<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8"> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.12.3"> </HEAD> <BODY> On Sun, 2007-05-27 at 10:54 -0700, Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE> <PRE> Les <<A HREF="mailto:hlhowell@pacbell.net">hlhowell@pacbell.net</A>> writes: > Hi, Wolfgang, > I am sur e you didn't mean to insult the folks who use our efforts, > the users, but instead the designers of the bots themselves should be the > ones in deep trouble. Les, the number of bots running on DSL and cable modems is totally out of control. I'm seeing many hundreds of thousands of connection attempts per month to the SMTP port for spammers buying services from bot-masters that are trying to stuff my mailbox. The time for ignoring the user's culpability in this is long over. > Even those who study and work dilligently at defense get hacked > sometimes via the combination of total effort expended against them, > and the fact that the hackers only need to "get it right once" as > has been said by Rumsfeld in connection with terrorists. I believe > that it is possible to have good security and still get hit. I > mean, we have had banks for thousands of years, and they still get > robbed. Do we blame the bankers? People that run virus riddled systems for the most part aren't folks hit by zero-day exploits for code that has been inspected by competent eyes and simply had something slip by. We are talking about gross negligence with systems that haven't been maintained and updated in years. This collective negligence is costing other folks substantial amounts in bandwidth and time spent to deal with resource exhaustion issues. A system of stiff fines (such as used to prevent operation of unsafe automobiles) will do wonders to light a fire under folks to keep their systems up to current standards. -wolfgang -- Wolfgang S. Rupprecht <A HREF="http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/">http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/</A> Hints for IPv6 on FC6 <A HREF="http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/fedora/ipv6-tunnel.html">http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/fedora/ipv6-tunnel.html</A> </PRE> </BLOCKQUOTE> But the true cost of those fines is the increase in the cost of the automobile, automobile insurance, and so forth. Nothing is free. If there are no users, we won't have a job, nor would this be as interesting and varied as it is today. Get the writers of this nonsense. Hang a couple of bot writers publically, make the penalty irreversible and things will improve immediately far better than ragging on the users. Get windows to patch their security, make users not admins by default, and make the systems tighter will do far more with less effort and not hurt the folks that pay our way. Regards, Les H </BODY> </HTML>