Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 5th Nov 2009 17:29 UTC
Computers are taking on ever more important roles in our daily lives. They used to be simple tools to get simple things done - work-related, mostly, maybe a few simple games, and that was it. However, over time, they have become the central hubs for all sorts of data - including precious data. For his Master of Fine Arts thesis project, Zach Gage illustrated just how important our computer data has become.
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Member since:2006-01-06
Sounds like you've relabeled malware as: Anything that doesn't prevent the user from hurting themselves with.
I suspect there are a multitude of tools that come with your operating system that allow a user to destroy their files if they simply click through the warnings without paying attention.
I suspect there are a multitude of tools that come with your operating system that allow a user to destroy their files if they simply click through the warnings without paying attention.
Let's say that you download a piece of software of unknown/untrusted origin, you run it, and you get the UAC prompt which says that the software is trying to do something which requires elevated privileges. You click "OK", and it proceeds to damage your machine. Is that malware or not? You got a warning. You had an opportunity to decline. Is there really much of a difference?
Call it social engineering. It leverages well known human behaviors -- the tendency of people to ignore documentation and on-screen information dialogs -- to do damage to your machine. And it's designed to wantonly destroy data. It isn't a defect. It's intentional. That isn't art. It's malware.
Edited 2009-11-05 19:54 UTC
Member since:2006-01-26
Let's say that you download a piece of software of unknown/untrusted origin, you run it, and you get the UAC prompt which says that the software is trying to do something which requires elevated privileges. You click "OK", and it proceeds to damage your machine. Is that malware or not? You got a warning. You had an opportunity to decline. Is there really much of a difference?
You jumped over the part where the "malware" application starts up and before anything bad happens, the user is shown a full screen of red text declaring: "If you destroy an alien ship, it will destroy a file on your disk", along with a disclaimer about data loss as a result of using the software...
And if the user chooses to continue from there, doing what was described by the introduction screen, that the results would be exactly as described.
That's not malware, it's just User Idiocy.
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Member since:
2006-01-26
Sounds like you've relabeled malware as: Anything that doesn't prevent the user from hurting themselves with.
I suspect there are a multitude of tools that come with your operating system that allow a user to destroy their files if they simply click through the warnings without paying attention.