funsec mailing list archives
Re: dumb. Comcast pop-ups
From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org>
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:50:21 -0400
On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 09:29:13AM -0700, Alex Lanstein wrote:
I like that Comcast is at least trying /something/ to protect their users.
This is a very feeble attempt. Consider: they are going to send these pop-ups to systems that they have reason to believe -- based on externally-visible evidence -- are compromised. So, either those systems are compromised or they're not. If they're not, then they're annoying people who have nothing to fix, and the result of this will be training those people to ignore the pop-ups. If they are, then what POSSIBLE reason is there to believe that the users will actually see these pop-ups? It is, after all, not in the best interests of the new owners of those compromised systems to permit the former owners to be alerted to what's going on. Keep in mind that these new owners are the people who crafted Sobig et.al. and turned running botnets into a scalable, profitable, effective business model. Surely nobody with any clue at all thinks that these people will just stand by while Comcast inconveniences them? I think it's far more likely that they will take note of what Comcast's doing, how they're doing it, and shortly thereafter deploy code to render it moot. Which means that all of this is merely grandstanding by Comcast, and will have no meaningful effect -- other than, as I pointed out above, training people to ignore the pop-ups. ---Rsk _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- dumb. Comcast pop-ups RandallM (Oct 10)
- Re: dumb. Comcast pop-ups Jon Kibler (Oct 10)
- Re: dumb. Comcast pop-ups Alex Lanstein (Oct 10)
- Re: dumb. Comcast pop-ups Rich Kulawiec (Oct 11)
- Public Policy and Consumer ISP Hygiene (was Comcast pop-ups) Larry Seltzer (Oct 11)
- Re: Public Policy and Consumer ISP Hygiene (was Comcast pop-ups) Dan White (Oct 13)
- Re: Public Policy and Consumer ISP Hygiene (was Comcast pop-ups) Larry Seltzer (Oct 12)
- Re: Public Policy and Consumer ISP Hygiene (was Comcast pop-ups) Dan White (Oct 13)
- Re: Public Policy and Consumer ISP Hygiene (was Comcast pop-ups) Valdis . Kletnieks (Oct 13)
- Re: Public Policy and Consumer ISP Hygiene (was Comcast pop-ups) Dan White (Oct 13)
- Re: Public Policy and Consumer ISP Hygiene (was Comcast pop-ups) Rich Kulawiec (Oct 13)
- Re: Public Policy and Consumer ISP Hygiene (was Comcast pop-ups) Dan White (Oct 13)
- Re: Public Policy and Consumer ISP Hygiene (was Comcast pop-ups) Rich Kulawiec (Oct 16)
- Re: Public Policy and Consumer ISP Hygiene (was Comcast pop-ups) Dan White (Oct 16)
- Re: dumb. Comcast pop-ups Alex Lanstein (Oct 10)
- Re: dumb. Comcast pop-ups Jon Kibler (Oct 10)