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SECURITY - VIRUS protection
INFOMATION - HOAX - URBAN LEGENDS

Virus Email Firewall Spyware Keylogger protection Protect your privacy security

Just The Tip Of The Iceberg

VIRUS HOAXES AND LEGENDS

  • What are they?
  • What's Wild?
  • How to find them?
  • Get Rid of them?
  • Protect against them?

WILD VIRUS INFORMATION

THE BIG PICTURE

How Vulnerable Are You?

THERE ARE BUILT IN VULNERABILITES WITH OPERATING SYSTEMS
Security starts with closing doors that don't need to be open. On a PC, these doors are called "ports" -- channels to the Internet reserved for specific tasks, such as publishing a Web page.

SEE ADDTIONAL INFORMATION ON HUBS AND SPOKES OF THE INTERENT OF EVERYTHING.

How Vulnerable Are You?


See how "open" your machine is right now:

1. Download Detekt software tool scans for surveillance spyware.
What is Detekt and how does it work?
Detekt is a free tool that scans your computer for traces of known surveillance spyware used by governments to target and monitor human rights defenders and journalists around the world. By alerting them to the fact that they are being spied on, they will have the opportunity to take precautions.
It was developed by security researchers and has been used to assist in Citizen Lab's investigations into government use of spyware against human rights defenders, journalists and activists as well as by security trainers to educate on the nature of targeted surveillance.
Amnesty International is partnering with Privacy International, Digitale Gesellschaft and the Electronic Frontier Foundation to release Detekt to the public for the first time.
Before launching the tool, close all applications and make sure the computer is disconnected from the Internet. if spyware is detected, you should not reconnect the computer to the Internet again until it has been cleaned. There are reports of Antivirus software being mistakenly detected as a false positive, please make sure to close your Antivirus before executing. https://resistsurveillance.org/#waypoint2

PORTS

PORTS ( What are they? Which ones are used by Trojans?) are what network worms like Blaster crawl in through, exploiting bugs in an operating system to implant themselves. (Viruses can't move on their own and need other mechanisms, such as e-mail or floppy disks, to spread.) It's canonical among security experts that unneeded ports should be closed. Windows XP Home Edition, however, ships with five ports open, behind which run "services" that serve no purpose except on a computer network. "Messenger Service," for instance, is designed to listen for alerts sent out by a network's owner, but on a home computer all it does is receive ads broadcast by spammers. The "Remote Procedure Call" feature exploited by Blaster is, to quote a Microsoft advisory, "not intended to be used in hostile environments such as the Internet."In comparison, Mac OS X ships with zero ports open to the Internet.

Test your Shields, Probe your ports
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

THE FIREWALL:

A firewall provides further defense against worms, rejecting dangerous Internet traffic.

Windows XP includes basic firewall software (it doesn't monitor outgoing connections), but it's inactive unless you use its "wizard" software to set up a broadband connection. Turning it on is a five-step task in Microsoft's directions (www.microsoft.com/protect) that must be repeated for every Internet connection on a PC.

Mac OS X's firewall isn't enabled by default either, but it's much simpler to enable. Red Hat Linux is better yet: Its firewall is on from the start.

 

PATCHES:
AKA CRITICAL UPDATES

THE BIG PICTURE - patches, bugs, holes, scripting, activeX

 

WINDOWS X: by default, provides unrestricted, "administrator" access to a computer. This sounds like a good thing but is not, because any program, worms and viruses included, also has unrestricted access. Yet administrator mode is the only realistic choice: XP Home's " limited account," the only other option, doesn't even let you adjust a PC's clock.

Mac OS X and Linux get this right: Users get broad rights, but critical system tasks require entering a password. If, for instance, a virus wants to install a "backdoor" for further intrusions, you'll have to authorize it. This fail-safe isn't immune to user gullibility and still allows the total loss or theft of your data, but it beats Windows' anything-goes approach.

You've been infected - Ugh! It's Too Late - Now What??

How to Get Rid of the Klez Virus/Worm

How to Get Rid of SoBig.F Worm

How to get rid of the 'Parasite' is a shorthand term for “unsolicited commercial software” — that is, a program that gets installed on your computer which you never asked for, and which does something you probably don't want it to, for someone else's profit.

Get rid of Annoying Adware

WiFi networks using apples AirPort base station

ARTICLES

LABELING VIRUSES CORRECTLY!
What they are: "Microsoft Outlook Express virus" or "Microsoft Explorer virus" or "Microsoft Word macro virus (reputedly the single largest source of viruses for years!)."

STATISTICS FROM ANTI-VIRUS RESEARCHERS
A MUST READ from Gene Spafford - a real security expert

COMPUTER SECURITY: WILL WE EVER LEARN?
by Bruce Schneier
If we've learned anything from the past couple of years, it's that computer security flaws are inevitable. Counterpane Internet Security, Inc.

FBI - Gives Free Software - Alert Denial Of Service Attacks

YEAR 2000
For the Sake of History year 2000
**Year 2000 (Y2K) Information from CERT Coordination Center** (By the Way, Before Spending Time Figuring Out What CERT stands for as an Acronym Consider This Information From the CERT Web Page: ""CERT" does not stand for anything. Rather, it is a registered service mark of Carnegie Mellon University." DD )

2019 Mudge on Twitter: "I spent New Year's Eve on a call with the White House as I and National Security Council members ticked away time zones rolling into Y2K. People worked really hard on that issue, which is partly why it was a non-issue... and why a lot of source trees were able to be stolen.

Protect Your Computer

from various forms of "malware" viruses, ad-ware, spyware.

StopBadware.org will identify organizations that distribute spyware, adware, and other unwanted computer programs, as well as the tactics they employ to intall their applications. The site will also include an area where consumers can submit testimonials about their experiences with different software they have
downloaded and give ordinary users a place to go
and get an early warning before they download something that might harm their computer."

FOUR FREE programs you should download and install and use together.
If you keep them up to date, they block or remove 99% of the "diseases" you'll otherwise catch if you "have unprotected net".

1. ZoneAlarm - free - Firewall: makes your computer invisible to scanners when you are connected to the Internet; also blocks "phone-home" scumware.
(www.zonealarm.com)

The freebie is here: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

2. AVG - free - Antivirus: catches/isolates viruses before they can infect
you - make sure you use its virus update function at least weekly. (www.grisoft.com)

The free version is here: http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

3. Ad-Aware - free - Adware remover: finds/removes scumware that advertizers dump onto your hard disk to report where you go, what you look at, maybe who you are - use the update function at least weekly (http://www.lavasoft.de/)

Here's the Adaware free version: http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

4. KeyLoggers

SpyBot S&D - free - Spyware remover: finds/removes trojans, keyloggers, and other sneaky stuff - use the update function at least weekly.
This is the download page: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

KeyGhost II ProfessionalT
hardware keyboard logger to plug into your keyboard and record over 500,000 keystrokes - no software to install to record or retrieve keystrokes. All keystrokes are stored in flash memory using 128-bit encryption.


PestPatrol Enhances Cookie, Keylogger Detection

It detects "spyware" that collects personal information about a user or computer; Trojans; Denial of Service attack agents; and probe tools that search for vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit.

EMAIL FILTERS

"Eudora" E-mail Program filters your email - keep the nasty stuff out.Download a free copy of Eudora This site explains the most unique honor the Southern writer Miss Eudora Welty has received was when software engineer Steve Dorner named his e-mail program for her.
Go Here to find out how to set up your filters to get rid of all the spam you are getting.

Pegasus Mail for Windows offers an excellent alternative to Microsoft IE. Pegasus will only display HTML if you tell it to, and even then won't download anything from a server unless you specifically tell it again to do so. It won't execute any code or script so major sources of both spam and virus infection are avoided. It's built for a network environment, but you can use it standalone as well. And it's got a fantastic users group with e-mail list for support. Best of all, it's completely free.

How to Filter Email - go back down memory lane 10/24/97