Comments on: Microsoft Brought Us a Trillion SPAM Per Week… and It Gets Worse

By: Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Dr. Roy Schestowitz — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:35:29 +0000

Very few know that. I've met people who think that if a virus scanner says the "PC" is clean, then it must really be clean.

By: Yuhong Bao

Yuhong Bao — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:30:37 +0000

“My bet is that 100% of computer networks with Windows are infected and that the missing 12% are so well captured that those watching are unable to tell.”
I would not go that far, but when crashes after installing a kernel security update turned to be caused by a rootkit, I read on Slashdot and other sources that there were many who did not know before that their system was infected.

By: your_friend

your_friend — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 06:23:59 +0000

Microsoft is to blame for spam. Almost all businesses that use Windows have a Botnet problem.

Up to 88% of Fortune 500 companies may have been affected by the Zeus trojan, according to research by RSA's FraudAction Anti-Trojan division, part of EMC. The trojan installs keystroke loggers to steal login credentials to banking, social networking, and e-mail accounts. ... Smaller companies (those with fewer than 75,000 employees) appeared to have a higher proportion of infected employees.

My bet is that 100% of computer networks with Windows are infected and that the missing 12% are so well captured that those watching are unable to tell. Blame for this universal failure can only be laid at Microsoft's feet. Either the whole world administers Windows incompetently, or Windows is hoplessly insecure. If it were possible to secure Windows, the majority of Fortune 500 companies would not have a problem. No other software has this kind of problem.

By: Yuhong Bao

Yuhong Bao — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 06:17:34 +0000

That is a different issue though, and far from the only cause of botnet infection.

By: Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Dr. Roy Schestowitz — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:15:44 +0000

Systemic neglect is Microsoft's fault [1, 2, 3]. Microsoft does not patch known holes until the attacks begin. We wrote a lot of posts about this in January [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12] since a known Internet Explorer hole that Microsoft had ignored for 5 months caused enormous damage to many businesses, Google included.

By: Yuhong Bao

Yuhong Bao — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:02:42 +0000

Well, “Botneted PCs” would be an alternative too. Anyway, any of these titles would be better than the current title, which incorrectly blame MS for the spam.

By: Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Dr. Roy Schestowitz — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:09:22 +0000

Can that not be assumed? About half of all Windows PCs is said to be “botnetted”.

By: Yuhong Bao

Yuhong Bao — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:02:49 +0000

Even better would be to add the word “Botneted” at the beginning too, but that makes the title slightly longer.

By: Yuhong Bao

Yuhong Bao — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 23:51:47 +0000

“Windows PCs Brought Us a Trillion SPAM Per Week… and It Gets Worse” would be more correct title for this.