Limewire = Malicious Virus

[2MchFun]

Originally Posted by novetteyet

Yeah - sort of what I was trying to get across above. There are a million ways to get infected. Everything from running an insecure ActiveX control (activeX = worst security idea ever, courtesy of Microsoft) to buffer overruns in some otherwise-benign application, to a legitimately purchased audio CD installing a rootkit (ala Sony Music's malware - autorun on untrusted media being the 2nd worst security idea ever, also courtesy of Microsoft). Unfortunately, since malware authors are clever, and some malware is even funded by big business (again see Sony, or any number of other examples), it takes an ever-increasing level of knowledge for the average Joe to protect himself. Just thinking "I'm safe if I don't run Limewire" is a big mistake.

This sort of crap just gives certain big business interests an excuse to try to turn general purpose computers into locked down controlled devices much like TV sets, where they can ensure delivery of advertisements to eyeballs. The days of Turing-complete computing devices under control of anyone who wants one are numbered.

Werd

[novetteyet]

Originally Posted by 2MchFun

Werd

I must admit I was insufficiently hip to know what it meant.

Found it here: Urban Dictionary: werd ups`

[427 Kid]

It killed our old Sony Vaio.

We bought 2 64 bit HP's and are they ever a PITA to load software into.

What is the difference between 64 and 64 bit?
We're considering returning the computers because they are so hard to use.
They won't even accept HP software,,, (yet?).

The next file shareing site that booms will have to have some sort of virus protection.
Far easier and cheaper to just buy your downloads.

Not as fun by no means,, but in the long run the way to go.

[novetteyet]

Originally Posted by 427 Kid

It killed our old Sony Vaio.

Your Sony Vaio is a piece of hardware. It's possible, but fairly unlikely, that a virus (or some malware) damaged your hardware. What probably happened is that it damaged your operating system, which can be fixed by reinstalling it from scratch (an annoyance for sure). This is particularly easy to have happen for operating systems that intentionally conflate data and executable code. It's a side effect of trying to dumb everything down - it starts taking more knowledge to see what's actually happening behind the layers of obfuscation. And without knowing what's actually happening, you are at the mercy of malware authors, be they companies or individuals (and both do write crap that you really don't want on your system).

What is the difference between 64 and 64 bit?

The same as the difference between 64 and 64 apples. One is a number, and one is a number of apples. So one is a number, and one is a number of bits. It's just an abstract count without being applied to some particular thing. In the context of CPUs, it usually (but not always!) refers to the width of a single general purpose (non-SIMD) register. That's usually (but not always!) the same as the width of an ALU execution unit. But in other computer related contexts the term "64 bit" is often used to refer to other things about a system. It's analogous to saying, "what's 64 inches mean"? It's a unit of length, but without applying it to something in particular, it's abstract. But if you say, "this piece of wood is 64 inches long", now you know something about that piece of wood.

The next file shareing site that booms will have to have some sort of virus protection.

If you're referring to the subject of the thread, limewire, it isn't a "site" any more than Microsoft Word is a "site" or usenet is a "site". It's a p2p filesharing program. It can be used to transfer a virus or other malware to your computer, as can your web browser or email client for that matter. There are web sites associated with limewire (or anything else), but they aren't the same as the limewire p2p client.

I don't use limewire myself, or for that matter recommend it. But fuzzy thinking about computer related topics is in danger of causing poor decisions to be made at the political level these days. P2P technology has widespread, perfectly legal, and very safe uses, for instance, for obtaining certain OS software. Politicians love to demonize technology because it can be used for something bad. I can use a hammer to kill somebody. That doesn't mean hammers are bad and should be banned. There are very real technical and scalability benefits to P2P technology, and there are many good uses for it. But since politicians don't, that I can tell, understand anything, they are pushing to ban it. That discards the baby with the bathwater.

Because there are a near-infinite number of ways to transfer a virus to your system, and blindly trusting the other side of any file transfer is not wise, until computers become as dumbed down as TV, it'll always be true that you need local virus protection. That protection can come in either of two forms: (a) a program that runs on your computer and tries to protect you against malware, or (b) your own brain, which doesn't take resources from your computer, and can do a much better job of protecting you.

There are issues with depending on virus protection software. It takes resources to run, and it has the danger of false negatives. That's a particular risk with some company-supplied malware. There are things you *really* don't want to run on your system, but since a large company wrote it, the companies that write anti-virus software often don't want to take the risk of being sued by identifying it as malware. But it's malware all the same. As long as there is a non-zero risk of false negatives, depending solely on virus protection software seems unwise to me.