Here's a Lawsuit Waiting to Happen...
Dec 2

Here's a Lawsuit Waiting to Happen...

Lycos screen saver attacks spammers: Lycos Europe is offering a screen saver that participates in DDOS attacks against known spam relays when your computer is not being used. Seriously.

The program activates whenever a computer equipped with it goes into standby mode, and sends so-called HTTP get-requests to what Lycos says are servers known to generate unsolicited e-mails. When done en masse, this eats up precious bandwidth, causing the servers to overload and slow down, the company said.
by Deane   December 2, 2004 5:58 PM    |   Follow Gadgetopia on Twitter

Comments

by Jason,   December 3, 2004 4:13 PM  

BBC is now reporting that they have 'temporarily' stopped the service. As the BBC points out, I would hate to think what will happen when the Spammers decide to reciprocate. I think it's a can of worms that is, perhaps, best left closed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4065751.stm

Calling Pandora - your box is ready......

  • Jason.
by dave,   December 3, 2004 4:38 PM  

I read yesterday that the Lycos servers were down for a time, probably under a DOS attack from the dirtball spammers.

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