Nato warns of strike against cyber attackers

Wed Jun 9 15:45:33 UTC 2010

On 6/9/10 8:43 AM, Michiel Klaver wrote:
> Our experiences from the Dutch ISP market indicate otherwise, customers
> are more than happy to be informed they might have been infected by a
> virus/worm. Most customers are too afraid of loosing valuable documents
> due to a file-eating virus for example, or afraid of loosing connection
> to the internet entirely and appreciate it to get an opportunity to do
> some clean-up when placed in quarantaine vlan. They even will recommend
> you, and your reputation as ISP-with-clue will increase.

Unfortunately, here in the US, as someone who decrapifies computers for 
several home and business users, I find that no matter how much I alert 
users to infections, they just don't care.

They say...

"But I can still use my computer!  You're just trying to get more money 
out of me."

You warn them that opening attachments is dangerous.

They say...

"But I got this great power point presentation that shows me how to make 
cookies on the hood of my car, which I would have never seen had I 
listened to you!"

You warn them that the screen saver they just downloaded and ran sent 
their passwords and credit cards to a cracker.

They say...

"Oh, but my credit card company won't hold me liable, so it's not a big 
deal."

They install MyCleanPC or similar, which proceeds to install more 
crapware which eventually starts randomly deleting important files on 
their computer.

They say...

"But I saw it on TV, and people were saying its a great product that 
makes my 386 perform like a Core i7!  Your a computer expert, I'm sure 
you've backed up my files on your computer without me needed to tell you."

Yeah, things may be different overseas, but here in the US, ignorance is 
bliss and endorsed by the GOP and Tea Party.  Here, people take pride in 
being the dumbest moron on the block.

In all cases of the above, I was told almost that exact statement by a 
customer.  They will do _anything_ to try and avoid responsibility for 
their behavior.

-- 
Brielle Bruns
The Summit Open Source Development Group
http://www.sosdg.org    /     http://www.ahbl.org