April 1, 2009 5:21 AM PDT
Podcast: Worm 'phoning home' but getting no answer
SANTA CLARA, Calif--It's early morning in California, and so far there are no reports of problems due to the much-anticipated Conficker worm. In Asia, where it's already evening, the worm hasn't done any noticeable damage, according to McAfee's Hong Kong-based security expert, Vu Nguyen.
I'm here at the headquarters of security company McAfee, where I spoke by phone with Nguyen and in person with McAfee spokesman (and former CNET News security reporter) Joris Evers.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
Larry Magid is a technology journalist and an Internet safety advocate. He's been writing and speaking about Internet safety since he wrote Internet safety guide "Child Safety on the Information Highway" in 1994. He is co-director of ConnectSafely.org, founder of SafeKids.com and SafeTeens.com, and a board member of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Larry's technology analysis and commentary can be heard on CBS News and CBS affiliates, and read on CBSNews.com. He also writes a personal-tech column for the San Jose Mercury News. You can e-mail Larry or follow him on Twitter @larrymagid. 
The problem is that there is no proper international legal system in place, some states are co-operative, some are not, and in addition the privacy and Freedom of Speech advocates often intentionally get in the way of identifying these people (some of them apparently feel that privacy trumps law-breaking, especially if law-breaking is taking place in another country and/or isn't affecting them). On top of which, in many countries the policing infrastructure to deal with this type of thing simply isn't in place.
IMO what really needs to happen is that the Internet needs to be an independent state, with its own seat on the United Nations, and with a properly elected government (elected by its users) and its own legal system (including police, courts and the like). Then if people want to connect to the Internet, their countries' governments have to agree to the Internet police and Internet courts having jurisdiction over activities on the Internet within their territory. And we'd have to pay taxes to the Internet government to support this (but maybe this could be compensated for by reducing the taxes levied on Internet-based businesses by more conventional nation states).
Of course, this means that existing states would cede some power to the new Internet state, and it seems highly unlikely that they'd agree to that. But I don't think there's any doubt that it's the only long-term solution to the problem of illegal/unwanted activity on the Internet, since there's no way that all the nation states on the planet will agree on what is and isn't legal or even on whether or not it's a problem if someone breaks the law in one country while physically present in another.
If more people would use the various Linux distros, Mac OS, even Haiku or BeOS, we would all be better off.
By the way, if you are on Windows, why wouldn't you make yourself less of a target as a preemptive measure. This is something I have never understood.
Replacing a monopoly with a monopoly does nothing but transfer exploits over as long as 90% of the users are idiots then hacks will occur.
- by MyMobiSafe April 1, 2009 10:37 AM PDT
- Conficker Not Targeting Smartphones - Windows Mobile Devices
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(7 Comments)Hello Team,
Today has been a busy day for the digital security team here at MyMobiSafe.com. We have had a lot of interest from people concerned with the Conficker virus relevant to their Windows Mobile Devices. I have done what I can to help curb these fears via my blog: http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10012477o-2000440756b,00.htm. Anything that you can do to help inform mobile users that this computer-based in nature and a mobile variant has not emerged is appreciated.
We know there are a lot of people scared by this virus, so we want to do what we can to at least mitigate these concerns within the mobile environment.
Thanks,
Eric Everson ? Founder
MyMobiSafe.com
EricEverson@Hotmail.com