“If every hour a burglar turned up at your house and rattled the locks on the doors and windows to see if he could get in, you might consider moving to a safer neighbourhood,” Mark Ward, Technology Correspondent, writes for BBC News. “And while that may not be happening to your home, it probably is happening to any PC you connect to the net.”
“An investigation by the BBC News website has established the scale of the dangers facing the average net user,” Ward reports.
“Using a computer acting as a so-called ‘honeypot’ the BBC has been regularly logging how many potential net-borne attacks hit the average Windows PC every day,” Ward reports. “When we put this machine online it was, on average, hit by a potential security assault every 15 minutes… However, at least once an hour, on average, the BBC honeypot was hit by an attack that could leave an unprotected machine unusable or turn it into a platform for attacking other PCs… Often once a machine has fallen under someone else’s control, a keylogger will be installed to capture information about everything that the real owner does – such as login to their online bank account. This stolen information is often sold as few of those that steal it have the criminal connections to launder stolen cash.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brit” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Although Ward expends many words documenting the Windows PC mess, he never gets around to the obvious solution; one that he suggested in his opening paragraph: PC users actually can move to a much safer neighborhood, it’s called Apple Macintosh. We are left with two questions: will the world ever learn and what is wrong with the BBC?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
BBC signs web deal with Microsoft – September 28, 2006
Apple touts virus-free Macs – August 25, 2006
Get a Mac: Viruses, spyware cost U.S. consumers $7.8 billion over last two years – August 08, 2006
Symantec researcher: At this time, there are no file-infecting viruses that can infect Mac OS X – July 13, 2006
McAfee expects 400,000 viruses by 2008 – July 06, 2006
Apple: ‘Get a Mac. Say ‘Buh-Bye’ to viruses’ – June 01, 2006
FBI: Viruses, spyware, other computer-related crimes cost U.S. businesses $67.2 billion per year – February 01, 2006
16-percent of computer users are unaffected by viruses, malware because they use Apple Macs – June 15, 2005
What happened to Microsoft and ‘Trustworthy Computing’?
What happened to Microsoft and ‘Trustworthy Computing’?
BBC = Commie, American Hating, Terrorist Loving, Trash Depot
The BBC is a whole-owned subsidary of the Bill and Melinda Foundation.
Isn’t this the same organization that just signed a deal with Mafia$oft?
Note from Gates to Ballmer: “Mark Ward sleeps with the fishes…”
The folk at the BBC are renowned for being bright, well informed, and honest. And fallible as all get-out. They will report violence in the Mid-East in a “Fair and Balanced” way that embarrasses Fox “News” – and has both Israelis and Palastinians crying “foul”. Crossing the PC/Mac border, though … that isn’t obvious. It might be obvious to compare/contrast Dell vs HP vs Gateway, but Macs aren’t “PCs”, now, ARE they. They wouldn’t include a gas BMW 5-series in a report of diesel econoboxes – not the same things at all.
Besides … they all spend part of their week fighting with their PCs, with BSoDs and malware, and few have any personal experience with a Mac – obviously not the same thing and there’s obviously nothing to report. The report wasn’t about “How Not to Suffer From Attacks on Your PC” but “Your PC is Being Assaulted Daily”. It’s only news if something happens.
Get with the (MDN MW) program!
DLMeyer you commie! The BBC SUCKS! It’s irresponsible for them not to mention the Mac as an alternative to the Windows mess. They damn well know about Macs, they are in a sweet heart deal with Microsoft, and they intentionally don’t talk about Macs and mislead their audience. Fox News is so far and above that dung heap BBC in reporting as well. You libs hate Fox News because they are fair and balanced. Not commie-terrorist slanted like most of the other news organisations.
imo the bbc should be broken up and sold to it’s shareholders
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5414992.stm
A related article which mentions the Mac at the bottom, albeit not as well as it could/should have.
Too many gullible Windows users commenting the story at BBC. Myths like ‘security thru obscurity’ abound. We need to enlighten them.
Where do you live if you start calling people “Commie”…….what a very dumb thing to say!!! You have to go back to fifties and to a bunghole like McCarthy (not paul..duh) to make up stuff like that. Gee… I could express my feeling about the current US government but that is way of topic here. (It’s the US Gov. that phone taps it’s citizins…go figure.)
MacB, Netherlands, land of the potsmokers, pedofiles, babykillers and other liberal morons….yeah right: the world is not flat and does not ends near Alabama.
“What happened to Microsoft and ‘Trustworthy Computing’?”
The program is less about making users safe than it is about making Microsoft’s profits safe by verifying if their copy of Windows is authentic or not.
“commie slanted like most of the other news organisations.”
Gary,
all extreme right-wing americans use (or have used) polemical invective like that; be it MacCarthy, George Wallace or the countless unknown, ill-educated, hyper-patriotic red necks.
If you look, though, at communist societies such as China, or North Korea you’ll notice that they do exactly what you (and of course Bush) probably dream of (in your wet dreams).
They incarcerate and torture the ‘libs’, i.e. the freedom-loving elements in their respective societies.
In short, you should have more sympathy for ‘commies’. They’re on your side.
This is all part of the great buildup to the launch of Vista. Expect to see more of these ‘your PC is at risk” stories in the next month or so in the buildup to the lauch.
Then you will see stories about how that wonderful Mr Gates has ridden to the rescue yet again, protecting innocent people from the dangers posed by those nasty malware authors. Of course you won’t see any mention of the fact that he and MS created the mess in the first place, neither will you read any stories about how Macs have been free from this crap for years.
What you all forget is that Mr Gates is an FoT (Friend of Tony) and can therefore do no wrong. The UK’s schools are coerced into buying MS stuff. Apart from the elite ones, it’s Universities have long abandoned computer science in favour of training in MS products.
The idea that Macs can take over against this sort of momentum is risible, unfortunately.
@Garry: The idea that for all its faults the Beeb is outclassed by Fox News, (the biggest pos ever to defile the airwaves) is plain rubbish
The BBC’s Click progamme on the World Service TV channel recently read a letter that was sent in in response to a piece on “Windows security. What Vista means to you”
The presenter basically repeated the security through obscurity argument verbatim. I won’t preach to the choir here and shout about the virtues of UNIX over Windows. It’s sad that so many people in the UK still don’t get that computing does not start and end with Redmond’s finest.
I’m rather annoyed that I’ve just been marginalised on a football service I pay good money for. Suddenly they’ve attached Windows DRM to all their streaming. I’ve emailed them and their response is that I should cancel my subscription.
NOT THE F**KING POINT!!! YOU HAVE A MONOPOLY AND YOU’VE LOCKED ME OUT OF IT!!!
There. I feel better now.
I hope Windows Vista gets hacked to pieces just as much as XP. Until Windows is knocked down to less than 70% of the PC market, attitudes such as the BBC’s will not change.
Gary,
It is clear the sarcasm gene skipped your generation.
DLMeyer WAS BEING SARCASTIC!
Did you hear that?
Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’ had a lead item on this, and the subject of Apple Mac was raised by a call from a reader — but the ‘experts’ sidestepped the idea in a few words and went right back on droning about firewalls, anti-virus and the rest.
One of them (I think) was from MS so no surprise there, and I’m afraid the rest comes from the BBC anti-Mac bias.
Sadly I’m forced to pay a licence-fee tax for rubbish like this.
Can’t rally say the BBC is particularly ‘commie’ though, as I know lots of people who work for it — I’d adjust the abuse to ‘pinko-liberal-MS-lovers’ that try their best mostly.
So how am I, a desktop and server support person, spending my Columbus Day off? Assisting (for pay) a colleague’s personal Windows computer riddled with malware. SpyBot found a dozen or so pieces of said crap, one of which was apparently breaching his address book for nefarious purposes. Between that and Microsoft’s background Index Service his laptop was unusable. I think I can get it usable again, but I’m not cheap.
When I pointed out that my six year old Pismo is on the Internet all the time, without antivirus and antispyware protection he was astonished! I think we’ve got another potential switcher on the verge.
The BBC is the true symbol and paragon of the British chatter class, and if you consider the chattering class’ love affair with M$, it fits perfectly. It fits with their sympathy for Iran, N. Korea, Palestinian terrorists, etc. They can’t stand a small upstart who is creative/democratic and fighting to survive against the tide (i.e., Israel/Apple). If you support Apple/Mac products, you’re likely to be optimistic that better quality will win out against the Windows hordes. If you support Israel, you’re also likely to be optimistic that this small “David” can survive against the Goliath hordes aligned against it.
If you’re in the Brit chattering class, however, you much prefer to make your peace with the devil (while you sneer contempt towards those who would resist). They did exactly the same thing with Hitler as well as many others.
Kate: A former Euro (and for the sake of the typical Euro bigots, I must note that I’m not Jewish)
The BBC’s IT division has been sold of to Siemens (fact). Enough said.
You think it’s bad now, just wait until Vista is released, the BBC will be wall-to-wall Windows Vista output. It’s practically wall-to-wall on the inside anyway, so is the UK government.
The UK is a sad place to be at the moment, I can’t believe I pay my taxes to such a corrupt society.
Tacitus is spot on – look to see more ‘your PC is vulnerable’ articles from the BBC, in the run up to Vista’s launch, and then once they’ve revved up all the PC-zombies in the UK to fever pitch, Vista will be presented as the solution.
“Wasn’t 98/NT/2000/XP supposed to do that?”, and “isn’t the Apple Macintosh a secure platform?” are questions that are unlikely to be asked.
I agree with Kate and Gary and Markus of Queensbury. BBC would love a communist Great Britain. The democrats in the US would love it too. Fox News is a wonderful news channel. The BBC always leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth about their slant. Fox covers both sides very fairly and it drives the liberals crazy. Case in point all of the above counter posts.
Edith Keeler must die.
Makes me embarrassed to live in the UK. And we’re forced to pay the BBC a ‘tv licence’ if we want to watch tv at all!
Saw this article on the front page of the metro this morning (free newspaper) and felt annoyed that it hadn’t mentioned any alternatives. but whatever, they can have their spyware, money stolen out of their banks, while im safe on my ibook.
Oh, for God’s sake kate. That’s a bit of a stretch isn’t it? I mean BBC’;s obvious MS Bias is equated to ‘sympathy for Iran, N. Korea, Palestinians i.e. anyone our current foreign policy considers the Axis (Asis’s) of evil” is really over the edge. Euro Bigots = Microsoft? Wow nothing like reducing the world to broad generalizations…. Even for a die hard mac fan like me.
Look Various business take the recommendations from the Chief Technology Officers. LFor them, right now, Microsoft and Netware and crystal reports, etc. etc. is the only way to go because this is what they have been using for the last 15 years. And most folks believe it or not don’t really give a rip about what kind of computer they use, they just want it to work. They get used to Windows at work, that’s what they want to used at home. End of story. That’s why they shop price over everything. That’s most users.
Apple clearly has the the edge in individual, computers and small office, environments. This is where Apple has spend it’s development resources and marketing resources. So individuals and small business where the ‘owner’ makes the decisions, and actually educate themselves about computer, Apple will make inroads and have success.
Maybe a long range plan, now that Apple has switched to Intel chips, is to go after servers and more enterprise environments. In a big way. Maybe Apple license and enterprise version of OS X to HP and Dell. Why not? Not the individual version, were talking OS X for banks, insurance companies, airline reservations. Thousands of folks tapping into the same database for accounts, reservations, appointments, orders etc. OS X as you and I used wasn’t designed for that (I don’t think) .
Any way The world is a complex place, but we must resist reducing everything to a my way or the highway view. That’s what we the current administration is guilty of and look where we are now…..
Sounds more like peppered than assaulted.