It seems to me that pledging to go after malware creators, wherever they are, smoking them out of their holes and making hideous examples out them would be a dynamite issue for either side. Everybody from the most tree-hugging, 9/11 Truther lefties to the most Jesus praising, machine gun toting righties all despise malware creators with a fervor that is rivaled in intensity only for the hatred of child pornographers and terrorists.
Nothing unites people like a common enemy, and malware creators are the enemy of everyone. EVERYBODY hates those cocksuckers. I bet that even cave-dwelling al Qaeda terrorists hate those pricks. If either McCain or Obama stood up and declared a war on virus writing scumbags, it seems to me it would be such a unifying issue that I think it could actually transcend left-right ideology. The “War On Terror” is a little remote, and truthfully, very few Americans have any direct experience of it. Malware is something that everyone has been affected by in their day to day lives. Someone who said he was going to use all the resources of the United States to hurt those bastards and hurt them bad could win an incredible amount of support just on that issue alone.
So why don’t they ever talk about it? It’s almost impossible to even go too far with it. McCain could say he wants to bring back crucifixion for these assholes, and the most pacifistic, ACLU supporting liberals would seriously consider it as a reasonable approach.
It seems to me that it should be a golden campaign issue, but no one ever grabs it. Why not?
I don’t understand how malware creators don’t have thier offices burned. Some viruses are just hobbyist assholes, but a lot of malware appears to be created by actual businesses trying to infect you to their advantage. I’m shocked that the internet isn’t full of “Here’s the address and phone number of ABC Inc., who make this malware. Why not call them 1,589 times a day or FedEx some dog shit to them?” information.
That’s probably it. The average response would be like when Bush declared war on Animal/Human hybrids. “Wait… What?” Much better ROI to talk about big things like war and security and porcine cosmetics.
It might be a good primary strategy, though. Instant thumbs up from the netroots.
Good question DtC, no: great question.
I think it’s due to lack of creativity. Anyway, step 1 would be to come up with a plan. Mainstream US software manufacturers will want to make sure that they escape the net. Ultimately, it would involve going up against organized crime in Russia, which presents some diplomatic challenges.
Our government doesn’t even know what to do about something as straightforward as spam, with the only payload being “Buy/click this!”, let alone the more complexly disruptive world of malware.
They don’t understand the subject matter, by the time they understand a facet of the subject, that knowledge is obsolete. The industries that could help keep the public sector more up-to-date are subject to conflicts of interest.
Even given the logistical difficulties, I would think they cdould at least make noise about it. It’s not like they never claim they’re going to solve any other impossible problems. For example, the Democrats have “a nuclear free world” as one the planks in their platform. That’s never going to happen. “Winning the war on terror” is never going to happen either. Since when has impossibility ever stopped a campaign promise?
Spam would be easier to deal with than malware. All that needs to happen is to set a deadline (e.g. 2011) by which email forwarding by servers was logged so that countries/ISPs could be blocked.
Yeah, If only our government could develop some sort of program that would anonymously monitor all of our email and web traffic to catch those effing bastards! Surely everybody would surely support that! :dubious: