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Discussion on:
BBC responds to botnet illegality claims

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Yes it is in the public interest
tony@... 17th Mar 2009
I look after the IT for several small companies. Many of the users really do not believe that it is the Wild West out there. I had one user who when I warned her that the web site she thought was her bank was a fraudulent one that had captured her details refused to believe me. She is no longer with us, but 20% of the enire company email is spam to her.

When it is demonstrated on TV on mainstream news, then ordinary people see that there is more to it than me just trying to keep the company systems and data safe.

So in my view, a technical infringement by the BBC provided it was done without malicious intent, as appears to be the case here, is in the public interest. The only losers are the spammers and conmen out there who might now find a few more of their botnets reduced in size.

If technology was the solution to the problem, we would not have spam, viruses and trojans. Technology doesn't stop my users going to bad sites (it can, but at a price a small business cannot justify), especially as some users access from home, where I have no control. Only education will make a significant difference, and that can only start when ordinary people realise it is real, and not another "Year 2000" where because of planning, nothing went wrong, so many people saw it as a case of crying "wolf".

We educate out kids not to take sweets from strangers, yet how many adults do the equivalent by downloading stuff from strangers.

At times it is necessary to go to the fringes of legality to show the situation for what it is.
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