Michael Gracie » rustock http://michaelgracie.com Clever Tagline Unavailable At Publication Time Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:50:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en Botnets hit the Sunday paper http://michaelgracie.com/2007/01/07/botnets-hit-the-sunday-paper/ http://michaelgracie.com/2007/01/07/botnets-hit-the-sunday-paper/#comments Sun, 07 Jan 2007 16:28:12 +0000 Michael Gracie http://www.michaelgracie.com/botnets-hit-the-sunday-paper/

I can’t help but smile with glee over this…

The issue of zombies and the problems they cause on the networks has hit the New York Times.

No, I am not happy because the New York Times is my favorite paper or anything; my joy comes from the awareness it is providing. Too many people just don’t get it (until the police show up)…

Serry Winkler, a sales representative in Denver, said that she had turned off the network-security software provided by her Internet service provider because it slowed performance to a crawl on her PC, which was running Windows 98. A few months ago four sheriff’s deputies pounded on her apartment door to confiscate the PC, which they said was being used to order goods from Sears with a stolen credit card. The computer, it turned out, had been commandeered by an intruder who was using it remotely.

That’s one way to find out your computer has been hijacked. And while reading the paper isn’t going to fix the problem, at least it might make you aware that one could exist.

UPDATE: Bruce Schneier agrees - popular attention is a good thing.

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