Cable Forum - View Single Post - Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]

Chroma · 30-04-2008, 21:53

Am i right in understanding that if a user manualy edits his HOSTS file then his BT connection would cease to work if Phorm was rolled out?

Am i also correct in assuming that if a politicaly minded individual was inclined to create a small program that would replicate itself and effectively "infect" users on the internet with the express purpose of delivering a payload that would merely edit the HOSTS file to block certain IP ranges or resolve them to the loopback present users with its own brand of "PR Spin" to the effect that it states:

"Hello user i am a virus, i have just altered your HOSTS file to exclude a range of adresses originating from PHORM. Dont be alarmed, im not in any way malicious i was merely operating to protect your privacy whilst online and feel that a third party being able to watch your every move online is wrong. I will of course delete myself from your system in 30days from this message.
I do this because i am aware that most UK residents dont understand what PHORM really is or does and that the majority of users are not technicly minded enough to put these measures in place themselves.
If you dissagree with my politics and feel happy to have an external 3rd party watching everything you do online without any regulation or restraint whatsoever then please feel free to remove the section commented as PHORM from your HOSTS file [found at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS] using any standard text editor (IE: notepad)
Have a nice day.

If hypotheticaly such a dastardly program was created that basicly edited peoples hosts files to protect their privacy then deleted itself causing aboloutly no other changes on a users system, wouldnt it make life a little more difficullt for ISP's from a purely technical standpoint, considering that some users would be completely without a usable connection to the internet and the only fixes would be:
ISP's rolling out a patch to edit the HOST's
Changing the IP's used by Phorm.
Disabling phorm altogether.
Or radicaly changing the way phorm behaves.

Again this is from a purely theoretical standpoint, but wouldnt it put a spanner in the works.

30-04-2008, 21:53	#5170
Chroma Inactive Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 30	Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797] Am i right in understanding that if a user manualy edits his HOSTS file then his BT connection would cease to work if Phorm was rolled out? Am i also correct in assuming that if a politicaly minded individual was inclined to create a small program that would replicate itself and effectively "infect" users on the internet with the express purpose of delivering a payload that would merely edit the HOSTS file to block certain IP ranges or resolve them to the loopback present users with its own brand of "PR Spin" to the effect that it states: "Hello user i am a virus, i have just altered your HOSTS file to exclude a range of adresses originating from PHORM. Dont be alarmed, im not in any way malicious i was merely operating to protect your privacy whilst online and feel that a third party being able to watch your every move online is wrong. I will of course delete myself from your system in 30days from this message. I do this because i am aware that most UK residents dont understand what PHORM really is or does and that the majority of users are not technicly minded enough to put these measures in place themselves. If you dissagree with my politics and feel happy to have an external 3rd party watching everything you do online without any regulation or restraint whatsoever then please feel free to remove the section commented as PHORM from your HOSTS file [found at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS] using any standard text editor (IE: notepad) Have a nice day. If hypotheticaly such a dastardly program was created that basicly edited peoples hosts files to protect their privacy then deleted itself causing aboloutly no other changes on a users system, wouldnt it make life a little more difficullt for ISP's from a purely technical standpoint, considering that some users would be completely without a usable connection to the internet and the only fixes would be: ISP's rolling out a patch to edit the HOST's Changing the IP's used by Phorm. Disabling phorm altogether. Or radicaly changing the way phorm behaves. Again this is from a purely theoretical standpoint, but wouldnt it put a spanner in the works.