The Washington Post is running a fascinating feature profiling a couple of botnet operators who make thousands of dollars each month installing adware on machines they infect. This is by far the most detailed examination of this issue I've seen so far -- and includes an interview with the CEO of 180Solutions, as well as interviews with some of the botmasters' victims. From the story: 'Most days, I just sit at home and chat online while I make money,' 0x80 says. 'I get one check like every 15 days in the mail for a few hundred bucks, and a buncha others I get from banks in Canada every 30 days.' He says his work earns him an average of $6,800 per month, although he's made as much as $10,000. Not bad money for a high school dropout.'"
So what does this have to do with librarianship? Cataloging (that things librarians do to make finding stuff easier) is a form of metadata. I've mentioned how companies are making money off of cataloging photos and files for individuals. Well, in this case the Washington Post made it easy to find this 1337 h4x0r by adding metadata to their photos.
SLUG: mag/hacker
DATE: 12/19/2005
PHOTOGRAPHER: Sarah L. Voisin/TWP
id#: LOCATION: Roland, OK
CAPTION:
PICTURED: Canon Canon EOS 20D
Adobe Photoshop CS2 Macintosh 2006:02:16 15:44:49 Sarah L. Voisin
So the moral of this story?
1) Don't guarantee confidentiality when you just plan on cataloging every detail
2) Cataloging is the best way to fight crime!
But my ultimate question is, does he visits his local public library system?
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