Kinda back to the origin message (sorry chickens...) How does a person go about finding if their machine has a rootkit? > Getting rooted sucks. But ultimately the full responsiblity rests with > the person doing the actual attack. > > On Wednesday 22 October 2003 10:13 am, Florin Iucha wrote: >> On Wed, Oct 22, 2003 at 07:57:22AM -0500, Sam MacDonald wrote: >> > The problem IS the rootkit, it enables a crime to be committed. >> Rootkit has NO legitimate reason to exist, it exists to cause damage >> to a >> >> I bet $10 that a chicken has the same opinion about your knife. > > Almost any tool can be used for evil intent. > > Once knives are banned by the chickens they'd have to ban axes. But > even then the farmer can just catch the chicken and snap its neck. > Banning tools does nothing to actually prevent a person from carrying > out intent. > > It could also be argued (big strech here, but hang with me) that knives > and root kits are more efficient for both parties. > > In the root kit case, because script kiddies don't roll their own they > use a "standard" root kit. That makes detection easier for the white > hats. And it gives the white hats a better target for defense as well. > In other words, even though the barrier to entry is lowered so is > barrier to defense. > > We can complain endlessly (and I do, just ask my RL friends) about how > many people like to "grief". I'd dare say that almost everyone on this > list at least teased their little sister to hard a few times, or burned > a spider with a magnifing glass, or whatever. Its human nature. > People can disagree on the "whys", but this isn't the proper place that > discussion. > > However, as with any other problem we need to deal with root causes of > the problem. Want people to stop using root kits? Get involved with > youth who are interested in computers, get them interested in white hat > activities and (gasp!) white hat morals so they come to understand that > it is "uncool" to root people. If you happen to bump into your local > script kiddie, even better! Give them a project or an old programming > book. Showing interest, even if you don't have much time to give, is > usually enough to get this kids on the right track. I've been doing > this for long enough that script kiddies weren't a problem when I > started, but young enough to know a few personally. Most of these kids > are just bored. > > I'm sure this "one person at time" strategy sounds nieve, but it has > helped myself and a friend several times already. His network (school > district in a western state with three junior and high schools) stays > pretty quiet, and I'm convinced its because as an IT group they seek > out and get to know their geeks. > > Oh well, thats enough stumping for one day :-) > > -- > > Ben Maas - Technology Architect > Open Technology Systems, LLC > ----------------------------------------------------------- > eMail: bmaas at open-techsys.com > Web: http://www.open-techsys.com > Phone: 952.448.3121 > Fax: 952.448.4944 > Cell: 612.743.3674 > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list