Damn. I almost wasted my time responding to freaking anonymous coward. "Whoa" yourself, stupid. If you really want answers, you'll post with some other name.
Uhhhh, I think she borrows one from time to time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have those two knucklehead nephews, right? Maybe I should ask the brother in law to clarify the matter?
Yes, you can be anonymous. Not as easily as some people might wish, but it can be done. Assuming, of course, that you aren't already targeted, and don't already have a keylogger on your machine.
Of course, even with good tools, a lot of people are to stupid to remain anonymous. (I'm looking at the people who fall for scam malware alert, LMAO)
No, I'm NOT trolling. I do expect that the law be observed.
First, crossing an international border without the approval of the sovereign states involved is a felony offense. Houston, like some other cities, is literally overflowing with illegal immigrants. I don't believe that any city has a worse problem - though I could be mistaken.
Second, a sizeable percentage of those people doing the border hopping were criminals before they ever hopped a border. Drug mules, drug enforcers, gang members, and more. A young girl was murdered recently 20 miles from my home. After weeks of investigation, it was found that the murderer was a wanted criminal already, under another name, as well as a fugitive from Mexico law, under yet another name. Check out the Houston papers - the same story is told month, after month, after month.
As for those people who DON'T cause any trouble - I might not care to much about them, except that they provide cover for the real low lifes. When the cops went looking for our local murderer, very very few people were willing to give any information. But, the girl's daddy disappeared from work, without notice. Turns out that he went home to Mexico, and was hunting the murderer in his own hometown. Daddy knew exactly where to find his daughter's murderer, but wasn't willing to tell the law anything.
Allowing foreign nationals free run of out country creates all sorts of hazards - it doesn't take a troll to understand that.
I wonder - are you a democrat, or an anarchist? You're certainly not a republican, a libertarian, or a neocon.
Oh, wow - surely, you don't believe that the whole thing is a simple transaction, with every individual in every case being alike? So many complexities are involved.
Yes, OF COURSE almost every adult who crosses from Mexico to the states is a criminal, at least as far as he is attempting to bypass immigration laws. But, to dismiss anything and everything that might happen within that criminal underworld as equally wrong is - silly at best. That coyote has anywhere from 2 or 3 to as many as 100 people AT HIS MERCY. If he rapes, kills, or otherwise abuses his clients, it all happens outside the law. Kidnapping a pretty child or more, especially if he has already killed that child's parents, is no big deal.
Not to mention - that child didn't "choose" to put him/her self into that predicament. Their parents did that, for them.
While I'm not about to believe every sob story I might be peddled by this criminal population - anything they might make up is quite possible in the shady world they live in.
Once captured, no coyote should ever be free to walk under God's sun again. Some of them are soul mates to Attila the Hun. Since I can't differentiate between the better and the worst of them, I say imprison ALL of them for life.
"Law enforcement officials have long described Texas as a major corridor exploited by human traffickers. According to the U.S. State Department, between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year, with nearly one in five victims of human trafficking traveling through Texas."
It's a safe bet that he's even more sensitive about tiny penis allegations. There's a reason that so many cops like to carry big guns. My retired state cop sister never carried one of those huge assed magnum cannons - instead, she learned how to hit her target. How many people do you know who have survived a.38 police special hitting center of body mass? I haven't met any, personally.
While your post has some merit - you don't mention that the Mayor of Houston managed to get the city turned into something called a "sanctuary". Basically, if you're an illegal immigrant, the city ain't gonna fuck with you. They won't ask, if you don't tell. Houston is in worse shape than the liberal controlled city of Austin because of it. "Bring us your undocumented, homeless, drug addicted, child pimping, low life scuzzy law breaking dregs - Houston will provide SANCTUARY!"
Some people would say so. Especially on the US/Mexican border, where people pay the coyotes to bring them to the states. I've participated in discussions where the most hateful people say that the immigrants and the coyotes should all be shot and dumped into the Rio Grande - with no distinctions for age. There are some truly outrageous statements and claims made on the subject.
The homeless are a problem? Skip over that - there are estimates that human trafficking has almost a million victims (yeah, a victimless crime, right) who have passed through or into Texas in recent years. Sometimes, little boys and girls as young as 10, 11, or 12 years old, being brought into our nation to be sold into sex slavery.
Where's Austin? It sits astride Interstate 10 and Interstate 35. A HUGE portion of that human trafficking passes through Austin.
Instead of battling online anonymity, maybe the police chief should be out searching vehicles for child whores being carried to points east and points north.
So, register at the Statesman, and comment. I've been registered there for some time - just posted my first comment on the article. There will be more - I use the same name over there. Join in the discussion!!
I've always shied away from IRC downloads. Maybe IRC is a lot better than it used to be, but I remember the war scripts, I've witnessed script kiddies taking servers down, mIRC and others are still constantly updated to patch newly discovered exploits. There are still people who measure the size of their penis by the number of channels they control. These kind of people wouldn't introduce malware into a channel, would they? And, IRC always seemed to lack the "feedback" of torrents.
I certainly wouldn't recommend IRC to the clueless, or even to those who might have a few clues.
Speaking of which - wasn't Brazil in the news not terribly long ago, for officially promoting some odd flavor of Linux? Their story was similar to China, as I recall - almost no one (percentage wise) can afford Windows, so everyone pirates it. In response to some RIAA-like lobbying, the government said they were going to come down hard on pirates, and promote a Portuguese language Linux.
Maybe I just dreamed that... Or, maybe Brazil isn't quite as authoritarian as China, and they couldn't pull off such a mandate.
I wear blue jeans, boots, and a T-shirt or polo shirt when it's hot, or a denim shirt when it cooler. No uniform. To answer your "unasked" question, I'm not a bank guard, a cop, or Brink's employee, or anything of the nature.;^)
The vast majority of CURRENT Windows users are on XP. If you can't find an exploit all on your own, you most likely don't know how to turn your machine off and on. No, you DO NOT get to pick your favorite flavor of Windows, and hold that up for a "standard". You certainly don't pick the OS that almost no one is adopting - huge numbers of people waited for 7 to avoid Vista! (Especially since MS isn't all that concerned about "standards")
As for today's most up-to-date version of Windows - Win7 will most likely be broken real soon. Personally, I'm waiting for the timebomb crack. (What, you didn't think I was going to PAY for it, did you?)
Well - I don't have the most_secure_configuration in the world. I can download and click a.exe on my Linux desktops, and since they are associated with Wine, they run. Of course, the random.exe will fail to install itself, because the malware writer wasn't targeting Linux or Wine.
If I'm ever bitten by this little bit of carelessness, I will do things differently.
BUT, we are right back to the idea that a user with a clue won't download and run that random.exe.
Wow. I'm impressed. The list looks pretty darned comprehensive. What's more, some of those ideas Linux to improve security. The plugins thing, and the "authorized" repository for instance. My browsers are actually rather sloppy about that, now that you point it out.
You should get onto one of the major Linux development teams, and sell them on the idea. You know how Linux is - get great ideas incorporated in one distro, and the rest tend to pick them up.;^)
"I routinely walk into the bank wearing a cap and sunglasses without ever removing either."
That's so sissy. Now, if you said that you routinely walk into a bank wearing a sidearm, I'd be moderately impressed.
Before you ask, no, it isn't exactly "routine" for me to do so, but, from time to time, I've done so. The receptionist is generally more attentive, as is the guard - but hey, I deserve the respect.
I read the story, and fell over laughing. Told the wife, she fell over laughing. Told the kids, and THEY fell over laughing. Finally I told the dog, and HE fell over laughing!!
- These malware work just aswell on user account, you do not need admin/root access.
I believe that is mostly, if not entirely correct. Obviously, there is a design flaw in security; a user account should never be capable of screwing up system files and system settings. Period.
- Malware goes where the user is. If linux had ~95% marketshare on desktops, majority of malware would be there because thats where the users are. - Theres nothing on Linux that does anything to prevent this kind of malware - you only get more security because there's not many users. If you suggest everyone moving to it, what happens?
That is speculation, opinion, and FUD. Unix like systems are simply not prone to the types of exploits that Windows has always been wide open to. (ActiveX for example) It's easy to imagine that malware writers would shift to Linux, but Linux' response would be to write patches after patches, and shut each exploit down as it was exposed.
- Conficker excluded, theres not really exploits in the Windows itself now a days. They're mostly from third party software like Flash and PDF reader.
If that were entirely true, then the same exploits would work on Linux. I don't see that - can you provide any citations?
- Locking up the whole OS so that user is in 100% controlled environment is a no go, as seeing here on slashdot about iphone and other systems that do it.
Unix like OS's have set the example. Establish trusted repositories for software. TRUSTED repositories, not a bazaar type place where just everyone can put software. Publish everywhere possible all the information about those trusted repositories, and how to use them. Make it unequivocally clear that software from sources outside of those repositories is VERY HIGH RISK!!!
Suppose that they can afford to do both. Why haven't they done the latter?
Choices include, 1: don't want to 2: don't know how 3: don't understand the need to do so 4: no amount of money would be enough 5: it's more lucrative to sell unsecure systems
Add more choices, as you see fit. Maybe Ballmer will sign in here, to explain which if any choice is right.
by sqrt(2) "The most secure OS in the world, not even Linux nor OSX, isn't going to be able to protect you when you decide to authorize and run an.exe file you downloaded."
Question. Since I've never had one single flying lesson in my life, would you say I was stupid if I got into a Learjet, only to crash and burn? Or, if someone who had never been in a tractor trailer decided to jump in and drive one - would he be stupid when he drove it off the side of a mountain?
I say, operating something that you are not qualified to operate is indeed a sign of stupidity. As sqrt points out, no amount of security will protect clueless.
Malware has been talked about in every major news outlet in the world. Only the braindead can be unaware of the risks of downloading executables from untrusted sites.
"Is MS suing these folks for damage done only to their company directly? "
No, from TFA:
"Microsoft works vigilantly, using both technology and the law, to fight illegal activity that undermines people's trust in the Internet and online services."
But, it seems to me that if MS stopped working on superfluous bullshit, and concentrated on improving security, they might beat the malware people without ever going to court.
Yeah - security has improved with the release of Win7 - but give it time.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn. I almost wasted my time responding to freaking anonymous coward. "Whoa" yourself, stupid. If you really want answers, you'll post with some other name.
Uhhhh, I think she borrows one from time to time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have those two knucklehead nephews, right? Maybe I should ask the brother in law to clarify the matter?
I2P and stealthnet come to mind.
Yes, you can be anonymous. Not as easily as some people might wish, but it can be done. Assuming, of course, that you aren't already targeted, and don't already have a keylogger on your machine.
Of course, even with good tools, a lot of people are to stupid to remain anonymous. (I'm looking at the people who fall for scam malware alert, LMAO)
No, I'm NOT trolling. I do expect that the law be observed.
First, crossing an international border without the approval of the sovereign states involved is a felony offense. Houston, like some other cities, is literally overflowing with illegal immigrants. I don't believe that any city has a worse problem - though I could be mistaken.
Second, a sizeable percentage of those people doing the border hopping were criminals before they ever hopped a border. Drug mules, drug enforcers, gang members, and more. A young girl was murdered recently 20 miles from my home. After weeks of investigation, it was found that the murderer was a wanted criminal already, under another name, as well as a fugitive from Mexico law, under yet another name. Check out the Houston papers - the same story is told month, after month, after month.
As for those people who DON'T cause any trouble - I might not care to much about them, except that they provide cover for the real low lifes. When the cops went looking for our local murderer, very very few people were willing to give any information. But, the girl's daddy disappeared from work, without notice. Turns out that he went home to Mexico, and was hunting the murderer in his own hometown. Daddy knew exactly where to find his daughter's murderer, but wasn't willing to tell the law anything.
Allowing foreign nationals free run of out country creates all sorts of hazards - it doesn't take a troll to understand that.
I wonder - are you a democrat, or an anarchist? You're certainly not a republican, a libertarian, or a neocon.
Oh, wow - surely, you don't believe that the whole thing is a simple transaction, with every individual in every case being alike? So many complexities are involved.
Yes, OF COURSE almost every adult who crosses from Mexico to the states is a criminal, at least as far as he is attempting to bypass immigration laws. But, to dismiss anything and everything that might happen within that criminal underworld as equally wrong is - silly at best. That coyote has anywhere from 2 or 3 to as many as 100 people AT HIS MERCY. If he rapes, kills, or otherwise abuses his clients, it all happens outside the law. Kidnapping a pretty child or more, especially if he has already killed that child's parents, is no big deal.
Not to mention - that child didn't "choose" to put him/her self into that predicament. Their parents did that, for them.
While I'm not about to believe every sob story I might be peddled by this criminal population - anything they might make up is quite possible in the shady world they live in.
Once captured, no coyote should ever be free to walk under God's sun again. Some of them are soul mates to Attila the Hun. Since I can't differentiate between the better and the worst of them, I say imprison ALL of them for life.
"Law enforcement officials have long described Texas as a major corridor exploited by human traffickers. According to the U.S. State Department, between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year, with nearly one in five victims of human trafficking traveling through Texas."
I snagged that from the Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6626053.html
See post above, responding to AC:
"Ooops. Sorry. With all the traveling I've done, that's a REALLY stupid mistake. What can I say, besides I typed faster than I thought."
Ooops. Sorry. With all the traveling I've done, that's a REALLY stupid mistake. What can I say, besides I typed faster than I thought.
It's a safe bet that he's even more sensitive about tiny penis allegations. There's a reason that so many cops like to carry big guns. My retired state cop sister never carried one of those huge assed magnum cannons - instead, she learned how to hit her target. How many people do you know who have survived a .38 police special hitting center of body mass? I haven't met any, personally.
While your post has some merit - you don't mention that the Mayor of Houston managed to get the city turned into something called a "sanctuary". Basically, if you're an illegal immigrant, the city ain't gonna fuck with you. They won't ask, if you don't tell. Houston is in worse shape than the liberal controlled city of Austin because of it. "Bring us your undocumented, homeless, drug addicted, child pimping, low life scuzzy law breaking dregs - Houston will provide SANCTUARY!"
Hell of an election platform to run on, eh?
Some people would say so. Especially on the US/Mexican border, where people pay the coyotes to bring them to the states. I've participated in discussions where the most hateful people say that the immigrants and the coyotes should all be shot and dumped into the Rio Grande - with no distinctions for age. There are some truly outrageous statements and claims made on the subject.
The homeless are a problem? Skip over that - there are estimates that human trafficking has almost a million victims (yeah, a victimless crime, right) who have passed through or into Texas in recent years. Sometimes, little boys and girls as young as 10, 11, or 12 years old, being brought into our nation to be sold into sex slavery.
Where's Austin? It sits astride Interstate 10 and Interstate 35. A HUGE portion of that human trafficking passes through Austin.
Instead of battling online anonymity, maybe the police chief should be out searching vehicles for child whores being carried to points east and points north.
So, register at the Statesman, and comment. I've been registered there for some time - just posted my first comment on the article. There will be more - I use the same name over there. Join in the discussion!!
I've always shied away from IRC downloads. Maybe IRC is a lot better than it used to be, but I remember the war scripts, I've witnessed script kiddies taking servers down, mIRC and others are still constantly updated to patch newly discovered exploits. There are still people who measure the size of their penis by the number of channels they control. These kind of people wouldn't introduce malware into a channel, would they? And, IRC always seemed to lack the "feedback" of torrents.
I certainly wouldn't recommend IRC to the clueless, or even to those who might have a few clues.
THAT is the reason for open source.
Speaking of which - wasn't Brazil in the news not terribly long ago, for officially promoting some odd flavor of Linux? Their story was similar to China, as I recall - almost no one (percentage wise) can afford Windows, so everyone pirates it. In response to some RIAA-like lobbying, the government said they were going to come down hard on pirates, and promote a Portuguese language Linux.
Maybe I just dreamed that... Or, maybe Brazil isn't quite as authoritarian as China, and they couldn't pull off such a mandate.
I wear blue jeans, boots, and a T-shirt or polo shirt when it's hot, or a denim shirt when it cooler. No uniform. To answer your "unasked" question, I'm not a bank guard, a cop, or Brink's employee, or anything of the nature. ;^)
"Name a current Windows exploit"
The vast majority of CURRENT Windows users are on XP. If you can't find an exploit all on your own, you most likely don't know how to turn your machine off and on. No, you DO NOT get to pick your favorite flavor of Windows, and hold that up for a "standard". You certainly don't pick the OS that almost no one is adopting - huge numbers of people waited for 7 to avoid Vista! (Especially since MS isn't all that concerned about "standards")
As for today's most up-to-date version of Windows - Win7 will most likely be broken real soon. Personally, I'm waiting for the timebomb crack. (What, you didn't think I was going to PAY for it, did you?)
What goes through my head when I write stuff like this? http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3207 Sometimes I think about other things: http://windows7center.com/news/prepared-for-conficker/
Have they fixed this one yet? http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/04/24/unfixable-windows-7-exploit-created-by-security-experts
What goes through YOUR head when YOU make posts like that?
Oh, how 'bout that IIS? Is Win 7 / Vista secure from IIS?
Don't worry, we'll be seeing more exploits in coming months. ;^)
Well - I don't have the most_secure_configuration in the world. I can download and click a .exe on my Linux desktops, and since they are associated with Wine, they run. Of course, the random .exe will fail to install itself, because the malware writer wasn't targeting Linux or Wine.
If I'm ever bitten by this little bit of carelessness, I will do things differently.
BUT, we are right back to the idea that a user with a clue won't download and run that random .exe.
Wow. I'm impressed. The list looks pretty darned comprehensive. What's more, some of those ideas Linux to improve security. The plugins thing, and the "authorized" repository for instance. My browsers are actually rather sloppy about that, now that you point it out.
You should get onto one of the major Linux development teams, and sell them on the idea. You know how Linux is - get great ideas incorporated in one distro, and the rest tend to pick them up. ;^)
"I routinely walk into the bank wearing a cap and sunglasses without ever removing either."
That's so sissy. Now, if you said that you routinely walk into a bank wearing a sidearm, I'd be moderately impressed.
Before you ask, no, it isn't exactly "routine" for me to do so, but, from time to time, I've done so. The receptionist is generally more attentive, as is the guard - but hey, I deserve the respect.
I read the story, and fell over laughing. Told the wife, she fell over laughing. Told the kids, and THEY fell over laughing. Finally I told the dog, and HE fell over laughing!!
HELP US! WE'VE FALLEN, AND WE CAN'T GET UP!!
- These malware work just aswell on user account, you do not need admin/root access.
I believe that is mostly, if not entirely correct. Obviously, there is a design flaw in security; a user account should never be capable of screwing up system files and system settings. Period.
- Malware goes where the user is. If linux had ~95% marketshare on desktops, majority of malware would be there because thats where the users are.
- Theres nothing on Linux that does anything to prevent this kind of malware - you only get more security because there's not many users. If you suggest everyone moving to it, what happens?
That is speculation, opinion, and FUD. Unix like systems are simply not prone to the types of exploits that Windows has always been wide open to. (ActiveX for example) It's easy to imagine that malware writers would shift to Linux, but Linux' response would be to write patches after patches, and shut each exploit down as it was exposed.
- Conficker excluded, theres not really exploits in the Windows itself now a days. They're mostly from third party software like Flash and PDF reader.
If that were entirely true, then the same exploits would work on Linux. I don't see that - can you provide any citations?
- Locking up the whole OS so that user is in 100% controlled environment is a no go, as seeing here on slashdot about iphone and other systems that do it.
Unix like OS's have set the example. Establish trusted repositories for software. TRUSTED repositories, not a bazaar type place where just everyone can put software. Publish everywhere possible all the information about those trusted repositories, and how to use them. Make it unequivocally clear that software from sources outside of those repositories is VERY HIGH RISK!!!
Suppose that they can afford to do both. Why haven't they done the latter?
Choices include, 1: don't want to 2: don't know how 3: don't understand the need to do so 4: no amount of money would be enough 5: it's more lucrative to sell unsecure systems
Add more choices, as you see fit. Maybe Ballmer will sign in here, to explain which if any choice is right.
by sqrt(2) .exe file you downloaded."
"The most secure OS in the world, not even Linux nor OSX, isn't going to be able to protect you when you decide to authorize and run an
Question. Since I've never had one single flying lesson in my life, would you say I was stupid if I got into a Learjet, only to crash and burn? Or, if someone who had never been in a tractor trailer decided to jump in and drive one - would he be stupid when he drove it off the side of a mountain?
I say, operating something that you are not qualified to operate is indeed a sign of stupidity. As sqrt points out, no amount of security will protect clueless.
Malware has been talked about in every major news outlet in the world. Only the braindead can be unaware of the risks of downloading executables from untrusted sites.
"Is MS suing these folks for damage done only to their company directly? "
No, from TFA:
"Microsoft works vigilantly, using both technology and the law, to fight illegal activity that undermines people's trust in the Internet and online services."
But, it seems to me that if MS stopped working on superfluous bullshit, and concentrated on improving security, they might beat the malware people without ever going to court.
Yeah - security has improved with the release of Win7 - but give it time.