On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 14:55 -0800, J.D. Falk wrote:
On 02/03/05, "Hannigan, Martin" <hannigan@verisign.com> wrote:
..or a cost issue. Most of these users are people who have decided not to spend the $40 to defend their machine at home.
So you educate them as to why it would be a good idea to keep their computer secure.
But in the meantime, their machine is spewing garbage -- which, as many have said, is the operational issue at hand.
Solutions through diligent use of add-on products is not 100%. Many users spend $40 and diligently apply prophylactics, but still are compromised. Reinstalling over an existing installation does not ensure removal. Either way, this returns the OS to a vulnerable state, while costing several frustrating hours. Using a CD-ROM OS/App suite, such as Knoppix, sounds promising for this headache. It should be difficult to corrupt an OS or application when on Read-Only media. :) The number of zombies ensures rate limiting will not be effective either. Providers keeping their house in order in the face of this new strategy may be assisted by domain signed mail. This could serve to block compromised accounts with help from the provider themselves. Rejections from a third party will tell their clients they need a disinfectant. http://mipassoc.org/mass/ The wack-a-mole game needs a more agile mallet. -Doug