Spam, Worms, and Viruses

Forum Monk · Post by **Forum Monk** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:10 pm

Ugghhh. I haven't been too active the last few days because one of my computers picked up a particularly nasty worm, that redirects all my google links to other spam bearing web sites, and refuses to let me update any of virus protection software.

Now this is not a major inconvience as I have at least two or three other computers at my disposal, but being a technocrat I am compelled to beat the bloody thing. After several days I have killed the dangerous parts of it but it is still present albeit impotent. Its always interesting to see how clever these a**holes (they make me angry enough to curse) can be that create these critters - this ain't your average schoolkid.

And as much as we hear about cyber-wars and hacker-wars with China or Malaysia, Korea, or whomever, I find it interesting that this nasty bug is trying to bounce messages off a server in Houston, Texas. He's american as mom and apple pie and the toughest of about a dozen or so I learned to recognize and kill.

Post by **MichelleH** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:09 pm

Hangin's too good for 'em

......the understatement of the century....

Excuse me while I go delete a hundred or so from this board.....

Post by **Minimalist** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:10 pm

Check your PMs before you start throwing all of them out.

Post by **Minimalist** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:13 pm

Monk, of all people I figured you would be the last one to have that kind of problem.

How much hope is there for the rest of us?

Post by **MichelleH** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:19 pm

Minimalist wrote:Check your PMs before you start throwing all of them out.

Again, once a smart ass....

rich · Post by **rich** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:22 pm

Hate em all - I can remember having to do low level formats on a couple of hard drives way back on account of em and then reinstalling everything. Little buggers - dyin's too good for em - give them a real live virus that they can't get rid of.

Forum Monk · Post by **Forum Monk** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 5:43 pm

Minimalist wrote:Monk, of all people I figured you would be the last one to have that kind of problem.

How much hope is there for the rest of us?

The problem is, this happened to my work computer (notebook) while at home. Because the company controls all the updates the machine is out of date (we still use IE6 for example) I have had more trouble with it than any of my personal machines. Their solution is bring it to I.T. for a few days and they reimage the hard-disk. Works great, but everything else you had on the machine is lost. Its like nuking the enemy when they're in you own backyard. Yeah, you're gonna get rid of the problem but sustain a whole lot of collateral damage in the process. Its not acceptable for me. (even though I have everything backed up from a previous episode.)

My home computers are fine. I use Firefox (recent convert) and keep everything totally up to date, scan regularly, and keep backups. I'm ready for trouble but have not had any.

The worm, trojan or whatever it is I have now, actually installed itself from an advertisement. Yep. One of those things the pops into your face and when you try to get rid of it, it launches a script which basically downloads a nice christmas package. That in turn, goes crazy and starts changing the operating system, making changes in the registry, downloads a few helpers to stand guard, and proceeds to bury himself down into the core of the operating system - and then defies you to find him. Well as usual, I accept his challenge since none of the spam killers and antivirus killers can detect him and I can't get the big guns off the net because he's blocking them. Believe me, when I find him, he's dead, and I'll send his carcass to all the virus killers on the web so they can do post mortems.

Post by **Minimalist** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 5:57 pm

Because the company controls all the updates the machine is out of date

Oh yeah....I know about that.

john · Post by **john** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 6:11 pm

All -

Think out of the box.

I run a Mac laptop as my personal machine.

I run a Microsoft laptop, and a couple desktops as my company machines.

Company is continuously fighting the firewall/security/virus battle.

I don't have that battle with the Mac.

Reason: the Mac is statistically insignificant to serious hackers.

Plus, in my opinion, Apple kicks Microsoft Ass in terms of

Effectivity and intuitive interface.

Food for thought.

john

Forum Monk · Post by **Forum Monk** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 7:48 pm

John,
You and Rokcet Scientist both use MACs I believe. They are no doubt, fine machines. I was turned off long ago by the closed, exclusivity of the machines when first introduced to the mass market. At the time IBM-PCs were open ended and fully exploitable. Little did we know back then, where that would eventually lead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAGmBRC1dc

neilmarr · Post by **neilmarr** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:21 pm

For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three ...

Post by **Minimalist** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:31 pm

All I know is that technology has eliminated time off.

I think that's why I retired early. It was the only way to get away from the bastards.

dannan14 · Post by **dannan14** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:08 pm

Tim, the author of the web comic Ctrl-Alt-Del, illustrated my opinion of the Windows/Mac debate perfectly. Plus it might even be funny to Mac users who don't take things personally. i give that caveat because i have a friend or two who actually were offended. *scratches head*

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20060513

Post by **Minimalist** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:00 am

Count me as one of the ones who thinks it's pretty funny!

War Arrow · Post by **War Arrow** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:42 pm

Liked the comic - very funny, though my ire is probably more to do with jealousy than anything. At present I'm getting a little tired of my PC becoming so slow as to be unusable several sum total hours a day due to the million updates it seems to think it needs in order to perform tasks which it would be able to perform much better if it wasn't frozen up in fucking update limbo all the sodding time - and this even after a PC health check at PC World a month ago. I hate Bill Gates.

I purchased a laptop about a month ago, and having been thrilled to find it working and ready to go within a minute of being turned on, I'm going to keep it internet/update free and just use it for writing. The PC meanwhile is due to get nuked tomorrow (returning it to factory settings and all that), so I may be offline a while until I can figure out how to get the router working again.

Spammers meanwhile I would regard as somewhat lower than paedophiles. Hanging is definitely too good for them, and something far more mediaeval is certainly in order. The dilemma, as I feel sure Ahuizotl (Tenochtitlan, ruled 1487 - 1502) would agree, is that these people would not even make worthy sacrifices.

Oh - what's Firefox? I must admit I'm less than knocked out by the antivirus things I've used so far (McAfee and then Norton).

Archaeologica.org

Spam, Worms, and Viruses

Should spammers be executed?

Spam, Worms, and Viruses