CWF wrote: “My students are all very innocent and naive users of Windows XP. What I have in mind is to leave them each with a Linux LiveCD or two that they’ll be able to use as a rescue disc in case they get malware installing itself. So, the best way to teach this, I think, would be to purposely infect their machines and then go in a disinfect them.
But I’m not at all sure where I could get a virus or a trojan or other malware. Is it possible you could direct me to a source.”
You can do this safely and easily with the EICAR test virus. If you download it to your computer, it should trigger a virus alert in most, if not all, virus software. I gave it a try with one of my Windows XP virtual machines, and it caught the file name eicar.com, but not eicar.com.txt. However, when I renamed the .txt file to eicar.com, avast! sprang into action.
I really like your definition:
innovators who explore and experiment, unearth shortcuts, create useful tools, and come up with fun things to try on their own”
I have had the same problem at my site TeacherHacks.com. I’ve tried to explain it a million times… some teachers get it and some just don’t. Many schools even block the site with their filters just for using the word hack.
holy cow, am I glad to have found you guys..
don’t ya love the the media ruins simple things :)