Dont Blame Malicious-ware: Blame..Julie Amero

"Spyware is a general term used to describe software that performs certain behaviors such as advertising, collecting personal information, or changing the configuration of your computer, generally without appropriately obtaining your consent first."

"Unlike viruses and worms, spyware does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware — by design — exploits infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial information such as credit card numbers); monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites."



From the start, Amero has protested that she’s innocent, contending that spyware hijacked her classroom computer in explaining the pornographic pop-ups that some students at Kelly Middle School saw on 19 October 2004. In truth, Amero, a computer novice, was just the victim of malicious software that took over IE and the PC in the classroom where she was substituting. And you know what every one of us in the world understands, that if you use a windows base PC that goes on the public web, it is at risk form this kind of attack. So why did a jury last January convict Julie Amero on four counts of risk of injury to a minor? Why must we always play this game. I have heard no where that any law enforcement group was going after those responsible for the malicious spyware.


Evidence presented at Amero's trial showed that the school's computer was infected with malicious JavaScript code, after a visit to a Web site devoted to hair styles. No one is blameing the school, the IT administrators or OS, their blameing some one who had no control over the systems or network in question. Windows XP IT administrators everywhere find themselves going into battle against spyware-controlled computers even when these computers are up-to-date on malware detection and patching they can still find it themselves under attack from an unstoppable flurry of popups.People just aren’t clear about what spywares can do. Malicious spyware can take control of your PC and you won’t even know it. I think these are the kinds of facts that needed to be put in front of people or before a jury came to decide on a case such as this. W. Herbert Horner,a computer expert, was not allowed to present some information he considered vital to Amero's defense, because the evidence was never given to the prosecution to review prior to trial; a standard procedure.
But now A superior court judge in charge of sentencing in the Julie Amero case has set aside the guilty verdict. She ruled that the prosecution’s computer expert gave incorrect testimony concerning the computer in the classroom. Its sick if the state thinks it should retry her.

If Kelly Middle School was useing say Novell, Linspire, or Mandriva, I would not even be writing about this tragic state of events. And since all three are based on Linux, they are free from the viruses and spyware that plague Microsoft Windows computers. The basic underlying architecture of Linux was designed with security in mind. The IT administrators at that school would not have to worry about trojan horses, hackers, worms, spyware or any other intruders as much.