From: tdmoderator@telecomdigest.net   
      
   On Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 04:29:43PM +0200, Marco Moock wrote:   
   > Am 12.04.2023 um 13:47:35 Uhr schrieb The Telecom Digest:   
   >   
   > > The Australian government is being pushed to ban the payment of cyber   
   > > ransoms, usually demanded in cryptocurrency, following a local   
   > > business suffering a mass data breach and subsequent ransom demand.   
   >   
   > I think this is a good idea. Paying the attackers [just] makes this   
   > attacking method lucrative.   
      
   In the early days of the PC revolution, when the machines were being   
   introduced into schools, I met an "IT" guy who complained about the   
   "unbelieveable" number of viruses that the PC's were picking up.   
   								       	   
   I offered to solve the problem, and I changed all the PC's in the   
   "Computer Lab" over to BOOtP operaton, so that they would download   
   their operating system from the lab's server instead of their own hard   
   drives. I removed the OS from the hard drives to prevent any attempt   
   to bypass the BOOTP startup, and set each BIOS to require a password   
   in order to change the boot options.   
      
   After that, I told the teachers whom were using the computer lab that   
   when a student complained of a virus or other mysterious problems, to   
   "Just tell the student to stop doing whatever he was doing before,"   
   and to confiscate whatever floppy disk was in the PC, and then turn   
   that student's PC off and back on again, so that it would reload the   
   OS from the server.   
      
   After I cashed the check, I got the teachers together again, and told   
   them that their students had been deliberately bringing infected disks   
   into their lab to avoid the hard work of learning how to use the   
   programs they were being asked to study.   
      
   The teachers decided that, from then on, they would destroy any floppy   
   disks that were in the PC's where an infection was found. One of them   
   suggested using scissors to cut open the flppy disks and discarding   
   the pieces while the entire class watched (this was when 5.25 inch   
   floppy disks were being used). A few parents complained, the teachers   
   told me later, but they would always back off when they were told that   
   the floppy disks were evidence of a crime, and that the teachers were   
   destroying them to save their students from getting a criminal record.   
      
   Remove the reward, obviate the risk.   
      
   Bill Horne   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)