I have stumbled upon a number of articles that show the potential danger of not paying attention to your own computer’s condition. Apparently, some legal cases have resulted in the destruction of the lives of people accused of having child porn on their hard drives, yet they were unaware of the problem. The machine had been taken over by malware or some virus/worm that allowed remote porn users to access the machine much like a proxy. These remote users would then use the machine to not just surf and collect pictures but also store them on the same machine for future access.
Sherman Hand discusses his research on the issue here and points out how such malicious activity has destroyed the lives and reputations of a few people.
In any given week I repair infected Windows machines of multiple forms of malware and viruses. Interestingly enough, most of the machines have anti-virus programs installed. Some will have 2 or 3 different programs installed but none have been updated for months, if not years. In each case, the user has usually downloaded some sort of file sharing program such as Limewire, or they have been surfing the web for ways to play games at no charge.
For whatever reason, these users will disable Norton or McAffee. Sometimes it is because the license has expired and they either have no money to update it or have just procrastinated and pushed off the task to a later time. If the fact that these AV programs have not been used or updated in months or years is any indication, it appears the need to do so has been forgotten. I suspect however, that it is more likely that they do not want to have to pay for a new license. Afterall, recent activity shows they are trying to find all sorts or items for free. Regardless, the unprotected machine eventually falls prey to malicous code.
In many of these machines, the user becomes aware of a problem when a popup window proclaims that the machine is infected. Without thinking these same users will dutifully click the button provided to clean the machine. They have at least been indoctrinated well in that respect, but there is still one problem. The AV program (spoofed Norton window) has NOT been updated in months. For some reason, this fact is lost on the user and they click the “Save me from utter ruin” button to begin the download of malware.
Just last week, I spent hours attempting to save a users files and repair the host which was being held ransom by a program such as this. I found SUPERantivirus on the machine. Booting into Windows, the user could not do any work, until they paid a fee to get the machine unlocked. Of course the user in this case was not about to pay anything, after all, they did not pay the required security taxes to upgrade the previously installed AV programs. Moreover they were using Limewire and another music file sharing program (the name escapes me at the moment) to download full CD’s of music. To top off the whole mess, a cracked version of Adobe CS2 had been downloaded via bittorrent and installed on the machine.
This same machine had Norton installed on it but it had not been used or updated for 12 months. McAffee was installed but had not been used for more than a year. AVG was also installed but had been disabled by the user because it kept getting in the way. hmm…
I was able to save this host from a full destructive re-installation of Windows. The details may be posted another time. While it is not an example of the title’s topic, it is an an example of the lack of knowledge on the users part. On the surface the user is unaware of the present problems they have introduced into their computing experience. A few downloads do not seem to be making any difference. Time passes, and a sense of complacency sets in. Regardless, allowing a lapse in paying for those AV updates will cause future problems. The question is; Are you willing to take the risk?
Is is worth it to remove the security controls? If your machine is slaved to act as a child porn proxy for some remote pedophile, are you OK with that? Are you OK with allowing your machine to act as a child porn server? Are you willing to become the scapegoat for the nefarious activities of other people who are incapable of taking responsibility for their own twisted penchants? Can you really afford to not pay attention to computer security issues and safe surfing methods?
I get the problem. A user pays good money for a new machine with the “top of the line, up-to-date hardware and OS”. There are some good programs available for purchase. Gameing is fun too, so I am told. Security software is a necessary evil. Users want new and improved. Users want features. Users want to be entertained. The cost of your popular OS and software gets expensive over time and this leads to searches for cheaper or no cost alternatives: Cracked software, free software.
Here is the deal.
There are no-cost programs, if in fact you just have to use Windows.
Avast has a great free, home version, anti-virus package.
AVG continues to offer their free version as well. (Avast and AVG work well together, but install Avast first, then install AVG)
Use uTorrent instead of Limewire. The downloads are fast and you run less risk of getting malware anyway. I am assuming that you recognize your criminal past and abstain from illegal or cracked downloading.
Download and install Malwarebytes to your machine. Even if you do not use it now, it can be run from the Windows command line, and in safe mode. This feature alone will save your tail when you disregard the previously mentioned points.
Download and burn an ISO version of Bitdefender. This CD can be booted from and it contains a full Linux OS and virus scanner. It will find many problems most of the time. One problem I have had with it is that it does not recognize all NIC’s. Thus, on some machines you will be forced to work with the built in malware definitions. If so, Malwarebytes will need to be run as well to catch the more recent malware. (Bitdefender 2010 is available now).
There, see what a nice guy this Linux, opensource, advocate can be? It is still about choice. Choose windoze if you like.
<<grins and returns to working on his opensource, malware free, Linux box, knowing full well that most windoze readers will not bother to take the advice and he will see them later>>
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