Go Back   Old Project Avalon Forum (ARCHIVE) > Project Camelot Forum > Project Camelot > Unconfirmed News Reports

Notices

Unconfirmed News Reports Please post any unconfirmed/unverified reports here

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-17-2010, 03:17 AM   #1
TigaHawk
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 18
Default Government pushing for "computer vaccines"

Taken from New Scientist (Aussie Magazine? 13th March Page 21)

What a lame excuse to give themselves formal permission to stickybeak @ our pc's.




-----------------------------------------------------------------
Should we treat malicious software the same way as disease - using quarantine and mass vaccination? Scott Charney, Microsoft's security vice-president, thinks so. Otherwise the denial-of-service attacks, phishing and spam generated by botnets will never be brought under control, he says.

Last week, Charney told the RSA security conference in San Francisco that isolatin ginfected computers from the internet until they're malware free was the best way to protect the wider internet population. Quite what that would inovlve, and who would pay for the "vaccination" by antivirus software is unclear, but Charney says its an approach that is already interesting the US government.

But Ray stanton, head of security at BT in the UK says such measures won't work because the internet service provider (ISP) cannot know everything about a subscriber's computer, such as its avaliable memory and the applications its running. "How do you know it has enough memory to run the vaccine?" he says.

Quarantine-and-vaccinate measures alone won't be enough to make the internet secure, agrees Lilian Edwards, an internet lawyer at the University of Sheffield in the UK. She fears greater invasions of privacy are on the way, with individuals computers subject to some form of third-party inspection - perhaps from the ISP.

A study by Sujeet Shenoi at the Univsertiy of Tulsa, Oklahoma, bears this out. His team examined a range of possible security measures that the government could introduce, including enforced antivirus programmes and feedback sensors installed on all home computers.

The team concluded that given a sufficiently servere threat, such proposals would be entirely constitutional - even if they were unpopular (International Journal of Critical Infastructure Protection - DOI:10.1016/j.ijcip.2010.02.002)

However, Ian Brown of the Oxford Internet Institute in the UK believes that for effective internet security, the responsibility should lie with the PC makers, not the users. Government-enforced inoculation programmes would be "enormously controversial", he says. "A less intrucive alternative exists: the use of product liability to drive up the security of key software such as operating systems."
TigaHawk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-17-2010, 01:27 PM   #2
Sapphire
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 6
Default Re: Government pushing for "computer vaccines"

Quote:
Originally Posted by TigaHawk View Post
The team concluded that given a sufficiently servere threat, such proposals would be entirely constitutional - even if they were unpopular "
Now where have we heard this before?
Sapphire is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-17-2010, 03:24 PM   #3
zebowho
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 2
Default Re: Government pushing for "computer vaccines"

Quote:
Originally Posted by TigaHawk View Post
"A less intrucive alternative exists: the use of product liability to drive up the security of key software such as operating systems."
Now wouldn't that be something...make Microsoft pony up and fix their own problems! As a network engineer for 15+yrs, my opinion is THAT, is where 95% of the problem lies. By the way, DOS attacks primarily hit servers...not home users. Phishing and spammers go through websites (servers) and email (again servers) with an exception being the email client ie: outlook, thunderbird etc. on the home users computer via "unknown emails opened" and "junk".

-z
zebowho is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-17-2010, 05:11 PM   #4
sjkted
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: LA County
Posts: 361
Default Re: Government pushing for "computer vaccines"

This is just silly. Individual computers are protected from other systems on the internet by a firewall. If your firewall/anti-virus/ignorance fails to protect you, then shame on you.

--sjkted
sjkted is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-17-2010, 06:12 PM   #5
Northern Boy
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: On this Rock
Posts: 1,390
Default Re: Government pushing for "computer vaccines"

PEOPLE WILL SUCK THIS UP AND ACCEPT IT INSTEAD OF TAKING THE TIME TO PROTECT THERE OWN SYSTEMS. My two words to describe this is FISH ON
Northern Boy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-17-2010, 10:34 PM   #6
TigaHawk
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 18
Default Re: Government pushing for "computer vaccines"

Ive been madly into computer's since i was a kid, id prefer to pull apart the comodoor 64 and just look at the circutry rather than play with Barbie.

As soon as dialup became avaliable i was using it, being only 13-14 at the time i never botherd or looked into setting up a firewall, and only run into a virus 1-3 times back then.

Now? Still no firewall, im using AVG antivirus and run into a virus maybe once every few months, but thats only when i visit websites which allow me to..procure...software.. so i know what to expect from going there.

I could be either realy realy lucky, or it could be how it is. The only people whom should be having issues with their pc's are the ones that click every popup that says YOUR PC HAS A VIRUS!!! or MAKE YOU'RE PC FASTER or visit porn sites/wares/crack sites.

My dad, being the complete oposite of me, 1finger typist, only checks email's and reads the news online, has had more pc problems than me (his pc running slow because of all those "cleanup your pc" stuff he downloads) but still, no firewall.

Never been attacked, or pc's used in botnets for attacks. (id notice, uploads are serverley capped in australia, and when you're a gamer, and you start lagging... you rage :P)

so like the "Internet Filter" they'd like to put in over here, this is all about getting into you're face, finding information about you, rather than a genuine interest in helping the public with computer problems.
TigaHawk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-17-2010, 11:23 PM   #7
dddanieljjjamesss
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Beverly, MA
Posts: 148
Default Re: Government pushing for "computer vaccines"

such a nonissue, a triviality, empty
does anyone really believe in this "threat?"
perhaps someone who doesn't know how to use a computer
dddanieljjjamesss is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-17-2010, 11:26 PM   #8
xbusymom
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Overland Park (Kansas City) Kansas, USA
Posts: 233
Default Re: Government pushing for "computer vaccines"

yep, the flip side of the coin that I saw was...

shut down the SPAM sources... i.e. close out all the advertizing methods they don't like, lock out all the 'un-authorized' news sources, and let us control your information access for you...

hmmm... sounds familiar- it does!

sorry about letting loose my paranoia... oh well...
xbusymom is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-17-2010, 11:33 PM   #9
TigaHawk
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 18
Default Re: Government pushing for "computer vaccines"

you're paranoia is exactly why i made this post,

its mine too :P

and censoring my internet/computers... MAKE ME ANGRY!!
TigaHawk is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 10:01 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Project Avalon