m0d
join:2005-03-02
ireland
edit:
March 25th, @12:20AM
| reply to Cudni
Re: Is the spyware/malware problem as bad as it once was ?
Bad is a relative term I think..
If you remember viruses such as Stoned or Tequila in terms of the damage done to your data and at the time not easy to recover.. I would say "malware" has become a LOT less "immediately" destructive over the years.
That said, while destruction to data is less or its easier for the "wise" to recover and tools seem better .. I would balance that statement with the threat of Identity Theft which was basically not heard of back then. Its not done for "fame" any more .. its done for financial gain. For every one of those "tech savy" out there .. there are 10 that will "click through" any warning .. and well that means the problem is 10 times worse depending on how you look at it. You only need to look at online fraud figures and add in the ID theft guys who skim cards (in real life) etc to see .. its a totally different problem now with much wider scope.
So .. it changed but overall, its not less damaging or destructive. In my day you lost 9 months of work on your thesis/final project if you didn't backup (or reverse the virus and recover manually ..).. these days you lose real cash and credit card info.. So the damage is equal if not more real .. just very different and a lot more sophisticated.
Malware moved from the "technical realm" to the "criminal" .. I will use the term "malware" lightly because technically Stoned and Tequila were just "jokes that escaped the lab" .. or so their respective authors claimed at the time. There is however a clear shift and while VM is great .. the "next big threat" would be exploits involving VM .. aka rootkit or VM exploits. Give them stealth back and here we go again ..
Just my 2 cents .. but while malware is maybe in a lul at the moment in terms of finding new things to exploit.. there will always be bad ppl out there who stoop to any level. Its only a matter of time before they find a new exploit.
In fact it was this issue lead me to this forum a number of years ago now and total respect to all those who share information or fight malware  |
