Freeride wrote:
> http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-10-13T183235Z_01_N13347063_RTRIDST_0_TECH-FINANCIAL-SEC-INCURSIONS-DC.XML&WTmodLoc=TechInternet-C1-Headline-2
>
> >Online brokerage account scams worry SEC
>
> >WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High-tech crooks are hijacking online brokerage
> >accounts using spyware and operating from remote locations, sometimes in
> >Eastern Europe, U.S. market regulators said on Friday.
>
>
> Is there any difference between the "crooks" and Microsoft? They both seem
> to be profiting greatly from spyware.
Yes. Crooks do not generally ask for your consent to be robbed before
they steal your valuable information.
Microsoft doesn't exactly spell out exactly how they are going to use
the information, but they do require that you accept the EULA, in which
you agree to allow Microsoft to collect any information it wants from
your computer for pretty much any purposes it desires.
The end user is generally unaware of the potential value of
information, and the possible harm that can be done by letting the
wrong people have access to information.
World War II was won, in a substantial part, because of the Allies
ability to decode information coming through Hitler's enigma machine.
They found out that Hitler was so afraid of Patton, that they couldn't
assign him to the Normandy invasion. By making it look like Patton was
going to lead an assault, they were able to keep the Nazis from
deploying their big Panzer and Tiger tanks to Normandy for several
days. Long enough to give the allies firm and uncontested control of
the beach and the normandy coastline.
Information leaked at the correct time, has determined the outcome of
elections. It may also determine the outcome of the MidTerm elections
taking place in about 2 weeks.
Information leaked at the correct time, has permitted huge fortunes to
be made, and lost, in the stock market. Enron, Imclone, and WorldCom
were small examples. Martha Stewart went to jail over a $150,000 trade
based on leaked information.
Information can be used to blackmail others into cooperation.
Information can be used to motivate retaliatory action.
Improperly leaked information can be used to start wars.
Information, mishandled, costs the lives of millions of people around
the world. And most often, the it is the release or "leak" of partial
information that can do the greatest damage.
Bill Clinton was Impeached, because a carefully selected "window" of
information was leaked in such a way as to cause the maximum amount of
political damage. When the "rest of the story" came out during the
Senate hearing in open session, before the public, complete with Monica
Lewinsky describing how she stalked him, how she had researched his
kinks, how he had turned her down at least 3 times before finally
giving in to her advances, how she had been enterrogated for 12 hours
AFTER ASKING FOR A LAWYER, without an attorney, and then, how she was
prevented from providing information that Republicans didn't want
heard, through the threat of criminal conviction.
Mind you, "slick Willie" was no saint. I'm not sure I have that hard a
time believing that he was thinking that Paula Jones was a hooker who
was supposed to be coming in AFTER Paula, and I don't have much trouble
believing that Clinton had an underwear fetish and didn't have 'sexual
relations' with that woman. She did him, but he believed that he did
not have direct physical contact with her primary genitailia for the
purpose of sexual arousal (he wanted to feel her through the
panties/thongs...)
The point is that most people do not understand how important and
valuable information is, and how dangerous it is to leave it lying
around in a Windows machine that is "open" to any "script kiddie" who
knows what he wants to look at.
IE and Outlook are the "trojan horse" that allows everyone from
terrorists to "dirty tricks politicians" to Microsoft, to access
information that will do the maximum damage to the user of that
computer.
Microsoft uses this trojan horse to monitor software piracy. It can
just as easily be used to gather the information required to drain your
grandmother's life savings within hours after she dies. In my case, it
was my mother's life savings, and her inheritance from my grandmother,
that dissappeared within 12 hours of her death.
Fortunately dad was checking regularly, he notified the bank before the
guy could drain the account, and the perpetrator was arrested and
convicted (plea bargain). Part of the deal was that he had to describe
how he did it. Some of it is still classified, but IE was a critical
element.
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