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Symantec Wants To Use Victims To Hunt Computer Criminals
Hugh Pickens writes "Business Week reports that security experts plan to recruit victims and other computer users to help them go on the offensive and hunt down hackers. '"It's time to stop building burglar alarms to keep people out and go after the bad guys," says Rowan Trollope, senior vice-president for consumer products at Symantec, the largest maker of antivirus software. Symantec will ask customers to opt in to a program that will collect data about attempted computer intrusions and then forward the information to authorities. Symantec will also begin posting the FBI's top 10 hackers and their schemes on its Web site, where customers go for software updates and next year the company will begin offering cash bounties for information leading to an arrest. The strategy has its risks as hackers who find novices on their trail may trash their computers or steal their identities as punishment. Citizen hunters could also become cybervigilantes and harm bystanders as they pursue criminals but Symantec is betting customers won't mind being disrupted if they can help snare the bad guys. "I'm convinced we can clean up the Internet in 10 years if we can peel away the dirt and show people the threats they're facing," says Trollope.'"
How many of these scams and hack originate in the US anyway? Will their customers really have information to share?
"Sometimes it's hard to tell the dancer from the dance." --Corwin Of Amber in CoC
1. Users are mostly idiots. An educated idiot is still an idiot.
2. Despite lame excuses about "market share" that MS uses for their frequently exploited vulnerabilities, there isn't a system that CANNOT be hacked.
3. The best standards and coding practices can probably only hope to reduce exploits by about 80 to 90 percent.
4. Damn good idea. Next time you meet a marketer, shoot him. We don't need his genes in the pool.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
The example in the article is even misleading, since it was a Facebook account that was hacked, who knows if the hackers ever touched the system of the user. He may have just used the same password too many places. I'd assume Facebook isn't using Norton Internet Security, so I'm kind of wondering what cases this will really make a difference in. Most worms/viruses even don't come from the creator's PC, but infected zombies.
Don't know what country you live in, but around here, the only reason people tolerate hackers is because they don't really do anything. If crackers start doing reprisals (what are they going to do, reformat the hard drive? Send a hitman?), it's only going to make people angry. Despite what idiocracy fans might think, people aren't like sheep, and if you try abusing them, it only makes them mad and want to punish you back. A couple reprisals aren't going to deter novices any more than a couple arrests are going to deter crackers, or a couple executions are going to deter murderers. If punishment were a real deterrent, then the fight between Israel and Palestine would be over, because Israel has punished Palestine a lot. Instead, you get things like this, where Palestine knows they can never beat Israel, but they are willing to hurt them however they can, even if it means they will be stepped on.
Sorry to bring politics into it, but it's a good example.
Qxe4