Hackers...What the hell is the point?

So, over the past few weeks I’ve noticed my hard drive whirring along for no apparent reason. I dug around my system to see what might be causing it but nothing could account for the weirdness even after terminating all superfluous processes. After a few days of digging and a detailed consultation with a tech friend I discovered someone had been fishing around in my hard drive. One too many odd network spikes followed by a barrage of inexplicable viral attacks and general system chaos. The icing on the cake being an irremovable virus, a constant string of virus ridden e-mails and some “suspicious” registrations on this very message board. Either someone really hates me out there or they are desperately curious as to what I’m up to. Or maybe this is just one of those random acts of hacker lamming they like to brag about. Ya, real cool guys. Why don’t you invest your talents by hacking sites that propagate some kind of social injustice instead of terrorizing a small business owner? Now that would be cool.

Anyway, I’m talking to you from my wife’s computer at the moment and I wanted to let you know that I’m in the process of rebuilding. If I missed anyone’s mails I do apologize. I should be back up to speed in the next 24 hours.

“Chambers of Evil” Update:

My lead designer for “The Chambers of Evil” project is currently MIA. I am doing everything I can to reach him for an update. So as of now that project is officially in limbo. I’m not sure what’s up but when I know you’ll know.

Onward and Upward:

A few bumps in the road are to be expected I suppose. That’s just life’s way of keeping you sharp. Paul, Rodney and I are all steamrolling ahead with our respective projects and things are getting close to completion. Big things are coming regardless of the baloney

Man, I'm sorry to hear that...it seems stupidity is on the rise worldwide. Just this morning somebody shattered our kitchen window *and* still had enough nerve to pick up whatever they threw and strolled off. No note, no nothing, just a busted window.

So, yeah, you got my sympathies, Denny.

-Mel

I can't stress enough that anyone using an internet connection should have it run through a router that comes with a firewall. Even just a basic model (like this: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=252247) will save your computer from 99% of hacker attacks out there, and a lot of spawning virus-type attacks as well.

There are other models than the one above, but thats the basic idea. If you operate a computer on a cable or DSL connection without one, you'll be infected with _something_ within a matter of minutes, if that long, and you'll be open to attacks from even neophyte hackers.

As I referred the Grump in a few posts back, get a $40-$50 router/firewall/switch. Best investment you can make for your network.

D-Link 604's are pretty reliable (i've installed a lot of them) and the LinkSys ones are good (my current one is a LinkSys wireless).

They're pretty easy to setup and they protect you from a bunch of evil.

Set them up so they don't return pings, which will also reduce your profile on the net.

Janx

If you go wireless... Make sure you turn on security -- it is typically turned off, by default! Encryption is your friend. Educate yourself on Internet security -- if you don't, you'll be hacked, attacked, and bushwacked...

As the defacto Computer Security guy at a University, I feel your pain. One of the most simple things you can do to protect your computer from the internet is buy a $40 internet router/broadband router. If you use wireless access points make sure you use a wireless access router it has the same functionality.

I am not as big as an encrypt everything on a wireless link, 802.11 with wap encryption has such a big bug it is easy to break in seconds without a powerful machine. Just treat your wireless network like any wired network, you wouldn't give your credit card number online without a secure website. My big push with wireless is to limit the machines by mac address who can connect to them.

Internet Firewalls/Routers I have used and can recommend.

Internet Routers:
Linksys (www.linksys.com) BEFSR11, BEFSR41, BEFSR81 depending if you need a switch or not.
Netgear (www.netgear.com) RP614

Wireless Routers:
Linksys (www.linksys.com) WRT54G
Netgear (www.netgear.com) WGR614

Any of these products should be able to be found at your local computer store or office supply store IE CompUSA, Micro Center, Staples, Office Max here in Cincinnati. I think I even saw some of these at BestBuy.

[begin geek speak]
Things like Zone alarm are a good start, but the major problem is the windows system itself. Most major firewall vendors for corporate firewalls have dropped their product that runs on a windows server for the very reason that the windows design does allow for protection of the windows kernal, so they could protect the network but not the server that runs the firewall. The only true way to protect a windows system is to not allow the traffic to get to the machine, which is what the above products do.
[end geek speak]

--Chris

The statement that you will be infected within minutes is a gross overstatement. I've been on cable/ dsl / fiber optic of one form or another for years now, and have only had one hacker attempt made (without a hardware firewall, in fact most of the time without a fire wall at all).

I am an IT professional, and would never set a system for someone else up wthout one just because of potential liablility. But the fact remains that if you keep yourself updated with all the security updates from micro$oft, you will be fine ( for the most part). .... that is if you can resist what seems to be a magnetic urge for most people to open attachements in their email!!!!! (DOOOOONNNN'T DOOOO IT!)

The zone alarm firewall is an awesome product, and best of all there is a feeware version. For 99.999999% of home users its all you need, and best of all its EASY to use for a novice or even the comlpetely computer illiterate.

I have never seen a sucessfull hacking attempt through zone alarm in all my many years of IT. There is a really cool story behind the author too. Its all on the zonelabs web site if you care to read it. (Its a really cool story).

Tell me about it, I talked my new roomate into getting AVG, he was wondering why his machine, a theoretically faster one than mine, was going so..sl---ow--l--y... 27 viruses, 2 trojans, and a bunch of adware.

I have had virii, generally from letting other people use my computer, but his machine was... impressive. He'd had a DSL connection, no firewall, and no antivirus... I'm kind of amazed that he only number of problems he did. Now if it had been a cable connection....

The Auld Grump, firewall and antivirus, don't go in the water without it.

Universities are going to have it worse off than most. I definatly agree with keeping the box disconected until ready to run the update.

On the other hand, I've seen machines go years without ever having an issue being hooked directly to broadband, no firewall, no router, no nothing. Just inteligent using, and consistant updates. Machines that were never turned off.


The other thing that can get you in trouble besides opening attachments, are downloading programs. Most malicious programs don't have features that you would go "looking" for, they are usually just "cute" or "sex laden". Designing a usefull program would be to much work I think

I'd like to point out that i'm NOT advocating running a system without a firewal. Just saying the average computer does not get anywhere near one malicious attack every 3 minutes.


However, once you've been compromised there is no going back. Someone out there knows where you "live" and is now aware that your security is lax. Pluging a computer back into a line that it was conected to, when it was infeted or had a trojan without protection..... Well thats like if you got crabs from some chick, got it cured, and then went right back over to her house for another round. Thats just silly