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Security threats Toolkit

Story: Lycos zombie army takes Web sites offline

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Posted by: MikeC (Thursday 2 December 2004, 3:34 PM)

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To the previous poster: You are an idiot if you use this screensaver. You are allowing someone else to use your computer to launch an attack against unknown third parties. Have you considered any of the following:
1/ *They* (Lycos) might make a mistake (or get hacked) and as a result *you* end up attacking an innocent site?
2/ Your attack is correctly directed but goes via shared infrastructure and causes 'collateral damage'?
3/ The spammers log your ip and launch a full scale attack against you, possibly finding an exploit enabling them to take over your PC and fill it with 'underage images'.?

1/ and 2/ carry potential civil and criminal liability.

You can protect yourself against 3/ to a large extent but not 1/ and 2/

We *all* hate spam (except the spammers and their accomplices) but this is *not* the way to fight it.

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