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Eye on Security: News Failure, Windows Malware Detection Failure

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Summary: A few news items about security

First human 'infected with computer virus' (another stupid article from the MSBBC, but other news sites fell for it too)

Captain Cyborg Has A Virus-Infected Sidekick... But Nothing Can Stop A PR Campaign (rebutting the above)

The story is -- as with all captain cyborg stories -- a lot less than the headline suggests. Gasson wasn't "infected with a computer virus." He took a chip that had a computer virus and stuck it in his arm, just like Warwick has done n the past. The parallels to an actual virus are minimal, and the usefulness for anything is even less than that. Gasson presents this as useful for considering the implications for implanted technology such as pacemakers, but that's nothing new. People have talked about potential technology issues from the wireless interface to pacemakers for years. Doing some sort of publicity stunt with an implanted computer chip doesn't further that discussion along.


Alleged $100M scareware sellers facing charges (Windows only)

Three men are facing federal fraud charges for allegedly raking in more than US$100 million while running an illegal "scareware" business that tricked victims into installing bogus software.


Sality, the virus that turned into the ultimate malware

From an analysis performed with a “rogue P2P client” coded to become part of the malicious network, Symantec has determined that the Sality botnet covers something like 100.000 computers. It’s a bots figure below the one achieved by giants like Conficker but similar in size to other botnets as Storm, Pandex and Rustock. What remains clear is the demonstration of Sality’s unique threat, a malware floating around since seven years that shows no intention to quickly disappear from the net.


Recent Techrights' Posts

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That really says a lot about The Register MS
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Many electrical appliances fail often/quick and are nearly impossible to repair
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Links for the day
 
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Links for the day
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In life, people must make sacrifices to do what's right and just
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The next installment (number 16) will probably come out this weekend
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XBox as a console is pretty much dead
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on mobile the options would be more limited
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Several months from now libera.chat turns 5
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IRC logs for Wednesday, December 24, 2025
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Links for the day
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That helped reaffirm what I said in recent years about production/manufacturing standards of "modern" things
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GitHub was never free
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What skills does that give? Making more slopfarms?
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the slop hype is bound to end
Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC logs for Tuesday, December 23, 2025
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Links for the day
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Links for the day
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Links for the day
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Links for the day
Links 23/12/2025: GNU Taler 1.3, US Regime Censors Television Again
Links for the day
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Steam is DRM
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Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, December 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, December 22, 2025
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There are already talks about mass layoffs in January
"Generative AI Bubble Has Begun to Pop", Nvidia Rides “Circular Financing... a Strategy That Hearkens Back to the Dot-com Crisis”
For companies like Microsoft this may mean another 30,000+ layoffs next year
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The simple fact is, Microsoft's console is dead in the water
The Reality is "Vibe Code" (Slop) is That It's Worthless
“Confidently Wrong”