DVD Porn Viruses Ravage US Soldiers' Computers

stevegee58 writes "Tom Ricks' Inbox in the Sunday Washington Post reported that bootleg DVDs purchased in Iraqi markets ('souks') are frequently infected with viruses. Iraqi soldiers were affected as well; electronic interaction between Iraqi and US soldiers frequently resulted in a corresponding exchange of viruses from these infected DVDs."

Comments

Sexually Transmitted Disease

[Thalagyrt]

Gets a whole new meaning now.

Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease

[cp.tar]

But seriously, what is the world coming to?

Previously, at least soldiers could count on running around, meeting interesting people, shooting them and raping their women.
Of course, often that also meant some kind of medical treatment afterwards, usually including some nasty shots of penicillin, but that was a small price to pay for the vast spread of one's genetic material.

Nowadays, the only virus you can get as a soldier infects your computer while you jack off to porn?
Really, they shouldn't have gone all the way to Iraq for that.

Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease

[cp.tar]

So remember, no sex if safe sex, but if you watch sex use Norton!

With Norton, you'll still get infected, but the system will slow down just enough that a DVD movie becomes a slideshow.

Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease

[Opportunist]

You wanna say the whole war in Iraq was just a lot of dick waving and mostly a masturbatory experience for a couple people?

Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease

[Binkleyz]

You know, I'm fairly certain (at least I hope so) that you're either joking or just being a troll (in which case, I'm falling directly into your trap), but as (maybe one of the few) people on this site that were also previously in the military, I'm just about as offended as humanly possible at your comment above.

Not everyone that goes into the military is a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal, and quite a few of us are above average in terms of intelligence. I spent 6 years in the Navy, and I (nor anyone I knew) didn't shoot, rape OR pillage anyone.

On a site like this one, where people from the outside would presume everyone is a pasty and pimply 34 year old living in their parent's basement, I really would expect (just a little) a little more tolerance and less assumption from the people involved.

Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease

[zacronos]

On a site like this one, where people from the outside would presume everyone is a pasty and pimply 34 year old living in their parent's basement, I really would expect (just a little) a little more tolerance and less assumption from the people involved. You must be new here!

Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease

[Jumperalex]

Please do everyone a favor and learn the difference between the military, an instrument of national power, and the GOVERNMENT that wields it. If you want to meet a person who abhors war, talk to a soldier. If you want to judge someone for wanting to "kill people after the Cold War finished" I suggest you look at the people who decide when and where to send the military. I'll give you a hint, they don't wear uniforms.

Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease

[phulegart]

Well, I'm not a pimply-faced anything. In fact, I work in the busiest computer repair shop near Camp Lejune (see Marine Boot Camp). I repair laptops (and desktops) all day long that belong to soldiers. I'm regularly cleaning Iraq out of the laptops, and I'm just talking dirt and grime. However, all of them... and I do mean all of them, come in infected with malware, spyware, and viruses. Not only your Smitfraud.C based infections (Smitfraud, virus heat, etc.) but porn dialers, porn redirects and browser hijacks... you name it.

As far as tolerance is concerned, I'm glad that all these marines appear to know absolutely nothing about keeping their machines clean. It keeps me in a paycheck. However, I don't have much tolerance for people who insist that this might be an overblown story. As far as the Parent comment about rape and pillaging... our armed forces have changed radically since the Vietnam days. You can't necessarily blame the guy for his comment though. If what I'm cleaning off these machines is any indication... even if our armed forces aren't raping and pillaging, they sure are thinking of it. Where they are going on the web to screw up their machines like they are points to that conclusion.

Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease

[cp.tar]

In Yugoslavia there used to be something called ORA(s), which is an acronym I can't readily translate, but which included very large groups of young people doing some pretty hard jobs for a period of time, e.g. (rail)roadbuilding.
This is a form of service I can subscribe to and would actually like to see re-instated in Croatia. For one, if high-school kids today just picked up the trash arund their schools and rebuilt the demolished bus stops, they would be less prone to littering and demolishing them all over again. IMO, of course.

Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease

[cp.tar]

I lived through a war.
However, I lived in the capital, which was only a target of several air raids.
Some of my friends survived regular bombings day after day, night after night; some of them had their parents and other relatives killed; some were re-settled or lived in camps.

Do you think my feelings about the war are as deep and as strong as theirs?
I'm pretty anti-war and anti-military myself, for various reasons, but I will never ever try to imagine I can feel as deeply about it as they do.

As for financing your education... people do what they can. Or what they have to. I refuse to judge their choices as long as they act humane.

Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease

[hummassa]

You wanna say the whole war in Iraq was just a lot of dick waving and mostly a masturbatory experience for a couple people? Are you saying it isn't??

Not worth it

[Hyppy]

From personal experience, believe me, Iraqi porn isn't worth it.

Re:Not worth it

[gwayne]

Dhakmi does Mosel!

Iraqi Man 1: Would you get a load of the slit in her burka! I think I saw an eye!

Iraqi Man 2: Oh yeah, baby, put it on! More burka!

Iraqi Man 3: Halalalalalalalala...BOOM!

Support Our troops

[brewstate]

We need to send them virus free porn. Gentlemen time to dump your hard drives to DVD.

Re:Support Our troops

[neokushan]

This is going to take a while...

Re:Support Our troops

[jtev]

It means that some in the slashdot community already have. It's not allowed to be talked about, but one of the comfort items most desired in theater is porn. They aren't supposed to have it, and they can't get it in the PX, so they get it in letters from home, in nice little optical shiny packages, or they download it from FTP sites set up by their families, that don't get on the blacklist. Those who aren't so lucky, purchase it in theater, which apparently is a less than stellar option.

Re:Support Our troops

[oodaloop]

After having been there a few times, I'll just point out that it is 100% illegal to have any kind of pr0n in country. No DVDs, no Playboys, no nothin, so don't mail it (I realize you made the above statement in jest, but someone reading it may think it's a good idea).

That being said, I've seen more pr0n on classified servers than I've seen in the rest of my previous life. We had to remove about 3 or 4 TB off of one server so the map server could run properly. That and it was slowing down Call of Duty. Mind you, it wasn't all of it, just a couple of TB.

Re:Support Our troops

[d3ac0n]

Sounds like someone in the Porn community that supports the troops could set up a very interesting charity.

I can see it now: "Support the troops, send them quality American porn!"

There could be shots of porn stars dressed like 1940's pinup stars in the ads for the charity.

The name might be tough though... "Skin for the Soldiers", "Tits for the Troops"? I'm sure we could come up with something interesting.

Anyone here have contacts at Vivid Entertainment? Let's get this baby rolling!

Protection

[jspenguin1]

The shift key: the condom of the Windows world.

Imaginative approach

[Lincolnshire Poacher]

• +10 points for clever attack vector.
• +10 points for using a vector which is deeply embarrassing to the target.
• +10 points for SELLING a virus to the target.

Misleading title

[greyhueofdoubt]

I have spent a good deal of time at these markets, and I can testify that I saw no porn. Ever. I never saw porn, alcohol, or drugs at these markets. Maybe these porn DVDs were passed around sub rosa or something.

Here is what you CAN find in the markets (even on base): Fake cigarettes, fake cigars, fake Rolexes, fake Nikes, fake anything. Imitation Apple products- headphones, iPod cases, even fake iPods. No fake zunes, though...
In an area about the size of a high school gymnasium, about 80% of the space was filled with bootleg DVDs and software. I don't mean bootleg like the MPAA wants you think bootleg; I mean actual printed DVDs out of japan or taiwan. Some were really crappy theater-cams but many were very good copies of promos and the like. I watch 300, letters from Iwo Jima, Black Snake Moan, and many others before or very shortly after theater release. It was awesome :)

I also got all ten (at the time) seasons of south park on 4 DVDs for $25. Sweet.

So, here we have this article that, while it may be true, seems to completely miss the point. It's like saying that, "Magazines such as hustler are causing massive deforestation and are filling our landfills." It is just trying to sensationalize the situation. Which is weird, since there are so many other, BIGGER things out there to write about. Try this, RIAA: The base media server, loaded with ~180 GB of music, is free to anyone who wants to download from it. You can get 180 GB hdds at the BX. Oh and there is the movie server, loaded with hundreds of titles. All free for the taking. And this author chose to write about porn? Whatever. Iraq is the wild, wild middle east. Everything goes.

-b

Patton Meets Pr0N

[Dystopian Rebel]

"You don't win a war by jacking off for your country. You win a war by making the other bastard jack off for ~his~ country!"

More than an inconvenience

[bughunter]

We build UAV systems for the US military. Widely used ones. Lately one of the branch's weapons labs has been coming to us and saying "we need a ground system that will operate any UAV or UGV. Why don't you use a computer?"

So the R&D chief goes on a rant (to me, in private): "We've tried sending PCs into deployment, and they come back filthy with 'family videos' and viruses. We try sealing up and enclosing the USB/FW ports and DVD slots, and they come back pried open. No computers."

Customer (to me, during requirements review): "The soldiers get issued WinXP notebooks anyhow. Utilize them."

So I was handed the task of managing the resolution to this showdown. My first thought was, "Porn is not my problem." Second thought, "Hell, give them some clean porn ferchrissakes." Third thought, "oh crap -- we can't certify our product if it is a) in the decision making loop for a certain class of UAV, and b) can run any old crapware, including family videos."

So it's not just a porn problem, but a problem with the inadequacy of the Windows OS itself. I know that this is potential flamebait moderation material, but it's a major thorn in our side: it's not a realtime OS, and even the embedded version of XP isn' real time. And it's susceptibility to viruses and hackers really makes it unsuitable for much more than family photos, letters to Jane, and facebook.

Solution: Give them what they want, on their dime, while spending R&D money to prototype what they need. (Sorry - can't describe it.) Then when the inadequacies become painfully apparent, offer them the alternative, ready for development testing.

Re:OT: What is this world coming to?

[Lunatrik]

What is this world coming to when even 7-digiters are able to mod?!
You have no idea. I mod up everything that has to do with Ballmer throwing chairs, Gotse, ?? Profit, and FIRST POST, while making sure to mod down anything with substance. I considered, albeit briefly, modding with dignity, but then I saw that 7 digit number and realized.. neh, screw it.

Re:Moderators w/o a Sense of Humor

[cp.tar]

No, no, you got the joke all wrong! You used an article where you should have used a possessive pronoun.

I have mod points, but I'm not touching this thread with my ten foot pole.

I wouldn't touch it with yours, either.

Re:Pacifism

[steelfood]

You know, GP can drop the "Christian" part and still make perfect sense. It's against GP's morality to kill other human beings, probably in any situation other than in self-defense (but I cannot truly speak for the GP on this matter). The military exists to do just that. Killing another person isn't a requisite to being in the military, but it is an expectation. And the other side has the same expectations as well. And if killing another person is against someone's morals (like GP's) regardless of whatever logical or illogical basis, then that's that.

Oh, and a soldier is NOT like a policeman. Police exist to keep the peace by enforcing the laws, and provide assistance to citizens in need. In an ideal situation, police serve the public, though that isn't always true. But generally speaking, they serve the law, whatever the law might be. They are not trained to kill, and certainly not trained to survive. To claim that police and military are the same means you either have a warped sense of the place and purpose of soldiers, the place and purpose of law enforcement, or both.

Finally, stop being pedantic. Firearms are designed for maiming and killing, be it human or any other animal. GP is not talking about other "guns". Glue guns have the word "gun" in the name too, but I'm pretty sure when someone puts military and gun together, they don't think about a nozzle that ejects a hot, sticky substance. Have you any other uses for a firearm (not explosives or some other appratus that otherwise uses explosives to propelled projectiles) besides killing or maiming? And don't tell me target practice.

Seesh...I don't know if it's Monday or what, but the mods need to get their shit together.