So, with school back in full swing and computers getting more use than they have all summer, it is time again for the dreaded computer virus outbreaks that plague our favorite machines.
And that is why it saddens me to say we have already had an outbreak of the Alureon trojan and bootkit. I'm just going to leave a link to the Wikipedia page here to describe it to you, but even if you don't click the link, know that this virus is bad, like Russian Mafia bad. The kind of thing that kills your computer and takes hours to remove and restore your data. This is ugly.
And the worst part is, its sneaky enough it slips past anti-virus software piggybacking on less than savory software packages you may be installing. So, best advice to prevent an outbreak, don't install it if you can't trust it's source.
Other than that, go luck, and I hope you don't catch the bug, cause this doctor, at least, is booked.
Showing posts with label Virus infection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virus infection. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Monday, March 22, 2010
Failure on the Banking Front
Well, it seems that I am not as paranoid as everyone else treats me. I have long been a detractor of the concept of online banking, being of the personal opinion that some things are just too sensitive to be transmitted over the internet. Looks like I might have been right.
On of the big buzzes floating around the internet security forums and blogs today(see Dancho Danchev's interview), is that the standard two-factor authentication is a false security, and not nearly as effective as the banks would have you think. What worries me even more is that when I scrutinized my bank, I found that they didn't even run two-factor authentication, but just single. (If you would like to see what two-factor authentication is about, check here at the wikipedia.) Also there seems to be more information that Anti-virus' are becoming less effective with the older style black-list identification. These lists of files that are known virus are now getting fooled and virus' are identifying themselves as different files, when in fact they contain the same threats they always did.
Once again, I can not stress enough the need for safe internet surfing practices. If it seems phishy, don't click it! Know the sites you are going to, or at least find some method to verify that they are clean. And please, for the love of your computer, don't use a P2P networking client unless you really know what you are doing. Talk to your tech support person and see about implementing a sand-box environment(Kaspersky Internet Security comes with one of these pre-installed, we'll discuss this with a later blog post), and always make sure that your computer has the latest security updates from your software vendors.
And finally, there should be some public outcry. The large business and ISP's that could be monitoring themselves and preventing some of the worst of this should hire on personnel that are trained in corporate level detection of malware and virus activity, so that they can tell if your computer, or even their own, are infected by something malignant. Put in the good word for these people. Contact your internet service provider and ask them what they are doing to protect themselves and to protect you. And if you don't feel that they are doing enough, complain, let your voice be heard. Maybe together we can do something to help prevent the crime wave that seems to be flooding over this vast new frontier of the internet.
On of the big buzzes floating around the internet security forums and blogs today(see Dancho Danchev's interview), is that the standard two-factor authentication is a false security, and not nearly as effective as the banks would have you think. What worries me even more is that when I scrutinized my bank, I found that they didn't even run two-factor authentication, but just single. (If you would like to see what two-factor authentication is about, check here at the wikipedia.) Also there seems to be more information that Anti-virus' are becoming less effective with the older style black-list identification. These lists of files that are known virus are now getting fooled and virus' are identifying themselves as different files, when in fact they contain the same threats they always did.
Once again, I can not stress enough the need for safe internet surfing practices. If it seems phishy, don't click it! Know the sites you are going to, or at least find some method to verify that they are clean. And please, for the love of your computer, don't use a P2P networking client unless you really know what you are doing. Talk to your tech support person and see about implementing a sand-box environment(Kaspersky Internet Security comes with one of these pre-installed, we'll discuss this with a later blog post), and always make sure that your computer has the latest security updates from your software vendors.
And finally, there should be some public outcry. The large business and ISP's that could be monitoring themselves and preventing some of the worst of this should hire on personnel that are trained in corporate level detection of malware and virus activity, so that they can tell if your computer, or even their own, are infected by something malignant. Put in the good word for these people. Contact your internet service provider and ask them what they are doing to protect themselves and to protect you. And if you don't feel that they are doing enough, complain, let your voice be heard. Maybe together we can do something to help prevent the crime wave that seems to be flooding over this vast new frontier of the internet.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The Problems with Peer-To-Peer Networks
I've been working on some computers lately, and something I've noticed is the recurrence of people using Peer-To-Peer, or P2P for short, networks. I can't stress enough that the reason these computers are having to be worked on is because of these P2P programs(heretofore referred to as clients). P2P clients are a virus programmers best friend.
Now, before I have people up-tight and yelling at me because I am deriding their favorite free music client, I'll write out for you why these things are so bad for your computer.
The concept of a P2P network is implied in its title, Peer-To-Peer. These client programs create a direct link between two peoples computers so that they can share files with out obstruction. This is and always has been a bad idea. Opening a gateway between two computers when you do not know the other person is an open invitation for viruses, because you have no way to control what the files they are sending contain. Also, this open connection that you have willingly created leaves a port open that is normally closed on your computer, typically port 6346 for LimeWire (if you haven't manually altered the settings), and this leads to unpredictable problems.
The more ports that are active and unchecked on your computer the harder it is monitor and protect them, that's why we use firewalls. So, when you open another port using a P2P client, you get a higher risk of people infecting your computer.
My suggestion is that you shouldn't use P2P clients at all, but if you feel like you have to, use a bit-torrent client like Vuze and seek out a valid torrent file(Without using Vuze's built in search function), rather than using P2P clients like LimeWire and Kazaa. (Though I would like to note here that I am not an idiot for anyone with tech savy reading this, I do realize that LimeWire uses bit-torrent as well. Its in how the program is structured that I am categorizing it along with crap-ware like Kazaa.)
But once again, I restate, don't use P2P clients if you are worried about virus infection, they are just open invitations for invasion. Just go to legitimate sites and purchase files legally, unless you know that it is a file you are supposed to be receiving via a torrent. Then its okay.
Now, before I have people up-tight and yelling at me because I am deriding their favorite free music client, I'll write out for you why these things are so bad for your computer.
The concept of a P2P network is implied in its title, Peer-To-Peer. These client programs create a direct link between two peoples computers so that they can share files with out obstruction. This is and always has been a bad idea. Opening a gateway between two computers when you do not know the other person is an open invitation for viruses, because you have no way to control what the files they are sending contain. Also, this open connection that you have willingly created leaves a port open that is normally closed on your computer, typically port 6346 for LimeWire (if you haven't manually altered the settings), and this leads to unpredictable problems.
The more ports that are active and unchecked on your computer the harder it is monitor and protect them, that's why we use firewalls. So, when you open another port using a P2P client, you get a higher risk of people infecting your computer.
My suggestion is that you shouldn't use P2P clients at all, but if you feel like you have to, use a bit-torrent client like Vuze and seek out a valid torrent file(Without using Vuze's built in search function), rather than using P2P clients like LimeWire and Kazaa. (Though I would like to note here that I am not an idiot for anyone with tech savy reading this, I do realize that LimeWire uses bit-torrent as well. Its in how the program is structured that I am categorizing it along with crap-ware like Kazaa.)
But once again, I restate, don't use P2P clients if you are worried about virus infection, they are just open invitations for invasion. Just go to legitimate sites and purchase files legally, unless you know that it is a file you are supposed to be receiving via a torrent. Then its okay.
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