Comments on: The Most Dangerous Names on the Internet http://www.cleverbadger.net/wordpress/2009/08/27/the-most-dangerous-names-on-the-internet/ I'm not dead yet! Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:14:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Clever_Badger http://www.cleverbadger.net/wordpress/2009/08/27/the-most-dangerous-names-on-the-internet/comment-page-1/#comment-565 Clever_Badger Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:01:53 +0000 http://www.cleverbadger.net/?p=587#comment-565 Heh. At the time I was in school, most people just used the computer labs. Very few folks had their own PCs. I always tend to be somewhat skeptical of the numbers they report in things like this. The key, I think, is the "some form" caveat, since "malware" can include anything from a tracking cookie to a trojan that actively looks for financial records, depending on what expert you ask. Lately I've been getting a lot of pop-ups served from various websites for bogus security programs. You've probably seen them - full-page scare-ware screens with a lot of red text warning you that your computer is under attack and you REALLYNEEDTODOWNLOADOURSUPEREFFECTIVEPROTECTIONPROGRAM NOW!!!! They've become almost as common as Russian comment spam... Heh.

At the time I was in school, most people just used the computer labs. Very few folks had their own PCs.

I always tend to be somewhat skeptical of the numbers they report in things like this. The key, I think, is the "some form" caveat, since "malware" can include anything from a tracking cookie to a trojan that actively looks for financial records, depending on what expert you ask.

Lately I've been getting a lot of pop-ups served from various websites for bogus security programs. You've probably seen them – full-page scare-ware screens with a lot of red text warning you that your computer is under attack and you REALLYNEEDTODOWNLOADOURSUPEREFFECTIVEPROTECTIONPROGRAM NOW!!!! They've become almost as common as Russian comment spam…

]]> By: Joshua Zelinsky http://www.cleverbadger.net/wordpress/2009/08/27/the-most-dangerous-names-on-the-internet/comment-page-1/#comment-564 Joshua Zelinsky Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:02:43 +0000 http://www.cleverbadger.net/?p=587#comment-564 What? No part of the process involved going uphill both ways through snow? I'm disappointed. I had a friend in college who had a separate, much cheaper computer for porn so that any viruses and spyware wouldn't wreck his computer. I think the thing that was newsworthy here wasn't that such things exist but that the percentage was surprisingly high. 20% having malware of some form is 3 or 4 times as high as I would have guessed and probably an order of magnitude higher than many people who are a) not pessimist and b) not very computer savvy would have guessed. What? No part of the process involved going uphill both ways through snow? I'm disappointed.

I had a friend in college who had a separate, much cheaper computer for porn so that any viruses and spyware wouldn't wreck his computer.

I think the thing that was newsworthy here wasn't that such things exist but that the percentage was surprisingly high. 20% having malware of some form is 3 or 4 times as high as I would have guessed and probably an order of magnitude higher than many people who are a) not pessimist and b) not very computer savvy would have guessed.

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