivirus program. If we can spend tax dollars on Americas Army, why not buy out ESET or similar and allow all US residents (or the world, for good will) to get a good free antivirus?
The price of computers keeps coming down. Anyone can buy a $400 walmart pc if not a cheaper second hand one from someone upgrading. Not everybody is going to be willing to shell out $80/yr or so on an antivirus that they don't understand the point to. Yet at the same time due to the nature of worms and botnets, its in everyones best interest if these people are protected*. Note that this should be OPTIONAL as personally I would worry about the privacy aspects of it, but if all the big and cheap pc manufacturers shipped with it I think the internet might clean up a bit.
While I'm normally for smaller government and less spending, I think we're past the point of that being an option and would really rather see the money spent on a program like that than many other proposals.
* I know you or I don't really need an antivirus, but these people do.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx