More on the BBC botnet issue!

Securiteam has a very good post on this issue, well worth a read.

Read it here here

When the BBC does it's not illegal...

This really gets to be, as if any security researcher were to do this in the UK, we'd loose our jobs, and probably be locked up for a minimum of ten years, but yet when the BBC does it, it's fine?

Taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/7938201.stm

"For a short time in February, I had complete control over 21,696 personal computers around the world. These were machines whose owners had not taken the basic security precautions necessary to stay safe online.

While their owners were busy checking their e-mails, or playing Solitaire, or doing their accounts, I could have made their computers do anything I wanted without anyone knowing.

I could have ordered the machines to log keystrokes as they were typed, and then send me anything that looked like a banking user name and password.

I could have redirected the users to fake shopping websites - identical to the originals, apart from the fact that come point of sale, the credit card and security numbers would have been delivered to me.

Or I could have used them to spread spam and phishing e-mails to thousands of other computers.

I did not, of course. That would have been illegal. "

So, let me get this straight, it's fine to have control of 21,696 PC's from around the world, and to gain access to them illegally, and some of these may have even been corporate PC's, so other laws could have been broken here as well.

It's fine though for Spencer Kelly to do this, and have the British Broadcasting Centre air this on a show on national television though, but yet he feels it's illegal to do the things mentioned above, is he serious?

I'd like to see documented proof that nothing was changed on any of these PC's that were under control, and were all the owners of these PC's made aware of what was going on?

Yet Gary Mc Kinnon hacks into some PC's in the US in search of UFO's, and they wanted to press charges of terrorism, and put him in Guantanamo bay.

What the hell is happening to this country?

Blogging

Must blog again sometime, but Twitter's been way too much fun lately!

I also need to spend some time doing some major Facebook research, more to come soon, tee hee!