Scribblings

Falling for scams

The anti-virus people, Sophos, are warning of a fake Windows security update which you may hear about through junk email. A more digestible explanation is available on the BBC News site.

Windows is particularly prone to this sort of exploit simply because of the huge number of people who use it. The problem, in this case, is not really Windows itself but the users. For how long have newspapers, ISPs and others been warning about the dangers of downloading updates and other crap when you’re invited to via spam? Years and yet folks still do it. Why is that?

There must be a remarkable number of stupid people out there who just click on everything which looks interesting to them without thinking of the consequences. OK, so all of us are vulnerable to these scams in the right circumstances but, honestly, this particular one has been so well publicised by now that you’d think there couldn’t possibly be anyone left on the planet who’s never heard of it.

It wouldn’t bother me at all if the morons who fall for it were the only ones affected but they’re not. These people end up using computers which, unknown to them, are being used as zombies to send yet more spam to the rest of us. Perhaps we should insist on new laws to ensure that people have to pass a test, analogous to the driving test, before being allowed anywhere near a computer

Hell, I’m in a grumpy mood this morning.

Posted 9 April 2005, 08:28
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