Some prices on how much it costs to rent your PC, if infected:
Prices vary greatly. Finjan said in Australia 1,000 infections have been sold for $100, while the same number can be picked up for as little as $5 in other countries, but mainly in the Far East.
Although it doesn't say it, your PC is for rent in batches only if it is a Windows machine. Apples Macs are a bit tougher, although their market share must one day get to the point where they justify more attention:
As TrendLabs' technical communications specialist Det Caraig points out in his research note on the attacks, Apple users are still far less likely to have their endpoints owned than their Microsoft Windows using peers. However, as proven over the last year in particular, Apple's growing PC market share has driven a subsequent upswell in the numbers of threats being created to target its OS.
That day may be here soon. Note that the (2) threats mentioned above are based on the user downloading and installing dodgy software. That's generally considered not to be something that Apple Macs or Microsoft can protect a user against. A market-share comment only, not a security-share comment.
Fans for either camp will twist the words whichever way. For my money, the #1 security tip -- buy a Mac -- is still intact.
Posted by iang at June 21, 2009 06:14 AM | TrackBackThe attacks are nothing when compared to the non-compatible updates of which Microsoft is king. The attack is almost welcomed by the MS user because it gives them a reason to junk rather than spend one week every month with their ear glued to the phone for support. So market share maybe the trigger that launches the attacks but MS users are like lemmings running towards the sea, away from a death by starvation. I did a shopping trip checking out laptops and while Apple cost more out of the box the added cost and time of being an MS user make Apple a bargain although I wish the price would come in a bit. So the attacks are happening because MS is a terrible a user experience prompting suicide by dodgy download is result. MS is the S&M of user experiences.
Posted by: Jimbo at June 22, 2009 11:48 AM