bama reported on trends in malver-tising, a relatively new kind of attack where criminals inject malware or scareware into online advertisements. These malvertisements, for example, might be Flash files that make use of exploits, or use scare tactics that “warn” users about viruses that are on their computer and urge people to click a link to install fake antivirus software.

There are three points I want to discuss. First, these advertising networks have a very wide reach on the Internet. Even the New York Times’ Web site was hit with one of these fake advertisements. As such, these malvertisements represent a very serious threat to the operation of the Internet.

Second, as a user, you could be doing everything right and still be infected. You might keep your antivirus software up to date, always install the latest patches, avoid sketchy programs and Web sites, and not fall for any phish, but still end up with malware.

Third, using fake virus scans has been a growing tactic to convince people to install malware onto their computers. This kind of malware is growing in sophistication, and is also causing damage to legitimate antivirus vendors by reducing people’s trust. Admittedly, it’s a good strategy for the bad guys to take.

I had the misfortune of facing some of this fake antivirus software recently. My wife fell for one of these scams and asked me to fix her computer. The malware actually blocked standard antivirus software from running, so I tried to remove the software manually. However, as I did this, I saw the malware start to reinstall itself from a remote location. I tried again after turning off all networking, and deleted all the malware files. However, I either missed something in the registry or a browser helper object as it started reinstalling itself again after rebooting. After wasting an hour of time, we decided it would be easier and safer to just wipe the machine and start over.

If we take a step back, we can view
malvertisements as just another
type of attack where criminals try to
make use of our greater connectivity.
It’s useful to revisit the three basic
strategies for usable privacy and se-
curity: 1) make it invisible; 2) provide
better user interfaces; and 3) edu-
cate users. In the short term, we can
educate people about fake antivirus
programs. However, in the long term,
advertising networks will need far
better tools for detecting and filter-
ing these kinds of malware so users
don’t see them at all.

mark Guzdial “The Complicated issues of Computing Education in Qatar” http://cacm.acm.org/ blogs/blog-cacm/91580

At the beginning of May, the ACM Education Board visited Qatar University. The goal was to meet with stakeholders and plan for developing computing education in the Middle East and India. John Impagliazzo, professor at Qatar University (QU), longtime Education Board member, and emeritus professor from Hofstra University, organized the meeting. We went with Dame Wendy Hall, ACM President [at the time], and John White, ACM CEO and executive director. The trip was amazing— enlightening and confounding.

Qatar University has a significant gender imbalance in its computer science program, but it’s opposite of the U.S. and much of the Western world. Seventy percent of QU’s CS students are female. The QU professors explained that being a computer scientist isn’t a well-respected job in Qatar. The men go for engineering-labeled degrees, which lead to higher-paying jobs. The QU faculty explained that the computing jobs in Doha—the capital of Qatar, home of QU, and of the majority of Qatar’s population—are mostly about adapting and customizing applications from elsewhere to make them fit in Qatar and the Middle Eastern culture.

The QU CS faculty are planning to
add more information systems and in-
formation technology into their curric-
ulum to better prepare their students
for the available jobs. Then we got to
meet the female CS students at QU.
These women totally embrace “geeki-
ness.” They are pushing their faculty to
let them build applications sooner in
the curriculum. QU offers no program-
ming competitions. These women are
looking up international programming
competition problems to push them-
selves! I was amazed at how eager these
women are, how much they want to pro-
gram “robots, animation, mobiles—
anything! We want to be challenged!”
On the next day, we visited Educa-
tion City, home to the satellite cam-
puses of six American universities.
Built by the Qatar Foundation, the
goal is to change Qatari culture into a
knowledge-based society where people
build their own intellectual property
and not just adapt Western ones. Qatar
has oil wealth now, but knows it won’t
last forever. They’re investing now for a
future society with a culture focused on
knowledge creation and innovation.

Greg Linden is the founder of geeky Ventures. Jason hong is an associate professor of computer science at Carnegie mellon University. Mark Guzdial is a professor at the georgia institute of technology.