Eye on Microsoft: Windows Scareware and Zombies, International Insecurity
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2009-12-15 16:34:11 UTC
- Modified: 2009-12-15 16:34:11 UTC
Summary: Bits from the news about Microsoft insecurity
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Scareware gets Scarier
There I was doing some research on a story, well actually looking for the latest Dr. Who episode, when I was presented with a message that my computer might be infected by a virus and it was being scanned. Yeah. Right. This was on one of my Linux desktops and it's no more likely to get a virus than my Pittsburgh Steelers are to win the Super Bowl this season.
What was actually happening was that I'd stumbled over a site trying to scam me into buying, at best, bogus anti-virus software, and, at worse, infect me with malware and steal my credit-card information. I'm not the only one. The U.S. Government's Internet Crime Complaint Center just reported that this kind of scareware is getting to be a lot more common. Indeed, the "FBI is aware of an estimated loss to victims in excess of $150 million."
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US and Russia begin cyberwar limitation talks
Entry into the cyber arms reduction talks - convened by a United Nations arms control committee - represents a significant shift for the US, which has resisted entering such talks for years, the New York Times reports. The change of tack came after the US decided that the cyberwarfare capabilities were spreading across the globe to countries such as North Korea and China.
Ed: The Cold War is back, thanks to Windows botnets (zombies).
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Nat Friedman Had Left Microsoft GitHub Exactly One Week Before Matthew Garrett Sent His First SLAPP (Which Was an Empty Threat, He Was Abusing the Legal System of Another Continent to Terrorise Critics Who Had Just Unearthed Major Microsoft Scandals)
- And it was likely talked about by his lawyers around the exact same time Nat Friedman was packing up
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- Extortion is a Crime, Even If You're Based in Another Continent and Work for Microsoft
- reported to British authorities
- We're in 6/6 Now, Almost Halfway in 2025
- 2025 was probably the best year for us
- South Americans Are Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
- We're hardly even "Cherry-Picking" or conveniently singling out one South American nation
- Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part III: Data Protection Failures, Just Like at the European Patent Office (EPO)
- Just less than a decade ago we showed that the EPO had illegally shared staff data with third parties
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 05, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, June 05, 2025
- Pushing Microsoft's Proprietary Trash/Trap as "Open" and "Linux" (Windows is 'Linux' Now?)
- Maybe it's time to just stop saying "FOSS". The people who use that term are promoting Microsoft.
- Slopwatch: Comparing Linux to Vermin, Attacking BSD With LLM Slop, and Helping Microsoft Demonise Linux/OpenBSD/SSH Over Weak User Passwords
- Microsoft must be laughing its arse off, seeing how a bunch of Serial Sloppers (no skills, no comprehension, no integrity, no creativity) and slopfarms use Microsoft LLM to flood the Web with anti-Linux FUD
- Links 05/06/2025: US Poised for Another $2.4 Trillion to Debt, Cops Want GAFAM Kill Switches
- Links for the day
- Links 05/06/2025: First US Spacewalk 60 Years Ago, GNU Octave 10.2.0 is Out
- Links for the day
- Scandinavia Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
- The Danes have had enough of Microsoft
- GNU/Linux Measured at 6% in Bangladesh, According to statCounter
- Windows isn't growing, it's going away
- Gemini Links 05/06/2025: Loop Earplugs Review and ANS Forth
- Links for the day
- Armenian Adoption of GNU/Linux
- Russian influence in Armenian must be worrying to Microsoft
- Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part II: Turning a Once-Respected Patent Office Into a Circus and Laughing Stock
- It's not legal, but administrators who don't care about the law and don't fear the law would just go ahead and turn things to junk
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 04, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
- Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
- spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
- Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
- Links for the day
- Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
- Links for the day
- Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
- Links for the day
- Our Case is a Very Easy Win, the SLAPPs From Microsofters Were a Grave Error, and Censoring Information Won't Work (It'll Only Ever Backfire)
- Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
- Say the Truth, the Rest Will Follow
- There's no guarantee that writing the truth will result in an audience (or readership), but over time - in the long run - people generally gravitate towards what they know or feel to be crude truth, not just what's comforting (albeit false or self-deluding, usually groupthink dictated from above)
- How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
- Democracy depends on free press and freedom of the press depends on being able to safely publish (and keep available) material that bad people don't want to be known to anybody
- In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
- 11 years is a very long time
- Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
- about 80% are Android (Linux) users, compared to only about 10% for Windows
- Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
- Democracy and fake "tech" don't mix well; the latter tends to interfere with the former and that's why we get more "Putins" out there
- EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
- The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
- Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
- we can commence a series soon
- Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
- Links for the day