If Vista Doesn’t Control This Kind of Nonsense, There Will Be a User Revolt
I’ve noticed a significant uptick in spam. Though 85% or so of it gets thrown into the Junk folder right away, the sheer number of the 15% that get through to my regular mailboxes is growing to the point where I’m actually wondering if a challenge-based system will be necessary to keep my sanity.
Now I know why this is happening — From eWeek.com (bold is mine):
‘Pump-and-Dump’ Spam Surge Linked to Russian Bot Herders
November 16, 2006The recent surge ….. is the handiwork of Russian hackers running a botnet powered by tens of thousands of hijacked computers.
Internet security researchers and law enforcement authorities have traced the operation to a well-organized hacking gang controlling a 70,000-strong peer-to-peer botnet seeded with the SpamThru Trojan.
According to Joe Stewart, senior security researcher at SecureWorks, in Atlanta, the gang functions with a level of sophistication rarely seen in the hacking underworld.
For starters, the Trojan comes with its own anti-virus scanner—a pirated copy of Kaspersky’s security software—that removes competing malware files from the hijacked machine. Once a Windows machine is infected, it becomes a peer in a peer-to-peer botnet controlled by a central server. If the control server is disabled by botnet hunters, the spammer simply has to control a single peer to retain control of all the bots and send instructions on the location of a new control server.
….. The botnet stats tracker even logs the version of Windows the infected client is running, down to the service pack level. One chart commandeered by Stewart showed that Windows XP SP2 (Service Pack 2) machines dominate the makeup of the botnet, a clear sign that the latest version of Microsoft’s operating system is falling prey to attacks.
Back in April, a Microsoft security official publicly suggested that “businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation.” In other words, he admitted that spam, viruses and malware were out of control, and that the wizards of Redmond were losing the war against them.
If Vista experiences similar problems and gets near the “give-up” point (one eWeek writer back in May was very worried), I expect that user and IT director disgust will hit the fever pitch level. And as I’ve said several times before, the economy’s dependence on Windows-based computers and applications makes it vulnerable to a slowdown if Microsoft’s problems handling the bad guys hold back productivity for a protracted period, or if it can’t get its products to market without inconveniencing consumers on a massive scale. What might fairly be called a “Microsoft Recession” is not out of the question.
Unix, Linux or MacOS, anyone?
