Perhaps. Like I said, government sanction should be irrelevant, because it is undetectable. Not many groups have the motive and capability to hack the Chinese and Russians. I would just love to see what either would do if they found the hackers after paying $100M in tariffs.

This is simply a logical version of physical damage, an act of war. A couple of hackers with their skins removed would do wonders for the behavior of the rest of the little pip-squeak hackers, and monetary penalty would significantly deter the government funded, unless the penalty pales in comparison to the outcome of the crime.

Send the bill. If they don't pay, tariff them.

I just get a bit more subtle and use "dastards".

Finding out who did it is a very hard problem. I've worked in computer security and I know.

Indeed, it wouldn't surprise me if some group of bad guys launched a nasty cyber-attack on us from Chinese or Russian servers (without the knowledge of those governments) as a means of starting WW3. And for that reason, I would have our side be very slow to retaliate (but fast to do defensive things such as unplug important infrastructure from infected networks).

Be kind to your elders, LOL

Ha, Dob you are 6 months more ancient than I am...

Although those programs do not seem to work, as no one ever seems to want to sign up for responsibility. Why it should be an individual thing, and not a state thing is indicative of part of the problem, a different moral structure appliesLook at the climate change mess Trump wisely removed from, they wanted us to pay carbon taxes and reduce emissions, yet China and India had until 2030 to even decide if they would play, yet the Climate change wienies whined like crazy. Hard to believe they would ever sign up to pay for what they allow to happen..

Should do the same with Muslims. Condemn and police your own, or you are part of the problem.

Assigning blame. Good one. Usually works.

For my 60th birthday this wednesday celebrated yesterday when I received a canvas that said 60 reason why we love you attached to it. One was from my son in law who wrote "I love it when you being funny will shout out" bastards" any time Lauren ( daughter) says she has a problem with someone. They also like my spaghetti dinners.The rest of the notes I will treat as "fake news". Haha

I certainly will agree! For fun I will add a favorite of mine from our friend OUC and a twist at the end.
The great unwashed miscreants that share a clitellum and are hermaphrodites.

Make countries responsible for Cyberattacks originating there (regardless of government sanction). Assign a cost, and apply it. This will all go away.

Bastards: Too mild an expletive. I'll bet 30% of the current population are "bastards." My personal favorite is "miscreants." However, as inventive as you are, I'll be interested to see if you agree.

Choose a good browser (see above) and use a good anti malware (my personal preference is Kaspersky) and you will be as safe as you can be, and remember to never click on links in emails, that is the number one error people make, and was how wannacry spread so fast. My large corp (that makes chips) got it inside, and had dawdled in patching so went into overdrive for 4 days to patch. Had they taken the threat seriously, they would have patched day1.

All good choices.

Laurel does not allow unsupported computers on her network.

Computers have become essential to life in the lower half of the 21st century. But every time I use mine or my tablet I do so in fear that I am inviting in the creators of evil malware. I now consider using a computer an act of valor like the early users of airplanes.

Firefox seems well managed, they update often and scream to you whenever Flash has been compromised (about every 2 weeks it seems). I use Kaspersky Internet Security (and yes, I know it is Russian, but it tests well and seems to work). Why did your wife murder the Dell, did it piss her off?

I just use the standard browsers than came with the OS or are otherwise common: IE, Safari, Chrome. My wife is the security professional. She had me install Whitehat Aviator, which I use when I have to log in to work from home. She handles the licensing. We run the usual scanners and checkers. I used to have a Dell and my Mac, but the Dell OS went out of warranty and my wife removed the hard drive and killed it with a power drill. So, now I just have the Mac.

already have a solution...gotta think creatively :)

Well, that was a question I also saw, their article pretty much summed it up, advertising or something else. Although they have left one model off the table that may well be applicable, CCCLean does it: Offer a free version, and then sell a "Pro" or enhanced version, I have one license for the pro because it is a nifty little tool for getting nasty programs that just do not want to die, to go away, as well as a good Reg cleaner. I used to swear by System Mechanic but they made some change so it always tells you you have a billion files on your hardrive that are not sequenced and wants to do it every day, and it trashed one install on my PC. When I contacted them, they told me that was the way it works, and were not seeming to understand their own product. Goodby Sys Mech....

Vostok Revelation, my one and only Kindle book. I liked the story line and you seemed to be in line with a few other current authors like Ryk Brown in the way you write. I am still not so sure how you plan to get across the light speed issue when the former owner wants to come back, I kinda got the FTL transmission part. Would need to be doubled in size to make a good audi book, but still, a good start, well written.

Yes, I only switched about a month or so ago. Its had several updates since then. What are you running?

Did you read about the Comodo's problems before you installed it? They're all fixed now, right? I take classes in hacking, cross-site scripting, Wireshark, stuff like that, and I do not think that I could read a million lines of code and find the hidden traps... How about you?

And you don't see that as the same problem? Free software to protect you against malicious free software...

Thank you.

I'm working on a few different novels presently, each very different from the others. Which did you read?

The sequel to Shadows Live Under Seashells has still got away to go before I'm satisfied its ready for public release.

The Vostok Revelation sequel needs a bit more work but it relatively close.

Fallacies of Vision has kind of been put on hold while I do other things (reality has outpaced me)

Extinction Event: Nanite Apocalypse is still coming together conceptually but should be ready for a timed release with the multi-player game of the same title.