Somehow I knew the day would come when somebody somewhere would say, "see this is something good that happened because of a computer worm or virus". Sadly, that day is now here and, even worse, I can see this type of touchy-feely outlook getting a leg up in the world. Too many people who are completely ignorant of how computers work and the damage that these worms and viruses can inflict will start to soften up after reading junk like this...

Computer worm traps child porn offender in Germany

BERLIN (Reuters) - A child porn offender in Germany turned himself in to the police after mistaking an email he received from a computer worm for an official warning that he was under investigation, authorities said on Tuesday.

Well, well, well, a child porn offender who isn't the sharpest blade in the drawer... imagine that!

"It just goes to show that computer worms aren't always destructive," said a spokesman for police in the western city of Paderborn. "Here it helped us to uncover a crime which would otherwise probably have gone undetected."

The 20-year-old was caught out by a version of the "Sober" worm, a prolific Internet virus which can invade computers and then send out messages from a host of fabricated addresses.

In this case I simply MUST call the "spokesman for the police" an idiot! Sorry, but this proves nothing of the kind. What it proves is that this guy had a guilty conscious and when he received an email, he didn't even question the source - he assumed it was true. This has NOTHING whatsoever to do with the destructiveness of the worm itself.

Let's take a look at the Sober worm and what it does once it infects your computer...

The Sober worm first appeared in 2003 and can hijack a Windows-based computer and force it to repeatedly send spam e-mails. The continuous e-mailing can lead to overloaded servers and reduced network performance.

Does that sound innocuous to you? Well, how about if your business is dependent on email? How about the millions of spam this could create, totally bogging down the internet so you can't do your online shopping, bill paying, etc, etc. What about a later version that might drop other "payloads" with severe consequences... such as sending out sensitive files?

Because, you see, worms and viruses mutate over their lifetimes. They are constantly being altered, reused and often have worse payloads as time goes on.

The feeling that a worm or virus might become viewed as a benign or even helpful object, is a view that needs to be thoroughly crushed. Most people don't have the expertise to know what is left on their systems when they open one of these, or how much real damage it can do. For every idiot who turns himself in to police - there are thousands who have to deal with tedious hours of rebuilding systems and maybe years worry about identity theft, businesses that have to worry about proprietary information getting out. Not to mention those who don't know that some or all of their personal information is being transmitted out to the bad guys.

No, even if there was a "good" outcome from one moron who opens this email, this does not make a virus or a worm a good thing. To start a trend of thinking in this direction can only lead to extremely bad things happening in the future.

Posted by: Teresa in Idiocies at 10:30 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 577 words, total size 4 kb.

My blog sis Tammi is in the midst of moving. For the past week and a half she has been without a regular phone but she did have DSL... until yesterday. It seems she told them to turn off the DSL today, but Verizon had other plans and decided to turn it off yesterday instead. Sooo - she can't blog until her new cable connection is set up (supposed to be tomorrow). If you're looking for Tammi... that's where she is. Let's hope she is putting up a post by tomorrow night!

Posted by: Teresa in Idiocies at 08:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The following rant applies to every credit card company I deal with - Each. And. Every. ONE!

As everyone knows, when you get a new credit card, whether it's because the old one expired or was compromised... you must call in to activate the new card. It's one of the things I really loathe doing. I had to do that this morning as a new set of cards have come our way.

Now it doesn't matter what company you get the card from - they all want to sell you extra garbage. Plus they send all of these phone people to the school of the "hard sell" - they never just take "No" for an answer... ever!

So today the guy on the phone (from India I might add... who spoke so fast I could barely understand him) I think he was trying to sell me "insurance" on the new card - the kind that means - in case of emergency, you won't be charged extra for purchase on your credit card (or some such nonsense). The supposed attraction being - "we'll send you info in the mail and if you don't like it - all you have to do is call and cancel"... Yeah right!

When I said no - he went into his spiel... talking so fast I was force to finally say...

"Stop, Stop, Stop, Stop, STOP!!!" (yes I really did say it that many times - maybe more). "I DON'T want the service, I don't want to get something in the mail that I have to cancel... I DON'T WANT IT!"

Whereupon he says... "Ma'am is it the cost?"

And I said... "No, I just don't want or need this service." How many times do I have to tell you? Is there any reason I need to continue talking to you? If my cards are now activated I am going to hang up! I don't want to buy anything more, I don't want to cancel anything later, I JUST WANT MY CARDS ACTIVATED - THAT'S IT!

Finally, he said, "Yes your cards are activated ma'am, please let us know if we can do anything else for you".

ARG!!! I really hate credit card companies - you can never just deal with them on the issue you're calling about - they are always trying to sell you more service. I find my blood pressure rising as I dial the phone. It's awful! I've even called them with problems on the bill and after that's taken care of - they THEN try to sell me more services I just don't need.

Okay - I'm done - I just had to get that out there.

Posted by: Teresa in Idiocies at 07:39 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 451 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I agree. In the last month, one of my credit card companies actually called me at home to tell me about how I'd be receiving credit rating informtion in the mail, yadda yadda yadda, somehow there's a service I could sign up for... aren't I interested? ARGGH!

But wait... there's more.

Worse, when I said that although I wasn't interested in those services, but that I would like to recieve a new card (because mine was expiring at end November), she was unable to help me: I'd have to call some number (which she did not have) to request it. DOUBLE ARGGH!

Posted by: Allan at December 01, 2005 12:13 PM (PTRPR)

2 Ha! While I was in Blogger Jail, I had a bit of time on my hands, so I called to activate a new credit card, my previous one having expired. I got the same pitches, both live and recorded (while my account was being checked - yeah).

After all that, within minutes, I received an e-mail questionnaire esentially asking my how much I loved the company. Immediate "delete."

Posted by: Jim - PRS at December 01, 2005 09:09 PM (oowdc)

3 OOOH! I hate when they pull those stunts! I'm the ultimate in nightmare customer, the poor guys trying to sell me anything tend to end up going to counseling.

Posted by: Contagion at December 02, 2005 06:23 AM (e8b4J)

4 Aw, crap... that's what I've got to do today. I hate being on the phone, period, let alone dealing with those folks.

Posted by: That 1 Guy at December 02, 2005 07:04 AM (NKmPz)

5 Now if you didn't have any credit cards, you wouldn't have this problem. *grin*

Posted by: Jacqui at December 02, 2005 07:57 AM (OAS9w)

6 Yikes. I thought cancelling dial up was bad ......

Posted by: Elmo at December 02, 2005 12:06 PM (NVEZI)

7 Reason 42 as to why BS does not own any Credit Cards

Posted by: BloodSpite at December 04, 2005 03:25 AM (ZTGJT)

8 Well... I consider my credit cards to be a "cash extension"... in other words I use the card instead of paying cash and then pay off the entire amount at the end of the month - I never carry a balance. Plus if I have problem with a vendor and I've used the card, it's generally much easier to solve because you can get the credit card company to run interference... that being said, I wouldn't mind them trying to pitch something at me if they just took NO for an answer - something they aren't willing to do until they make you very angry first!

I've got a cash card - but I only use it at cash stations since I have this distrust of anything that goes directly into my bank account!

Posted by: Teresa at December 04, 2005 05:49 AM (FZwDL)

9 That's why I love American Express! You can activate your card online rather than dealing with a pesky 800 number.

Posted by: Jenny at December 04, 2005 11:03 AM (pDbxp)

10 I'm with Bloodspite. I do not now, nor will ever again have, a credit card.

Got into a bit of financial trouble a few years back that just recently got completely taken care of. I really just don't need to temptation to charge a new gun, I really don't....

Posted by: Graumagus at December 04, 2005 02:29 PM (bfSZU)

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