Where do you get your spyware/malware?

[Luv2Learn2]

I've been thinking of this for several days now and wasn't sure anyone would be interested, but I guess I'll never know unless I ask.

Where do you find the bulk of spyware or malware or popups/unders or privacy violations on line? How were you lured ? ie what tactics were used to entice you?

Everybody knows that porn sites and gambling sites are prime ripe grounds for trouble so in the interest of dignity, privacy I wouldn't ask you to post those types of sites.

I do a lot of genealogy and have for several years. However, recently it's gotten really bad, malicious even! Since I use a hosts file, e-spyad and such, I'm fairly well protected from malicious ads and many self instaling programs. That helps. But recently I went to the State of Maine online and thru links was directed to a very malicious site. Most of the pages didn't work at all because the host file blocked them altogether. Most of the buttons and pictures were blocked, very little of the text was available. The site was listed as hosted by bfast I think.

One of the tactics used there while trying to view census information was insisting I needed to allow popups to work. Well, I didn't allow it because the night before I'd been searching for maps.

I used the google search site image area to find maps of a place in Canada as part of my genealogical study. I wanted to see an enargement of a particular map, clicked on that and was told I needed to install a map viewer, to allow the pop under so..I did. I ended up with a coolwebsearch variant. I got rid of it because unfortunately...I was extremely tired , wee hours in the moring and had been working a very long time and just didn't even think about what I was doing... I'd become suspicious. I could't tell you which site in canada it was, but I've had a lot of problems at canadian sites. I just didn't think about map viewing as a dangerous activity...but it sure can be!

What are your experiences?

Maybe if we have some idea of where the danger is, we can all steer clear?

l2l2

[greengoose1]

The responsibility lies with the computer user 99% of the time is my opinion.

If you click you can get hit if you don't pay attention. Or put another way do you click on some page or link because of what is written or what you are after?

For the most part to become infected you have to open something that the infection is riding in.

[jmtjet]

The responsibility lies with the computer user 99% of the time is my opinion.

That's true. But, so many computer users aren't educated enough in the area of safe computing. Those of us who have spend a while with computers and the internet know what's safe and what's not. Personally, if I want to visit a site I'm not sure of I'll use Linux. Lot less chance of being infected with Linux.

[Luv2Learn2]

So where are the bad spots?

Guess I was hoping to educate those newbies as to where the pitfalls are, and the kinds of ploys used to trick a person.

l2l2

[user595212]

Got a real bad problem once from phishing. It had just begun to be publicized and before I could think, I did go to the phisher's site. However, once there and it asked me for my credit card (!) I knew there was a problem, and suddenly remembered some warnings I had just heard. I didn't furnish the information.

But even so, I seemed to have become vulnerable. I don't know whether it was just going to the site or whether it was something else, but not long after, the computer was taken over by an invisible hand of some kind. It kept me from clicking on anything and finally booted and tried to change my password. At that point I yanked the power cord out. But it was one hell of a mess to fix.

For newbies: phishing=faking an e-mail from your ISP, your bank or something like that. It looks genuine, uses all the right phrases, graphics, etc, and seems to be legit. However, it really is a fraud -- somebody or many somebodies trying to hijack your computer, turn it into a zombie, steal your credit-card and bank information and loot your accounts, or steal your identity, even.

On that last point, here was something I was taught: Never ever ever give anyone your Social Security number online. That's a key to identity theft.

So, beware phishers! Always click to the ISP (or whoever it says it is) independently -- do not follow their links. You can independently check whether the other party has some issue with you (unpaid bill, etc.). It's likely to be a scam. My ISP has starting tossing those into the "known spam" folder and I don't even look at them.

And here's a good rule to remember: If you supposedly get an e-mail from Microsoft regarding a critical update, beware!! MS does not send out e-mail update notices. You always have to go to Windows Update or Tech Republic on your own.

Oh and lest I forget: beware the so-called 419 scam. There's a bunch of people in Nigeria apparently making a really good living on it, see this: Scam o Rama. What I can't fathom is, given the widespread publicity about this, why 1. anyone ever falls for it anymore and 2. why the perps think they can get away with it anymore.

Message: Don't give money to unknown people who e-mail you, no matter how rich they claim to be. There is no free lunch and furthermore, if there were, you can assume no one wants to give you any!!

Cheers
Wendy

[Train]

My experience from cleaning kids computers who like the on line games is they will accept about anything just so long as they can play their games. They fail to read what is printed in front of them and think that what the pop up offers will help them play the game. The kid allowed two to install and it took me 2 hours to clean it up afterward. He did not like the idea that his actions caused him to not to be able to use the computer for those hours.

Taught them to write the name of the item down and research it using google. For some reason, they were irritated at some malware programmers when I left.

[greengoose1]

And these crackers know what Train said about kids. So they take advantage of it to get to your computer which is what they want in the first place.

[Train]

Sitting behind a router. I have a fresh install of XP with SP2.
And only using the default settings

Using good safe surfing techniques.
In other words, if I get a pop up I close it using the X in the top right corner, I have not gotten anything in 48 hours.
Cookies, I dump manually once a day, but clean other than them.

Anyone else like to try it and post their results also. I would appreciate some feed back on your results.

I have been to what folks concider some real bad sites also.

[Luv2Learn2]

Train said:

Sitting behind a router. I have a fresh install of XP with SP2.

That router/fire wall (not a software, but a hardware item) is probably a good defense. Maybe someone should put a post on hardware (if there already isn't one) or in the security forums for good configurations...but never the less, a forum on how to install one.

I presume they work with dialup connections too?

What other kinds of equipment is needed? Would you still need a software firewall too?

A separate thread would probably be ideal for that topic, but I wanted to comment just the same.

good stuff, keep it coming!

Kids gaming sites are definatly not allowed on my pc for the very reasons described in the post above. I've seen computers completely immobilized with nothing but crashes from such.

l2l2

[poppy4]

Curiously. what protection would a router add to my stand alone pc which is using Zone Alarm, on a dial-up connection?
poppy

[Train]

A router has NAT in it. That is not a firewall even though a lot of folks think it is.

WEBOPEDIA at http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/NAT.html
Has this to say.

Short for Network Address Translation, an Internet standard that enables a local-area network (LAN) to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a second set of addresses for external traffic. A NAT box located where the LAN meets the Internet makes all necessary IP address translations.
NAT serves three main purposes:

1. Provides a type of firewall by hiding internal IP addresses
2.Enables a company to use more internal IP addresses. Since they're used internally only, there's no possibility of conflict with IP addresses used by other companies and organizations.
3.Allows a company to combine multiple ISDN connections into a single Internet connection.

Plus they list some links to help clarify what some terms mean.

I have cable and use the router at default settings right out of the box.

There are also routers that have RS-232 ports that will accomodate external dial up modems.
Almost got one but I found cable was available in my neighborhood. So just got one with out that option in it.
Must admit, not all companies make them, so some searching is needed.
But you will find one real handy if you want to network up a lan.

I use a wire router myself.
Setting a router normally is scarey simple!

[Ridgerunr]

My setup is very similar to Train's. I have comcast cable and a Linksys router with NAT. One of the main features of NAT I like is the Wan invisibilty. There are bad *sses out there that use programs that randomly ping all over the internet. If they get a hit on a PC that isn't protected,they can move right in,make themselves comfortable and have access to everything on your computer and turn it into a 'zombie' to do with as they want. Folks who use wireless setups can be in a very bad position also if they don't use all the security settings available with this hardware. And many don't have a clue about this,let alone know how to configure it. Example: If you live in an Apt. complex and use a wireless setup, a nasty neighbor above or next to you 'could' be using 'your' broadband to dn/load from p2p networks. And you might get a letter from your provider telling you your using too much bandwidth and you may be shut down!!
Wouldn't "that" blow your dander??

To keep crapware off, I use programs such as I.E.Spyads and SpywareBlaster. Used to use a program called 'Popup Stopper' to kill 'those' rascals,but now use the built-in one on the latest I.E. version. You can allow popups from trusted sites such as here,but I allow very few overall.
As stated by others,it's the 'user' that needs to be educated regarding 'safe surfing'. Personally, I think this needs to be included in our public schools computer teaching agenda very seriously. But sadly,in many areas,it isn't...

[poppy4]

Thanks Ridgerunr and Train
...very informative and intructional.

Thinking about another pc....and maybe going to cable.

poppy

[Nix]

I was looking through PS2 game cheat sites the other day and notice afterwards that my ie browser window even though set to about:blank was coming up with a blank window with the pound symbol on it.

I ran ad-aware, spybot, asquared, nav coroporate and did a search for files create in the last day and files modified in the last day, also ran task manager to see what processes were running.

I actually found a couple of trojans and some adware / malware and something that had been installed to my harddrive called comedy site or comedy line.

Thing is I don't remember clicking on yes to anything.

Took me about an hour or so to get rid of it all.

An this was on a work PC running WinNT on a network behind a firewall (as far as i know).

The other thing that happened to me at home once was a site I went to started spawning windows and as fast as I could click on X in the upper right corner, it was was opening 2 new windows for each one I closed.

NAV started popping up windows and it just so happened that when I went to click on one of the responses in a NAV window a new spawned window asking if I wanted to install something appeared and I clicked on Yes of this new window.

At the time I was using dial up so I quicly dived behind my computer and disconnected the phone line.

Was then able to close all the spawned windows, take control of the situation revert back to a HD image that I had made earlier that evening.

[Train]

Just a couple ideas in general of what can be done.

I set up a new computer and used a router to network them and to allow both to access the internet.
Now as the lady did not want to buy another keyboard, mouse or monitor for the 2nd computer, I got her a KVM switch and hooked it up.
That way she could have her graphics rendering program {which can take some time to complete a run even with a XP3000 cpu} running on one computer while doing what ever she wants on the other.

KVM switch
Short for keyboard, video, mouse switch, a hardware device that enables a single keyboard, video monitor and mouse to control more than one computer one at a time.
KVM switches are popular among users who have upgraded their home PC systems and want to still use their old computers but do not want to invest in a second keyboard, monitor and mouse. [b]KVM switches are also used by business to save money when one person uses more than one computer and in server farms where it is only necessary to periodically access each separate server in the farm one at a time.

72 hours and still clean.