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Re: Black screen of darkness to haunt Vista pirates

____/ Mark Kent on Wednesday 12 September 2007 16:09 : \____

> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> ____/ Peter Köhlmann on Tuesday 11 September 2007 23:47 : \____
>> 
>>> nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>>> 
>>>> <Quote>
>>>> Microsoft Windows' infamous "blue screen of death" has become
>>>> synonymous with an operating system crash or freeze, but that's
>>>> nothing compared with what users of pirated copies of Vista worldwide
>>>> can expect from now -- a black screen of darkness.
>>>> 
>>>> In an e-mail to a large Windows Vista distributor titled "Pirated
>>>> Vista -- A darkness descends!" -- a local Microsoft representative
>>>> made it quite clear what Vista pirates can expect to happen to their
>>>> unlicensed installations.
>>>> 
>>>> A copy of this e-mail was obtained by Computerworld.
>>>> 
>>>> "Good afternoon, as of this week, Microsoft has activated a function
>>>> in Vista called 'Reduced Functionality.' This is a specific function
>>>> in Vista that effectively disables nongenuine copies of Windows.
>>>> Therefore anyone who has a pirated copy of Vista will experience:
>>>> </Quote>
>>>> 
>>>>
>>>
>>
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9035478
>>> 
>>> As one can be absolutely sure that MS will severely bungle that
>>> identification of "genuine costumers", lots of them will see that screen.
>>> 
>>> Whereas the real "pirates" will simply laugh about this 3rd grade attempt
>>> at controlling piracy
>> 
>> As I said in the previous post, it's the "Black screen of switch to Linux".
>> We ought to be happy to see this. Microsoft is squeezing the goose, angering
>> customers/users and driving them away to alternative. People will soon get
>> the message that Windows is not free (let alone Free) and that it's bound to
>> get worse in the future.
>> 
> 
> There is something much worse to consider, though - how long before some
> script-kiddy works out how to activate it with a bit of VBS script in an
> email, say?
> 
> This kind of feature, out of the control of the user, is a huge security
> threat.
> 
> Worse, imagine that it provides the user with low-level access, but the
> machine can continue to work underneath, say?
> 
> This could be a disaster of unimaginable proportions.
 
See Gutmann's paper about this. The ability of the O/S to do things to the
hardware has opened a new door to a new type of attacks in Vista. That's why
he called it a "longest suicide note".

-- 
                ~~ Best of wishes

Roy S. Schestowitz      |   Oracle: Linux adoption to accelerate
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