That got your attention, didn`t it? No, I have no intention of showing pictures of my good lady sans clobber, but there are many Web sites and newsgroups which purport to offer you just this. Clearly, there are many men who are drawn to the notion, and you can spend some instructive time analysing why.
There have been so many viruses, causing so much damage, and so many cry-wolf situations, that the world has become inured to the whole issue.
Ian Melamed, chief technology officer, SatelliteSafe
The creators of a new virus have understood this all too well, and have unleashed it on the world. NakedWife.exe (officially called W32/Naked@MM) is a mean little example of what viruses can do in today`s dastardly new world.
There`s been plenty of coverage of the virus in other forums, but just to recap: it arrives on your system as an e-mail-based worm. The promise of being able to see a naughty picture has prompted many corporate users to double-click the attachment; it than sends itself to all names in the user`s address book and deletes all .ini, .log, .dll, .exe, .com, and .bmp files from Windows and WindowsSystem folders. This renders the infected computer inoperable, and the operating system has to be reinstalled.
Here`s the rub... while this is a real, high-risk virus, scarcely any media that I noticed carried any articles on it. It came and went with scarcely a ripple. The reason, in a nutshell, is it`s not news any more.
There have been so many viruses, causing so much damage, and so many cry-wolf situations, that the world has become inured to the whole issue.
It`s the same with hijackings, murders and cash heists in Gauteng. There`s so much of it, that it doesn`t make the news except in extreme circumstances. Editors have made a judgement call that people no longer want to read about these issues and accordingly warnings are falling on fallow ground.
Editors are irritated at new warnings, and are building up mental callouses.
The implications for the corporate world are dire. Just as rapists, hijackers and gangs of armed robbers can operate with impunity without the media spotlight turned on them, so virus authors will be able to ply their trade without the media warning people of the risks. It`s not news any more, and that`s bad news!
* Trend Micro certainly has had a bellyful of the way the industry has gone about the issue of virus warnings. It says it will not simply stand by and observe the histrionics of the security industry and the media over the virus issue. It says vendors need adequately to inform the public without overdoing it or inciting panic. Trend Micro warns that the perpetuation of myths and misinformation about viruses could be more threatening than the viruses themselves. Amen.
* More Trend Micro news. A huge war of words has broken out between it and F-Secure over the release of an anti-virus product for the Palm platform. F-Secure will charge for it; Trend Micro says it`s wrong to charge, and will continue to make its product available for free. F-Secure retaliates that this is not a sustainable business approach. Watch this space with interest.
* At last, punishment to fit the crime. It might be extrapolating the facts a little far, but just possibly the law is getting pragmatic about hacking. For instance, whatever damage Kevin Mitnick caused to business, he has had a lot to offer which has been denied by a narrow-minded outlook. Now from New Hampshire comes news that a teenage hacker who defaced Web sites has been ordered to help program the jail`s computers after being sentenced to nine months behind bars. This, surely, must be better use of his skills than simply shutting him away forever and denying him access to all computers, as was done with Mitnick.
* We read all the time about international Web sites being hacked and defaced. Does it mean we`ve cracked the big time when a major hacking team defaces a local site? Diners Club SA`s site was hacked by Brazilian bad boys Prime Suspectz. Diners Club is now in illustrious company, joining Microsoft, American Express, Mercedes Benz, eBay, Nintendo and NASA among the 195 sites hacked by the boys from Brazil. Why they bother isn`t clear, as the rubbish they left on the Diners Club opening page is utter drivel:
"Justice is lost
Justice is raped
Justice is gone
Pulling yours strings
Justice is done
Seeking no truth
Winning is all
Find it so grim
so true
so real"
All that effort to post doggerel that would make a 10-year-old cringe!
* Finally, another survey which indicates that 75% of companies are still not fully aware of the risks they face in information security. US-based Datamonitor surveyed 250 companies across five sectors about their security policies. 75% claimed to have a defined security policy in place, but 70% did not know how often policy was revised. Most businesses also implemented security that does not require policy enforcement to ensure it is working properly, so there are no checks. Good summary: "Just because a company has passwords to authenticate their users, anti-virus software and firewalls does not necessarily mean that there is a security policy in place. It is likely that respondents that do not know when their policy is revised, in fact do not have one in place. When businesses become aware of the risks that are inherent to e-business and have implemented advanced security systems to protect themselves, clearly defined policies will be a necessity."
(Sources: iAfrica.com, McAfee.com, Hacker News Network, Computer Grams and Silicon.com.)
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