Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Keep your anti-spyware software running!

There's no excuse not to keep your anti-spyware software running. With four zero-day bugs recently found in Internet Explorer and Firefox there are bound to be more attacks on computers trying to exploit unpatched security flaws. Why give the hackers even more ways to compromise your computer?

That's the less on to be learned from the trial and conviction of a substitute teacher in New London, Connecticut. She was convicted on four counts of "risk of injury to a minor" after a "porn-storm" hit one of the computers in her classroom. It turns out the computer had been infected with spyware that caused pop-up ads for pornographic sites to take over the screen. From MSNBC News:

NEW LONDON, Conn. - A substitute teacher was granted a new trial Wednesday after her conviction for failing to prevent students from viewing pornography on her computer raised thorny questions about who is ultimately responsible for screening unsavory online material.

The woman, Julie Amero, 40, of Windham, Conn., adamantly denied clicking on pornographic Web sites that appeared on her classroom’s computer screen in October 2004 while she was teaching seventh-graders at Kelly Middle School in Norwich.

Amero was convicted in January on four counts of risk of injury to a minor, but computer security experts and bloggers across the political spectrum rallied to Amero’s defense when evidence later emerged that her computer had been infected with spyware that caused pop-up ads to take over the screen.

Superior Court Judge Hillary Strackbein granted Amero’s motion for a retrial Wednesday after determining that a Norwich police detective who was called as an expert prosecution witness had given “erroneous” testimony about the computer.

…

Assistant State’s Attorney David Smith acknowledged Wednesday that erroneous information about the computer was presented during trial. He said the errors came to light when prosecutors sent the computer to a state laboratory for examination after the trial.

…

Teacher becomes a technology cause
The sentence for what all sides eventually agreed was at best an inadvertent error made Amero’s case a call to battle for some technology experts, who said that what happened to her could happen to anyone.

Amero said the computer lacked firewall or anti-spyware protections to prevent inappropriate pop-ups, a contention supported by the school’s principal, who said a vendor’s bill had gone unpaid.

…

The Federal Trade Commission has been cracking down on companies accused of spreading malicious spyware to millions of computer users worldwide. Pop-up blockers that can prevent so-called porn storms are now in wide use.

It may be the case that the FTC is cracking down on spyware producers in the U.S. There's not much they can do about the ones overseas though.

Back when floppy disks were a principal means of storage and computer information exchange there was a saying "Practice safe computing — wear a write-protect tab". Today that should be updated. Use a firewall and pop-up blockers.

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