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Comment Why on earth.. (Score 4, Insightful) 239

would you use the phone number as a universally unique id?

One user might have several phone numbers, while the one phone number might have several users.

Additionally, the phone number is not portable across national borders. You can not bring your Norwegian phone number and use it with an american registrar.

Additionally users might be forced at regular basis to change their phone numbers. Me for one, had to change my phone number when I changed employer.

Database designers have known this for ages. Always assign a new unique id to any row in a table. Ids that seem unique and stable might change. Even social security numbers might change.

Oh.. Who would want all their contact info to be collected in one global system available for all?

Botnet

Man Challenges 250,000 Strong Botnet and Succeeds 206

nandemoari writes "When security officials decide to 'go after' computer malware, most conduct their actions from a defensive standpoint. For most of us, finding a way to rid a computer of the malware suffices — but for one computer researcher, however, the change from a defensive to an offensive mentality is what ended the two year chase of a sinister botnet once and for all. For two years, Atif Mushtaq had been keeping the notorious Mega-D bot malware from infecting computer networks. As of this past November, he suddenly switched from defense to offense. Mega-D had forced more than 250,000 PCs to do its bidding via botnet control."

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This is clearly another case of too many mad scientists, and not enough hunchbacks.

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