Advertisement
Promo

Security threats Toolkit

Story: Lycos zombie army takes Web sites offline

  • Previous comment

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

  • Reply

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.

  • Previous comment

  • Reply to this comment
  • Return to story
  • Report this as offensive


Full Talkback thread

Sentry Posts Blog

Civil liberties groups attack file-sha...

Civil liberties and digital rights organisations have strongly criticised Lord Mandelson's Digital Economy Bill. Liberty said in a position paper on Tuesday that the bill, part of... More

Post a comment

Authentication risks all too human

Risks to successful online banking identification and authentication using smartcards involve a mixture of human and technological factors, according to the European Network and Information... More

1 comment

Opera censors Chinese content

Opera has updated the Chinese version of its mobile browser to stop users accessing restricted content. Opera Mini was updated on Friday from an international to a Chinese version,... More

2 comments


Skip Sub Navigation Links to CNET Brand Links

Help

Become part of the ZDNet community.

Newsletters