Monday, February 20, 2006
The Botnet
If I wasn't paranoid enough, just read this wapo article:
Invasion of the Computer Snatchers
Now I just notice that every once in a while -- like when I posted my last blogger post -- my screen kinda flashes. I just installed a few -- what I hope are benign! -- Firefox extensions. I haven't heard about any mal-extensions yet. So I hope this is a side-effect associated with these.
What I fear -- one of these extensions or some other scumware is quickly post my data to a third-party site then instantly redirecting me to the site I'm looking for. Is this possible with Firefox extensions? If so, how long before an extension like this pops up? Answer: (if possible) it already exists.
I figure the one thing I got going for me -- I'm a little more cautious than the hoard of myspace users out there. Is that enough to keep one safe?
A great postscript to the wapo story:
The Perils of Metadata (pastiche.org)
Invasion of the Computer Snatchers
Now I just notice that every once in a while -- like when I posted my last blogger post -- my screen kinda flashes. I just installed a few -- what I hope are benign! -- Firefox extensions. I haven't heard about any mal-extensions yet. So I hope this is a side-effect associated with these.
What I fear -- one of these extensions or some other scumware is quickly post my data to a third-party site then instantly redirecting me to the site I'm looking for. Is this possible with Firefox extensions? If so, how long before an extension like this pops up? Answer: (if possible) it already exists.
I figure the one thing I got going for me -- I'm a little more cautious than the hoard of myspace users out there. Is that enough to keep one safe?
A great postscript to the wapo story:
The Perils of Metadata (pastiche.org)
Tomohiro Idokoro comments:On the issue of FF ext security, just found this:
http://www.rietta.com/~frank/firefox/Tutorial/security.html
Moral: extensions are only as secure as the community that scrutinizes them.
http://www.rietta.com/~frank/firefox/Tutorial/security.html
Moral: extensions are only as secure as the community that scrutinizes them.
