Speakerplans.com Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > Other Chat > Computer Talk
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Conficker virus rant (boring)
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Conficker virus rant (boring)
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <123>
Author
Message
  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
iand4403 View Drop Down
Registered User
Registered User
Avatar

Joined: 05 February 2008
Location: Leeds
Status: Offline
Points: 626 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote iand4403 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2009 at 1:08pm
Without decent protection your PC could be part of a botnet (network of compromised computers which is controlled by it's creators) and you wouldn't be able to tell.

These networks are often used to hold a business at ransom, by overloading their servers with data from thousands of infected machines until they pay up.
Back to Top
chickenfizz View Drop Down
Young Croc
Young Croc
Avatar

Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 982 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chickenfizz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2009 at 1:47pm
I have two answers to that...

I WOULD be able to tell because I'd see network traffic that was unaccounted for or I'd see extra processes running or many other tell-tale signs.

The other answer is if I REALLY wouldn't be able to tell then I don't really care.

And still I'd say that no I couldn't be part of one unless my computer had requested to be part of one.

I agree that without decent protect there could be problems, but "decent protection" in my opinion is running a dedicated firewall and well-informed PC usage. Not downloading and installing patches and running bloated scanning software etc.
Back to Top
rezsbc View Drop Down
Registered User
Registered User


Joined: 21 November 2006
Location: Ireland
Status: Offline
Points: 352 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote rezsbc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2009 at 2:09pm
In response to the original post:

Leaving known security vulnerabilities in your installed software unpatched is just stupid.

Hardware firewalls are good definitely, but a software firewall should always be used as well to control application-specific access to the network.

Running without anti-virus is also just plain stupid in my book.

I use all of these and my machine zips along.  Windows in particular is really easy to mash up and end up with it running real slow.... probably 80% of the pc's I've ever seen crawl along through bad set up but patching your system/running antivirus/software firewalls should and do not cause a system to slow down massively.
Back to Top
odc04r View Drop Down
Old Croc
Old Croc
Avatar

Joined: 12 July 2006
Location: Sarfampton
Status: Offline
Points: 5483 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote odc04r Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2009 at 2:37pm
Originally posted by iand4403 iand4403 wrote:

Without decent protection your PC could be part of a botnet (network of compromised computers which is controlled by it's creators) and you wouldn't be able to tell.

These networks are often used to hold a business at ransom, by overloading their servers with data from thousands of infected machines until they pay up.



Application specific firewall and careful monitoring of active processes will actually tell you quite quickly.

Back in the day the MSblaster worm got nothing from me as I simply denied it outbound access. Oh how I laughed as all my friends PCs constantly rebooted.
Back to Top
darkmatter View Drop Down
Old Croc
Old Croc


Joined: 26 February 2005
Location: LDN
Status: Offline
Points: 2425 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote darkmatter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2009 at 4:17pm
Originally posted by odc04r odc04r wrote:

Oh how I laughed as all my friends PCs constantly rebooted.


Haha I bet they loved you for thatLOL

Problem is, when people realize you know about these things, instead of taking your advice they just ask you to sort it out for them. I'd rather let them all get worms than spend ages trying to set people's computers up properly.
Back to Top
iand4403 View Drop Down
Registered User
Registered User
Avatar

Joined: 05 February 2008
Location: Leeds
Status: Offline
Points: 626 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote iand4403 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2009 at 4:56pm
Originally posted by chickenfizz chickenfizz wrote:

I have two answers to that...

I WOULD be able to tell because I'd see network traffic that was unaccounted for or I'd see extra processes running or many other tell-tale signs.

The other answer is if I REALLY wouldn't be able to tell then I don't really care.

And still I'd say that no I couldn't be part of one unless my computer had requested to be part of one.

I agree that without decent protect there could be problems, but "decent protection" in my opinion is running a dedicated firewall and well-informed PC usage. Not downloading and installing patches and running bloated scanning software etc.


Apparently it's quite simple to spoof the windows process list/netstat etc but I have no experience.

As long as I can browse SP and play Moh:AA I'm not bothered either
Back to Top
nineleaves View Drop Down
Young Croc
Young Croc


Joined: 31 August 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 1327 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote nineleaves Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 January 2009 at 12:30am
the solutions dead simple...

for internet use - JUST RUN LINUX ! LOL

..preferably ubuntu.
Back to Top
tb_mike View Drop Down
Old Croc
Old Croc


Joined: 01 October 2004
Location: New Zealand
Status: Offline
Points: 2744 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tb_mike Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 January 2009 at 8:06am
Originally posted by iand4403 iand4403 wrote:

Originally posted by chickenfizz chickenfizz wrote:

I have two answers to that...

I WOULD be able to tell because I'd see network traffic that was unaccounted for or I'd see extra processes running or many other tell-tale signs.

The other answer is if I REALLY wouldn't be able to tell then I don't really care.

And still I'd say that no I couldn't be part of one unless my computer had requested to be part of one.

I agree that without decent protect there could be problems, but "decent protection" in my opinion is running a dedicated firewall and well-informed PC usage. Not downloading and installing patches and running bloated scanning software etc.


Apparently it's quite simple to spoof the windows process list/netstat etc but I have no experience.

As long as I can browse SP and play Moh:AA I'm not bothered either

Yep if you have a rootkit your system will basically lie to you.

Did you see what happened to our local botnet creator in the Coromandel? He has dyslexia or similar, so he doesnt go to jail,and has many job offers. Isnt that discrimination against those of us without conditions? Also he didnt modify an existing botnet program,he made his own :P

And as for patching, yes some people DO have an excuse - for every 10 bugs that are fixed, 3 more are created. But your everyday joe blogs, I dont think they have a problem with auto updates aslong as they have a decent ADSL pipe.
Back to Top
Tony Wilkes View Drop Down
Old Croc
Old Croc
Avatar

Joined: 02 August 2004
Location: West Midlands
Status: Offline
Points: 4840 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Wilkes Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 January 2009 at 9:25am
Originally posted by nineleaves nineleaves wrote:

the solutions dead simple...

for internet use - JUST RUN LINUX ! LOL

..preferably ubuntu.


For newbies try Linux Mint its a Ubuntu fork with a lot of the set up misery taken care of.

Tony
Back to Top
odc04r View Drop Down
Old Croc
Old Croc
Avatar

Joined: 12 July 2006
Location: Sarfampton
Status: Offline
Points: 5483 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote odc04r Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 January 2009 at 9:27am
Originally posted by darkmatter darkmatter wrote:


Problem is, when people realize you know about these things, instead of taking your advice they just ask you to sort it out for them. I'd rather let them all get worms than spend ages trying to set people's computers up properly.


Just tell them it's £25 per hour after the first favour (unless they are good friends or family). That dissuades lazy people pretty quickly. After the first time you have sorted them out they don't get a second if good advice has been disregarded too!
Back to Top
nineleaves View Drop Down
Young Croc
Young Croc


Joined: 31 August 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 1327 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote nineleaves Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 January 2009 at 9:32am
Originally posted by Tony Wilkes Tony Wilkes wrote:




For newbies try Linux Mint its a Ubuntu fork with a lot of the set up misery taken care of.

Tony
[/QUOTE]

ill have to look that one up sometime :)

i currently reccomend and use ubuntu as it is also very windows user friendly; it works like it in many ways; is overall very easy to use & well supported.
it was founded by some african billionaire who wanted to bring a free, useable, well funded & maintained opensource operating system to the masses who are familiar with windows.

installs just as easily too; and the partitioning proceedure is easy & non buggy into the bargain :)
Back to Top
Tony Wilkes View Drop Down
Old Croc
Old Croc
Avatar

Joined: 02 August 2004
Location: West Midlands
Status: Offline
Points: 4840 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Wilkes Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 January 2009 at 10:21am
Basically Mint is Ubuntu with all the multimedia codecs already included plus they have modded a few apps. to make them much easier to use. Only available in  32bit at the moment but 64 bit is at RC1.

Tony
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <123>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.05
Copyright ©2001-2022 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.047 seconds.