Computer Piracy on the High Seas

Posted by Strangely Internet, Technology Add comments

Jan 182009

In an amazingly co-incidental follow up to my earlier post, Not all Pirates Win, but Most Do!, on the very same day news was just being released that some Royal Navy ships had their NavyStar (N*) computers compromised by a virus originating from “the former eastern bloc”.

Token News Links:

Royal Navy warships lose email in virus infection – Windows for Warships^TM combat kit unaffected, says MoD
Virus ‘sends RAF e-mails to Russia’

Also, it now turns out that the Windows flaw which was patched last October and to which I referred in the earlier post when there were 3 million infections, has now led to about 9 million PCs being hacked by the worm variously called Conficker, Downadup, or Kido. This posting makes this clear:

Windows worm hits 8.9 million PCs in past week

What’s it all Mean?

It means that computers cannot be relied upon to protect yourself. Nothing is really secure. This applies equally to :

Honest people being attacked by criminals
Honest people stealing music or software for their own gain
Governments striving to protect their citizens
Governments covertly trying to control their or other country’s citizens
Criminals trying to hide from governments or other agencies
Businesses trying to steal other company’s secrets

…and so on and so forth… It’s a two-way process.

Those who try to circumvent systems will, by the very same methods they use, be compromised or attacked by the systems they seek to control or destroy.

It’s obvious really. The idea that ID Cards will be immune to such failings is a pipe dream.