Toolkit

In association with Network Liberation Movement

Story: Firefox phishing vulnerability discovered

Posted by: Arthur B. (Thursday 6 January 2005, 8:44 PM)

Critical mass FUD is the typical reaction of the uninformed. If critical mass (certainly when combined with access to the source) was that important for getting succesfully attacked in large numbers then why don't we see massive and succesfull attacks on all those other Open Source products that run the Internet today in enormous numbers?

I sometimes find myself wishing that all Open Source products would stop to function for just one hour all at the same time. Perhaps then more people will start to realize how much Open Source is already part of todays life.

Another thing. Spammers, phishers, etc don't aim for a 100%, 10% or even a 1% succes rate. Since the market penetration of non-Microsoft browsers has been more then 1% for many years now. How come those poor non-Microsoft browser users haven't been slaughtered month in, month out? I mean, surely those spammers and phishers will go for the easy prey, whatever they are. And believe me, even just 1% of just 5% of the entire Internet community would be a dream come true for them.

Riddle me this. In many companies there are people using IE with very expensive security hardware and software maintained by so called experts sitting between them and the Internet and they're not amused. While at home, for those that don't use IE, there's maybe $40 of equipment between them and the Internet and they're amused. How come?

There's critical mass alright. But it's about the FUD soap box that's about to explode. Followed soon after with a critical mass of consumers and CFO's starting to ask difficult questions to there former-to-be IT salesmen, IT advisors, IT consultants and IT managers.

Basicly a whole industry used to overcharging is going to be replaced by an industry that charges fairly. And the only way to become part of that new industry is to sell something different then those products with built-in overcharging capabilities. Things are starting to get interesting.