What is Digg?58 Comments
- DigitalN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+127that is when all the computer literate kids go home to their parents and do the annual virus and bot scan.
- Winten, on 10/12/2007, -0/+119In other news, AOL lost roughly 100,000 costumers..
- SamX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+40I am happy to say that I cleaned 3 of those PC's.
- 0004, on 07/04/2008, -0/+39i think it was the earthquake in asia ... because of those cut undersea data cables
i also think that the bots will be back online once they repair the cables... bleh... keep those cables cut - nathanm412, on 10/12/2007, -2/+40I know I did.
- superal1394, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31ahh, christmas gifts, they are fun. Its amazing how many times I've told my friends they need to reinstall windows.
...I always get a puzzled look "you can do that..?" - fatlip, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29maybe its because everyone shut off their office computers for once?
- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27"In other news, AOL lost roughly 100,000 costumers.."
What were they dressed up as? - shadesfox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22I'm thinking that there is also an influx of new PCs. Throw away the old one, which was 'running all slow and stuff and crashes and we need a new one for Christmas'. The fastest and easiest way to get rid of any virus you have involves a credit card at best buy.
- ricree, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22@ldavid
Unfortunately, a lot of companies are not including those CDs by default anymore. Chances are, the people you were talking to didn't know what you were talking about because they didn't actually ever get those CDs. - ldavid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20@ superreal
I love when I ask them for the Windows CD that came with the computer...because they just look at me with this blank face...as in to say "wtf is that" - NanoStuff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18"maybe its because everyone shut off their office computers for once?"
Woah, they can just 'shut' off? - dorianh49, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17And all 100,000 had been trying to cancel the account since last Christmas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPiLh3Wdp9o - WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15"The dramatic decrease in weekly totals--from more than 500,000 infected systems to less than 400,000 computers--puzzled researchers."
Could this possibly have something to do with the after-effects of that earthquake, that cut off much of Asia from the internet?
Enjoy it while you can.
Now, if an earthquake ever hit Nigeria...it would mean the end of most of the fraud and phishing scams. - Kypt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14That was my xmas day. Xmas eve I was spending with family, after midnight everyone went home for their own xmas parties. At 2pm xmas day I had 4 relatives come with their laptops saying "I have no idea what's wrong with it, its slow"
:/ - jhugg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Even if it took 10 minutes to respond to your comment on my slow-ass Beijing connection, it was worth it to say, "Screw you and your fast Internet."
- Schwab, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12I don't think its new computers or people shutting off computers and it not being caught.
There is one explanation, college students like myself come home, all the family is here, and they all ask us to fix whatever is wrong with the computer.
Every college student fixes a computer when they come home, and puff it goes down.
Tis the power of the college students across the world. - JeffH, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10You live up to your name.
- Shirk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8"Marcus Sachs, director of the ISC, stated in a diary entry."
WTF? ROFL - MannaPC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Everyone here is correct :). Dugg for interest personally. They're are probably a ton of other things surrounding this, but who cares... This is cool.
- ROFLance, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6A lot of people travelled far distances to be with family on christmas. Maybe infected people shut everything in their house off?
- bcr8u, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6i usually get "oh, i threw those away"
- kevin.gc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Does AOL even have that many customers?
I think it's cause people got new computers for Christmas. - ldavid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@ galaad
Very valid point...didn't even think of it until you mentioned it. - WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5damn you beat me to it...but I'm leaving my comment, below, anyway.
ASIA earthquake....mofos! - JaLooNz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Doesn't that mean the rest of the 400.000 infected systems are elsewhere around the world and is not from asia?
- vertinox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Same here. Installed Windows Defender, Firefox, upgraded to IE7 in case he kept using that by accident on old dad's laptop and got rid of a lot of crap.
Told him next computer he should get be a Mac.
I also wonder if it could be possible that maybe people threw out their old computer when they bought new ones. - oobuntu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Spamthru bot statistics appear to show that 50% of infected machines are XP SP2
http://www.secureworks.com/analysis/spamthru-stats/ - Petronski, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Marcus Sachs, director of the ISC, keeps a little pink "Hello Kitty" diary, and here's a recent entry....
- MannaPC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Switch them to Firefox while you still can. I used to clean my mom's PC all the time and finally semi converted her to an alternative browser. Sad part is... I'm homeschooled... So I pretty much hear her yell from about 7-10 feet away!
- Sonic84, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2heh, Merry Christmas!
- porkstacker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"These aren't the bots you're looking for"
- rancidpony, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Went to my parents. Antivirus signatures had not been updated since January 2005 although patching for the OS had kept up to date. Like a good kid I signed up their system for another year of Antivirus signatures. Caught up the MS Office patches & added that to his normal routine. Turned the FIREWALL BACK ON!!! Installed Firefox 2.0.1 with Ad-block (the parents actually like it better since they still insist on using dial-up). Added Anti-phishing software. Ran full system scan.
It's not just new systems. It's kids coming back from Christmas cleaning up their parent's & sibling's systems over the holidays. - deusdiabolus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It was Jesus. Or Santa.
- gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2But the story said that it happened on Christmas day. College students have been out for a while now, and that's not even mentioning that many of them use laptops which they could bring with them.
- eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yup. Except my mom got a new computer with linux installed! Spambot she is no more.
- controlguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The article said it was because many people just got new computers --- it is Christmas. How is this "puzzling" to researchers?
- paulbridges02, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yep, deffinately do this everytime I go back home. I have my help desk tickets at work, and then more at home. It never ends. Someday I will burn out and crawl into a little hole with only a modem and my mac and will never come out again.
- imeddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe part of the net got self-aware and decided that spam is bad?
- kd5ftn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well, if it happened a couple of days later, I'd say it has to do with the massive earthquake that knocked off almost all internet traffic to Asia. But it looks like that didn't happen until Tuesday: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061228/ap_on_re_as/asia_quake
- ldavid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Hahahaha...I like your thinking. :)
- bloodguard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why won't the ISP's these infected knuckleheads use block their service (or at least block them from sending email) when they find out they're infected? They could proxy all their browser traffic to a web page that tells them they've "pulled a stupid" and need to download an antivirus program.
- dezertrat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Signed up for antivirus??.... must be using norton...uggg i cant believe home users pay for antivirus that sucks when there is avast avg nod32 ect....
- unluckier, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1ISC runs a "Handler's Diary". http://isc.sans.org/diary.php
You can come up off of the floor now. - nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is the first thing I thought as well. I hate to be one of those "if this were fark..." people, but seriously this one deserves a big, fat OBVIOUS tag.
"On Christmas day, the number of bots tracked by the Shadowserver group dropped nearly 20 percent. The dramatic decrease in weekly totals--from more than 500,000 infected systems to less than 400,000 computers--puzzled researchers."
Those "researchers" should pull their heads out from 'tween their ass-cheeks. - pastasauce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's why I hate the holiday season. I pretend I care but on the inside, I'm deciding on what to blow my Christmas money on.
- coreydoucorey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Amazing. Seems to be vain for me...
- nmcbean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0thats just what i was thinking... i know i'm fixing lots of computers while i'm home
- smoreorless, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0http://astore.amazon.com/christmasmovies-20
http://astore.amazon.com/christmasmusic-20
http://astore.amazon.com/christmasdecorations-20
http://astore.amazon.com/familychristmasgifts-20 -
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