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I remember installing software before app stores. Everyone was always afraid of malware but very few people I knew ever suffered from it. Most people used anti

I remember installing software before app stores. Everyone was always afraid of malware but very few people I knew ever suffered from it. Most people used anti virus software, asked their friends which programs they recommended, or did some research of their own to figure out what was safe to download. All that was probably at least as effective as the “curation” that app stores provide. The problem is that now a lot of people implicitly trust apps from app stores and there is the added harm that there are now sanctioned forms of malware that serve ads, steal info and try to sell you exploitative in app purchases.

jcpham2 6y ago
The problem is that code execution evolved to ransomware because cryptocurrency. If we’re being honest, some barriers were crossed and the threat evolved
- alpaca128 6y ago
  > code execution evolved to ransomware because cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency might have made it easier, but such scams are older than that. Just look at the whole range of tech support scams based on voucher codes.
  - selfhoster11 6y ago
    A tech support scam can be unlocked by a competent technician for much less than the amount requested by the crooks. A ransomware attack with asymmetric crypto cannot be unlocked in a similar way, math simply won't let you (bar faulty ransomware that happens to reveal its key).
lotsofpulp 6y ago
> Everyone was always afraid of malware but very few people I knew ever suffered from it. Most people used anti virus software, asked their friends which programs they recommended, or did some research of their own to figure out what was safe to download. All that was probably at least as effective as the “curation” that app stores provide. That’s the opposite of my experience. I remember lots of malware - toolbars, search engine defaults, using malware bytes, ccleaner, antivirus programs, and a bunch of other crap I can’t remember to de-malware my older relatives’ computers when I was a kid. There was no way to prevent my elders from getting malware on their Windows computers, because they just had to click on everything. Then iOS came out and I never spent another minute dealing with uninstalling and scanning for malware. Any software problems were solved by deleting the app, or turning the device off and on.

jcpham2 6y ago

The problem is that code execution evolved to ransomware because cryptocurrency. If we’re being honest, some barriers were crossed and the threat evolved

alpaca128 6y ago
> code execution evolved to ransomware because cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency might have made it easier, but such scams are older than that. Just look at the whole range of tech support scams based on voucher codes.
- selfhoster11 6y ago
  A tech support scam can be unlocked by a competent technician for much less than the amount requested by the crooks. A ransomware attack with asymmetric crypto cannot be unlocked in a similar way, math simply won't let you (bar faulty ransomware that happens to reveal its key).

lotsofpulp 6y ago

> Everyone was always afraid of malware but very few people I knew ever suffered from it. Most people used anti virus software, asked their friends which programs they recommended, or did some research of their own to figure out what was safe to download. All that was probably at least as effective as the “curation” that app stores provide. That’s the opposite of my experience. I remember lots of malware - toolbars, search engine defaults, using malware bytes, ccleaner, antivirus programs, and a bunch of other crap I can’t remember to de-malware my older relatives’ computers when I was a kid. There was no way to prevent my elders from getting malware on their Windows computers, because they just had to click on everything. Then iOS came out and I never spent another minute dealing with uninstalling and scanning for malware. Any software problems were solved by deleting the app, or turning the device off and on.