Vint Cerf, the “father of the Internet” has claimed that at least quarter of the world’s PCs some 150 million are infected by programs that harness them as part of botnets for attacking servers and sending spam. Others say this number is conservative. Beyond that, consider the number of PCs harboring adware, spyware, and other evil goodies that are swarming about the global network just waiting for an unprotected computer or an unsuspecting person to click the wrong thing and you’ve got an unlimited market for PC cleanup.
Well here is a chance for you to clean up your PC on the cheap, do your part to save the Internet from total corruption, and help out a local youth tech group. Cybertribe, based in Arcata is offering a Malware Mow Down and Virus Contest February 26 to March 3. For a suggested donation of $50.00 (tax deductible) trained Cybertribe technicians will remove malware, spyware and viruses from your computer (a $120.00 value). The computer with the most infections will win the contest and will be serviced for free. If you’re interested, call 822-1015 to schedule an appointment.
This is a fundraiser for Cybertribe to cover the expense of attending the 2007 Game Developers Conference next month in San Francisco. Building computer games is a huge market. Apparently several Cybertribe geeks are interested in careers in game development. So, not only would you be helping yourself by cleaning up your computer (what are the chances yours carries malware?), helping to protect the rest of us on the Internet, you will have the chance to support this great group and their ambitions. Talk about a triple play!
today, there are lots of spywares and viruses that lurks over the internet”‘-
Two comments. First the Mac (I have both Macs and Windows machines) is safer for both reasons…less malware (more people hate Bill Gates than Steve Jobs and smaller target) and a superior and more robust OS. But the Mac is by no means immune, and I imagine someday I will be purchasing Antivirus and Antispyware software for it also.
Second, I sure don’t begrudge this group their fundraising opportunity, but there are lots of free and very effective spyware protection and cleanup programs out there, and I make use of both and they work fine.
There are ongoing arguments over whether Mac OSX is inherently more secure than Windows up to XP (SP2) and not just more secure because there is less malware written for the Mac. This security expert claims that the Mac OSX system while not completely safe, is more secure than Windows because at its core is a Unix system that has better security controls. But the truth is, all software has vulnerabilities which someone, at some point will try to exploit.
I was told there are viruses and such designed for Macs. There’s just a lot fewer of them. People who create viruses and such want the most bang for their buck so they usually go after PCs, since there’s so many of them. Some do go for Macs, though, and one has to wonder if Macs are actually more vulnerable since Mac users often think they have nothing to worry about.
Absolutely. In fact we run Macs mostly. But, of course 90% or more of the world still does not. So, this post is directed at them.
Great site — but reading about the PC cleanup and all of the Malware out there, one just has to ask: “why not just get a Mac?” Zero viruses, zero worms, zero zombie botnets.