Re: [SLUG] upgrading complicated installs

[jam <jam@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sunday 01 June 2008 21:35:38 slug-request@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >> Without that commitment you well, eventually, get to join the legions of
> >> poorly maintained, compromised Linux boxes out there.  This hurts
> >> everyone, but especially you -- potentially legally, certainly in terms
> >> of a lot of work when your ISP (or the police) call up about all that
> >> SPAM you have been sending out or those warez you are distributing...
> >
> > Are you implying that a zombied box can be a legal liability for
> > the hapless owner?
>
> Yep.  As one example, consider the case of Julie Amero, who was
> convicted for exposing school age children to pornography because of a
> compromised PC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17134607/
>
> Also, consider the handful of cases where people have been arrested for
> having child pornography on their computers and have offered a defence
> of their system being compromised.
>
> Couple that with the fairly well established (I think) fact that botnet
> infections are used for a range of illegal activity including hosting
> child pornography.


Clarke 1 notwithstanding
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke's_three_laws

and as an elderly (damn not distinguished) I proclaim your concern/rant 
unadulterated balderdash
   The one about: if you build your own packages and don't pay attention then 
   your linux box will contract plague etc.

Frankly, no one I know, has ever had, or knows someone who has ever had a 
compromised linux box. Frankly I doubt if all of SLUG ever has ...

   Here compromised means: someone has taken control of the machine and is 
   using it for some nepharious purpose eg spam DoS etc

James