Re^2: Malware on CPAN

"Another worry I have, although may be unfounded, is that the network security engineers could setup a system where they switch a good download, with one loaded with some malware, thru some temporary DNS chicanery. This would not be CPAN's fault. In this new age of cyber-warfare, I wouldn't put it past the various agencies to try it."

It seems more complicated slight of hand tactics are already in use ;)

Comment on Re^2: Malware on CPAN

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Re^3: Malware on CPAN by zentara (Cardinal) on Jun 20, 2012 at 10:51 UTC
For me, the StuxNet and Flame exploits contain one lesson; one which is conveniently overlooked by almost all reporters, probably on the orders of their higher-up owners and editors. It only attacks MS Windows, so anyone still using Windows must be crazy. Especially if you live in the Arab world :-) Back in the day, when every geek who thought Bill Gates and Windows was in cahoots with the NSA was labeled a kook, we were more vigilant. I always suspected that Windows gained such prominance in the OS market, not because Gates was a genius and Windows was so good, but because it gave big governemnt backdoors into everyone's computers. ( I now don my flame proof suit) :-) I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Old Perl Programmer Haiku ................... flash japh	[reply]
Re^4: Malware on CPAN by Anonymous Monk on Jun 20, 2012 at 17:05 UTC
You may be overlooking Hanlon's Razor. Back in the day there were a number of companies creating personal computers and as many operating systems. Most didn't last long. The Apple II had a decent mix if graphics and functionality and got lucky enough to capture the education market. Unfortunately, Apple sued into non-existence any company that dared make hardware compatible with their OS. IBM made the PC and hired MS to write the operating system. Every major corporation on the planet was already their customer so they had an advantage in business. IBM chose not to protect their hardware design so everyone and their brother started to make PC Compatible computers. Competition drove prices down making the platform even more desirable. As there is much more money in business than in primary education, Software companies generally wrote software for PC Compatible computers first and wrote ports to Apple's OS when they saw a profit in it. Low hardware prices and a larger selection of Software drove much of the market to buy hardware from MS' customers. So MS wins because it was hired to write an OS for the company that didn't go out of it's way to crush it's competition. So if there's any collusion w/ NSA types, I'd guess that It's a result of MS' dominance & not the cause. TJD	[reply]