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While I was washing up after dinner, my computer anti-virus software picked up a nasty, which it has dealt with. I have no idea whence it came, any more than I understand the minds which create them. I suspect that they are created by adolescent minds - irrespective of actual age, and are probably male. I'm not sure whether I want to punish them severely or pity them. As no harm was done, maybe the latter this time, on previous occasions it has caused damage and I didn't feel so amicable.
I suppose it shows an aspect of humanity which is similar to that which means we shall always have wars, immature, aggressive or fearful minds which seem unable to appreciate another's viewpoint as validly as their own.
I listened to piece on Radio 4 today, which featured a Palestinian gynaecologist who lost three daughters in one shelling, in Gaza. He'd been broadcasting to Israel to show how the otherside fared, and when his house was hit he called a friend on the radio in Israel. They organised a rescue for him and his surviving injured daughter.
While he was talking to a British journalist in the hospital while waiting to see his daughter, an Israeli walked past and started haranguing him. He (the doctor), tried to get the passer-by to stop and talk in a civilised manner. The man didn't want to listen, it was surmised by the doctor, because then he would consider the targets were ordinary people like him, not some diseased sub-human form which deserved to be destroyed.
I suspect the passer-by had a similar mindset to that of the creator of the virus AVG zapped.
Angharad.
Comments
I Think They Should Be Hung By Their Toes !
I think the creators of computer viruses should be hung by their toes and given thirty lashes with a wet noodle!
An Alternative
I'd much rather see the miscreants hung by a different part of their anatomy. But then, I'm as much a barbarian as a heretic. Is there such a things as a heretical barbarian?
Nancy Cole
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
Virus creators
Forget hanging by the toes. They should just be hung. And if they are going to be whipped, try a cane like over in Indonesia. But then, I have an attitude problem.
Grammar
The word you want is "hanged."
If these inadequate losers were hung, they wouldn't feel the need to write viruses.
Grammar
excellent point! I just remember the grief I had after two seperate incidents with a virus. And yes, I had Symantec in operation. Two other times I was able to go to the symantec site and clean stuff that got stopped. And All the stuff I use still blocks stuff daily, and the firewall shows SO MANY attempts from something trying to get in. Many are just pings I guess but there are a lot of high rated ones also.
Computer Virus
What I feel like is that someone needs to find the pc. that the virus came from and hack into it and make everything where the owner have to log into anything (passwords not known) then tell the pc to shoot itself in the foot. HE,he,he
Believe it or not...
The technology used to implement a virus (the spreading part, not the package part that does the dammage) can actually have a beneficial side.
The ability of a virus to spread WIDELY, and then "call home", can be used to allow launching of a search. You launch your "search" virus. It spreads all over, causing itself to be sent further. Then it looks for what it was sent for, if found, it "calls home" otherwise it deletes itself.
Here's an example. Say you've just been diagnosed with some disease - say Leukemia. Your doc says it's not curable. So, you go home, and launch your "search" virus to go "hunt for a cure for Leukemia"... It'd be nice to have it call back after a while with information relating to a cure, wouldn't it?
Food for thought anyway.
Annette
Not quite the same thing
That sounds more like a worm. However, malware writers are really sociopaths as they do not even really think it is relevant that they are doing damage as long as they can do it. Sadly it is the very design of the current hardware/software combination that creates these vulnerabilities as well as the unending stupidity of some computer users.
One computer user managed to figure out how to take control of a piece of malware - those notorious click on and install this link thingies - and he deliberately tried to see how dumb people are. He did this by interactively sending messages through his control of the malware to the soon to be infected user trying to warn him that 'Seriously, this is a virus - don't install me' and the user clicks 'ok' to install it anyway. Not until this guy got really serious by making the stupid user's computer's CD drive open and close ( poltergeist anybody ? ) that the user FINALLY got scared and realized what a serious thing it was.
Insanity.
Kim
From a geeks point of view...
I hate the idiots who wrote malicious software, too, but I will say that they help to pay my bills, as I make money fixing the damage they cause.
It's long been thought among geeks(half seriously)that some of the people writing the nasties are the same ones making money selling software to defend against them.
Just a little food for thought...
Motivation...
It's also true that some "malware" is used for quite serious purposes, by installing trojan software, robots whose purpose in life is to do the will of their master, whether that be spying on credit card transactions, collecting passwords and ids for bank accounts, launching attacks on other computers, or sending out thousands of spams. If one runs a spam business, it's a competitive advantage if one doesn't actually have to pay for processing powere and bandwidth, and people who attack computer systems like to have everything "done with mirrors," so their attack is difficult to trace and they can bring more resources to bear.
Not that I doubt the self-interest theory either. Volunteer firemen (who are paid by the fire) are sometimes involved in arson, as are paid firemen, who may wish for overtime pay.
Puddin'
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If crime fighters fight crime and
fire fighters fight fire, what do
freedom fighters fight?
--~ George Carlin
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style