Re: security@microsoft.com/Virus: W32/Dumaru.a@MM
From: N. Miller (nsm_at_blackhole.aosake.net)
Date: 03/28/04
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Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 23:49:07 -0800
In article <fa5e01c41390$714a0030$a001280a@phx.gbl>,
Fatness@discussions.microsoft.com says...
> I just don't understand how people keep asking questions
> like this. The other one that keeps getting asked
> is, "Should I open this attachment in my email's inbox
> from a person I never heard of? Is it a virus?"
Each person who asks that question thinks that he thought of it first.
Nobody taught them how to look things up on the Internet. They only know
that they have a problem, and somebody on the Microsoft site should have an
answer.
And look at their posting agent. Many users posting from the CDO agent have
no clue that they are posting to a public news group. All they know is that
they are on a Microsoft site web page.
> No offense, but are people that naive? Even when I was a
> computer newbie many moons ago, common sense prevented me
> from catching anything bad on my computer for two whole
> years!!!
Yes they are, and it is all Al Gore's fault. Seriously. Before he proposed
legislation to commercialize the Internet, what we call the Internet was a
very tight club of DoD researchers and contractors; you didn't get online
unless you had DoD connections. Unforutunately, this highly restricted
access led to the use of rather insecure protocols.
Since the commercialization of the Internet, the way to attract users is to
promote the ease of access. This means that all the people trying to attract
users have to downplay the inherent insecurities of the Internet protocols,
which, coupled with the insecurities of the Microsoft OSes means an
extremely hazardous environment. I'd wager that half the people on the
Internet wouldn't have considered connecting if they had any idea how
technically savvy they needed to be to connect safely.
> I mean, Microsoft and the other companies can only do so
> much as far as trying to educate consumers about these
> security risks. You would THINK that after all this time,
> and word of mouth, that questions like the one you just
> posted would not keep getting asked!!!
Word of mouth is how the rumor of that über virus, JDBGMGR.EXE, which can't
be detected, and will wipe out your hard drive, gets around; even after the
ancient hoax has been revealed. Everybody who is new to the Internet is
going to ask the same questions. Over, and over. Unless we decide to treat
running a computer, and connecting to the Internet as we do learning to
drive a vehicle on public highways.
> When will naive computer users wake up and start educating
> themselves? The sooner it happens, the safer the rest of
> us careful computer users become.
Nope. Everybody will learn the hard way. The only way to change that is to
completely overhaul the connection protocols to create a truly secure
environment, at some great cost, or get the government involved in
overseeing the operation of the Internet, at some risk to certain liberties
that we currently take for granted.
-- Norman ~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta ~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain ~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint
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