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Yahoo and E*trade administrators felt the bite of internet criminals this week, as their websites were clogged for hours by malicious web users overloading their servers. While this type of conduct may only seem like a nuisance to some, it was reported that both these companies lost many hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue because of the attack. This is particularly disturbing, as this dastardly attack was not one of invasion, but only overloading; and it could be done by almost anyone, with or without hacking ability. These criminals only needed the will to act! Right now, more than seven out of ten computers connected to the internet are located in the United States, but the future will see connections to the world wide web become more common place. Problems like this one of ochestrated overloading are only going to become more and more common as the internet weaves it's way into the third world and the school rooms of America.
Just about everyone has experienced SPAM, unsolicited commercial email. This junk mail of the internet is not only a nuisance, but it can contain malicious code ( virus ) as well. With the influx of internet companies in the People's Republic of China, SPAM from the commie rats who live there ( china.com for instance ) has reached epic proportions, with much of it fraudulent as well as an invasion of privacy. With the growth of internet companies offering free internet services like dial-ups, email and webpages, so grows the number of worthless spammers all sending out the same identical fraudulent emailings hawking imaginary products or offering lists of innocent email victim's addresses for sale.
To power their campaigns of lies and harassment, these SPAMMERS have " bots " like the search engine pages use to spider a website for inclusion in the directory which seek out and record email addresses from new innocent victim's webpages. They then send an email to the possible valid address and hope to get a response, whether it be a request to be removed from their list or a reply showing interest in their ficticious product or service. Once you have responded to one of these SPAMMERS, you are on their list forever, or until you change your email address.
Lowlifes from third world countries who have nothing to lose see the internet as a chance to cash in, and they don't care who they offend or invade; after all, most of the time it is not even their own computer that they are using to committ cyber crimes. The same thing goes for kids who have unsupervised access to the internet. The Clinton administration is quite fond of declaring their intention to connect every classroom to the internet, but they obviously have not thought out the consequences of allowing large numbers of immature individuals access to the free services now offered. I would point out that this undoubtedly has created quite a few local SPAM FACTORIES run out of supposed institutions of learning. I myself have received quite a few mass unsolicited emailings from addresses ending in .EDU!
The other internet danger, is the widespread pornography. First amendment advocates are fond of raising their voices in favor of unrestricted access, but I bet these folks don't have any minor children. No matter what these smut peddlers may say, the internet is filled with the most disgusting pornography imaginable and there is absolutely no way to stop a child from finding it. Sure, they claim to have filters to block it, but these are only " fun " for the computer kids to figure out how to get around!
So, between the harm that can befall a minor, exposure to extremely shocking material designed for adult viewing, and the harm that immature and irresponsible individuals can do to others, SPAMMING and other privacy violations and server disruptions, the internet should not be offered for free by the government and/or offered unsupervised to minor children. See: High Tech Equals Low Intellect? ( 1-22-2000 ) or Ode To a Spammer ( 7-7-99 ) - { Contains profanity intentionally redacted by the author } for some past words associated with this subject matter.
- Bongo ( Spam me? )
