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Paul Vixie On DNS Changer: We're Dealing With Malware the Wrong Way
AlistairCharlton writes with this snippet: "Victims of the DNS Changer malware think they have better things to do than check their internet security, and as a digital society we're dealing with malware in completely the wrong way. These are the thoughts of Paul Vixie who worked with the FBI in intercepting servers used by a gang of Estonian hackers who made millions of dollars from redirecting internet users away from the websites they requested, directing them to advertisements instead." The linked article also offers an interesting description of how the FBI's quiet takeover of a botnet came to be.
I'm not sure why it's even the government's obligation to "close the deal" (from TFA) and help a victim fix their infected systems. If the victim felt they "have more important things to worry about" than prevent infection, then felt they "have more important things to worry about" than routinely scan their system, AND THEN when told that they were infected they "have more important things to worry about" than fix it themselves and pay out of pocket... maybe the government has "more important things to worry about", too. tl;dr If you didn't wear a condom, and you didn't get tested, and you found out you had syphilis and didn't care - why should I?
But presumably somebody at the FBI realised that they could collect all that lovely data on where everybody was going on the internet, and all without the need for a single warrant
Care to show a source, even a single one, for that? The FBI handled this right, asking ISC to install and run the DNS servers. I really doubt the ISC would play ball with any extra-legal requests for data.
Amazing how much pure paranoia is modded up around here