by Peter Daley

At present, the hacker black market is paying $100 per thousand hacked Australian computers. That’s correct, there is a black market for hacked computers, and Australian computers are fetching top dollar, compared to other countries. Why do you think that Australian computers are getting top dollar? It’s because we are easy targets as most of you don’t take computer security seriously enough, plus being an affluent country, the hackers can make better money from a hacked Aussie.

You could argue the affluent part, depends on whether the banks get to your money before the hackers do You can secure your computer with all the modern, up-to-date security tools, but if you don’t follow safe practices, you’re very likely to get hacked or ripped off. It’s just like driving a new car, with all the latest safety features, air bags and intelligent breaking systems, if you drive dangerously, you’re more likely to crash and get injured. You need to use some common sense on the Internet, and stay away from sites that are notorious for hacking visitors computers, pornography, software cracks, copy violated music sharing and movie sites etc.

One other major new treats used by hackers is to break in though security holes in web browsers. This poses a serious threat to all operating systems Windows, Apple and Linux. This article reinforces what I have been trying to get across to everyone.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9929861-7.htm l?tag=nl.e703

They can use malicious scripts hidden in web pages to exploit vulnerabilities in any OS. The way to defend yourself against this sort of threat is to turn off all scripts. Unfortunately scripts are so wide spread that if you do this you can lose a lot web page functionality. Alternatively you can use the the Mozilla Firefox web browser downloadable from here, http://www.mozilla.com and install a Firefox Add-on called “NoScript”, this will effectively block all scripts in pages you visit. You then use NoScript to choose when to allow scripts.

Once Mozilla Firefox is downloaded and installed on your computer, and you are connected to the Internet, click on the menu item “Tools”, and in the pop down box, click “Add Ons”. When an “Add-ons” box appears, click on the “Get Add-ons” tab.

In the search box at the top left of this box, type in “Noscript” and click the “Search” button, then when the Noscript add-on description appears click  the “Add to Firefox” button. The software installation box will now appear, click the the install button. The NoScript extension will be installed. Once it is installed, you will need to shut down,and re-open the Firefox browser before NoScript will become active.

(When you re-open Firefox I suggest you read the information about NoScript that will appear in a tab window in Firefox.)

Now when you visit web pages a Noscript options button, and symbol will appear at the bottom right hand corner of the Firefox browser window. A yellow bar will also appear indicating how many scripts are in the page that are being blocked.

Blocking all the scripts will speed up your web surfing because you will not need to wait until the all the fancy stuff loads. It will also mean you will need to make wise decisions on when to allow scripts in web pages. I suggest not allowing any scripts in pages unless you really need the service. For instance, if you go to your web bank service with NoScript you will not be able to log in until you tell Noscript to “Allow the bank site”, by clicking on the NoScript Options button. So login boxes for services, plus Flash, Silverlight, and Java scripts will be blocked until you click the Noscript allow site, or temporary allow option, when visiting any site. If you use it with another Firefox Add-on WOT, (Web Of Trust) a web site rating service it can make those decisions easier to make.

Statistically 1 in 9 web sites are dangerous at present! If you think I am exaggerating look at the web site rating stat’s at the bottom left hand corner of the WOT home page web site. So using NoScript wisely can give you a lot of protection!

© 2010 Peter Daley,

Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.

by Peter Daley

I have done numerous tutorials over the year in the club pointing out that using a key generator, or a software crack to make illegal use of software is just plain stupid. Firstly a person using these illegal tools are leaving themselves open to legal action. There is no doubt they are breaking the law. Secondly key generators and software cracks are almost always infected with malware of some sort. etc., a virus, or rootkit. Rootkits are so stealthy that they can’t be detected by most anti-virus programs.

This sort of malicious software can place keyboard loggers onto a computer, and record all the persons user names and passwords for banking, email, social networking sites and ISP accounts. These malicious tools can also be used to pinch confidential information that is stored on the computer.

If anyone has encouraged a person to use one of these tools they have done them a great disfavour. If a person is using a computer for financial transactions of any kind and have used one of these tools they are taking a big risk. I would suggest they back up all their important files and re-install their operating system. After they have done this secure the new installation with a good firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware program.

I would suggest they change all their banking account and log in account passwords etc. If you are going to the trouble to create a new password make sure it is actually going to protect you. Read my article, on how to create good secure password.

The Windows Operating system can only be used on the computer it was purchased with, and can’t be install on any other computer. If you have a legal version of Windows installed on your computer you can constantly update it with the latest security patches. This means that legal patched versions of Windows are far more secure than a cracked illegal version. A pirated version of Windows is far more likely to have a virus, spyware or rootkit on it immediately upon installation, plus it can’t be updated.

This is one of the reason so many machines were compromised by the Downup virus. These Windows machines did not have the latest Windows patches on them. One because people did not install Windows updates regularly or they were using an illegal version. They probably have seen themselves as being smart using the illegal version to save themselves a couple of hundred dollars, but if they are doing any logging into financial sites, or have important information on the computer the bad guys probably have recorded it.

If the commercial software does the job better than anything else, buy it, or alternatively look for a free legal software program that can do the job. There is just so much free legal software  available that can do just about any job you could possibly need.

© Peter Daley 2009

Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.

By Peter Daley

Securing you wireless router is an adventure. You will need to be a bit secret agent, plus be willing to play the odds. Your tools will be some dice. You know the type they use to gamble at the casino, or you play board games with.

First of all secure your wireless router with a better password than the one supplied by the manufacturer which is usually admin / admin or admin / password. Read theses two previous blogs.

Even thought these blogs are about broadband modems and general password creation the info equally applies to wireless routers. If you don’t secure the device first the rest of the security set up is a waste of time. You should just resign as a 007 agent now.

This is were your 007 skills come in. Go to the Diceware site,

http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html

This is where you hone your secret agent skills on using the dice to create a really good quality secret agent passphase.

Now play the odds, download the dicewarewordlist.pdf. This is your tool to create a really good WPA2 passphase. The passphase must be longer than 20 characters using a splattering of unusual characters. Most of you who actually attempted to put some form of security on your wireless router would be using 20 characters, or less dictionary word base passphase, and hackers are laughing. It has been know for many years that a WPA 20 characters, or less dictionary word base passphase is easily broken.

Now you take the dice, and dice word list into a room and close the curtains. Why the drawn curtains? Every secret agent worth his salt knows they they can now read what your typing from the reflections in the window. Also, don’t leave your keys to your computer room lying around because they can now make key duplicates from a photograph. Boy, don’t you know anything.

After you have created and memorized the secure paraphase key you can burn it, pulverize it in a mortar and petsal, and flush it down the toilet. Make sure you flush twice. Ok, a bit over kill for most of you. One flush is probably enough. Write into your secret code book because it going to be so complicated most of you won’t remember it anyway. Don’t store it in your computer.

Are you still with me secret agents. Now we have to enter the key into the WPA2 / AES wireless setting in your wireless device. Man this is all ridiculous, your telling me. I haven’t finished yet!

Turn Off,

1. Turn off Broadcasting your wireless SSID. Don’t use the factory default SSID change the SSID wireless ID to a very unusual set of characters.

2. Turn of DHCP auto IP address assignment and assign all your network IP addresses manually.

3. Turn off WAN if you don’t need it.

4. Turn off high power wireless transmission, if you don’t need it. If your leave these two things on you will have created a very powerful radio station transmitting your presents into the suburb. Not good for secrecy!

5. Turn off your computer, wireless router, and broadband modem when not in use. This significantly lessons the opportunity for the bad guys can break in. It will also helps the planet and you hip pocket, by using less electricity, thus lessing the production of green house gases. Read my previous blog on this subject.

6. Turn off the UPNP (Universal Plug and Play) feature. IMPORTANT also turn off UPNP in your Broadband modem as well if it is a separate device. NOTE: Xbox, video streaming, and VIOP devices may stop working when you do this. UPNP is really big break in vector for most wireless routers and broadband modems! Incidentally UPNP will be a big feature of the newest high speed wireless routers that will arrive soon!

   Turn On

7. Make access to your wireless router more difficult by turning on access controls. This means that only a machine with a particular device MAC address, or IP address on your network has the ability to connect to your wireless router, to change the wireless router settings.

8. Make sure the firewall is turned on and set to high if possible. If things stop working drop it a notch.

9. Change the gateway address of your broadband modem form the standards factory addresses of, 192.168.1.254, 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1, 10.1.1.1, or 10.0.0.138, Use anything other than these numbers. These numbers make it so much easier for hackers to guess your network set up. Once you have done this enter the new gateway address into the wireless router.

If you have read this far you have earned your secret agent certificate.

Now you may see why I suggested in my previous blog to turn off you wireless router, and plug your computer directly into your broadband modem with a network cable. It is just simpler, faster, safer, and more reliable.

You don’t need to go through the Diceware procedure, and only need need to do all of the above except for items 1 & 4 to secure your broadband modem, or yes plus the password creation bit. Ok! Isn’t modern technology wonderful easy to use, and secure. Just network wire the place, it probably work out cheaper in the long run because you won’t need to constantly upgrade to the latest wireless router.

A university recently created a concept virus for wireless systems. They let the virus go in wild in their local town and found the only thing that stopped it spreading further was the local river. Just like one person catching a cold, and then giving it to anyone who comes in close contact.

© 2008 Peter Daley

Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.

By Peter Daley

Who could be spying on you over the Internet? Well lets see, governments, corporations, a competing business, data mining businesses, marketing organisations, and criminal gangs etc,. Spyware is all about commercial and personal information gathering. It can make big money, and is also useful for intelligence.

Spyware has become as an important an issue as virus infections, for Windows Computers. Spyware can collect personal information about your movements on the Internet, in it’s most passive form, but can also collect much more sensitive personal or commercial information from your computer, such as credit card and bank account information, or commercial secrets. It can also be used to open doorways to allow much more malicious programs, viruses or Rootkits, into your commercial or private Internet connected computer.

So it is important to install a couple of good spyware scanners on you Windows computer, and run them through your computer once a week. Most people are not aware of how serious a problem this is for Windows computers, and some of the better spyware scanners can check for approx. 450,000 spyware items, and increasing. With these numbers, it is very common for one spyware tool to find spyware the other one missed.

Here are some suggested spyware scanners you can use. They are free, or can be upgraded to commercial versions if you want that extra protection.

NOTE: There are increasing numbers of malicious Spyware and Anti-virus programs out there. They’re designed to trick you into installing them. They will pop up on you screen with a warning that they have found viruses, and spyware on your computer, and that you should download and install them to remove the spyware or viruses. After they’re installed, they will ask you to get out your credit card and purchase the program before you can remove the detected viruses or spyware. If you do this, they will then have your credit card info, your money, plus control of your computer! Isn’t the Internet a wonderful place? It is full of such ingeniousness and creativity!

At present, Spyware Doctor and Spyware Terminator are considered to be a couple of the best spyware detectors. (These have won Internet Oscars under the “Spyware Detection” category, just joking! Everyone has their favourites, and may suggest others.)

You can download a free working version of Spyware Doctor from Google.

Go to http://www.google.com or http://www.google.com.au and click on the “More” link at the top left of the Google page. A pop down box will appear, go down to the “Even More” item and click it. A “More Google Products” window will open. Now navigated down to the bottom right hand corner of this page, and click on the “Pack” item under the “Make your computer work better”, heading. Now select the programs you want from the google pack. I suggest you select Spyware Doctor and one other for this exercise. The “Google Downloader” program will now be downloaded to your computer. Once it is downloaded, you will need to double click on the Google Updater program to download and install the selected programs.

Once Spyware Doctor is installed, open it and go to the “Smart Updater” button at the top Right-hand corner of the Spyware Doctor open window. When the updates are finished click the scan button and select “Full Scan”. A limited trial version and commercial version of Spyware Doctor can also be downloaded from,

http://www.spywaredoctor.com

Spyware Terminator can be downloaded from here, http://www.spywareterminator.com

Once you go through the process or downloading Spyware Terminator, update it, and run a full scan of your Windows computer.

Now you can’t have both of these programs running at the same time, so you will have to decide which one is to be your primary protector, and disable the other. You then update it, and run it manually each week to check the other one hasn’t missed anything.

The way to turn it off is to look for it’s icon in the system tray. The system tray is the line of icons that appear at the bottom right corner of the task bar on your opening Windows screen. Right click it’s icon, and select “Shut Down” for Spyware Doctor, or “Exit” for Spyware Terminator in the pop up list that appears. You can restart them by navigating to their icon on the desktop, or in the program menu list.

With all these programs you should read their help files, plus navigate through their settings or preferences, to make sure they’re running at their full protection potential. (NOTE: In Vista you will need to right click on the program icon, and select “Run as Administrator”, in the popup list, to get them working fully.)

The next blog will be on two easy to use Rootkit scanners you can use in Windows. Read my previous blog on rootkits “What on earth is a rootkit”, to get some background on rootkits.

I hope you installed and scanned your computer with the free extra anti-virus checker I suggested in the bottom of my previous blog “False Sense of Security”.

My friends and I spend our time doing other things, we use Linux or Apple computers

© 2009 Peter Daley

Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.

By Peter Daley

For those of you with a sense of humour, this has nothing to do with a kit to improve your sex life, in fact it would probably have the opposite effect! So what are rootkits? They are super stealth hacks that are hidden from most virus checkers and spyware detectors. Trouble is, large numbers of computers using the Windows operating systems are being infected with rootkits. I do a lot of computer troubleshooting and repairs, and in the last few weeks, I have been finding an increasing number of computers infected with rootkits.

So you’ve been diligent, and kept your virus, spyware, and firewall up to date, but one of the family has decided to use one of the music sharing systems, or visited a site, and your computer has been hacked through your web browser. Hidden inside your confidently safe computer is a super stealth rootkit.

You can run your virus checker or spyware removal tools till the cows come home, you won’t find anything. You need to run this special tool called rootkitrevealer. Most of you are going to find the information on the rootkitrevealer page, gobbledy gook. Read it if your feel you will understand some, or just cut to the chase, and go to the bottom of the page and download the Rootkitrevealer.zip file. It is a compress zip file, so save it onto your computer, and unpack it. Then run the Rootkitrevealer.exe file on you computer.

If you have no understanding off the last two lines in the above paragraph, you’re in over your head, and should immediately stop all Internet banking on your home or work computers. Change your banking password immediately and stick to phone banking or psychically go to the bank. This type of basic security knowledge is essential to your banking and business security on the Internet. Most people’s faith in computer security is unfounded, and based on poor information.

So you run Rootkitrevealer on you computer, (By the way, there are more steps involved to run rootkitrevealer on Vista, at present), and you get discrepancy results. What do they mean? The best I can tell you in brief, is to look to the end of discrepancy lines, and you may need to widen the column to see them, items like SAC, SAI are normal, as are entries that may refer to your virus checker name. eg Symantecs (Norton’s anitvir), or Nero, a CD burning programme. Most clean computers will only have a few normal discrepancies as described above. The more discrepancies, the more likely the breach to your computer security. Most people will not have a clue what are normal discrepancies and what are abnormal. Anything over about 4 or 5 is suspicious.

All I can say is take a deep breath, and read this free book on stress management.

If you find any rootkits, getting rid of them is another story. Have you got all afternoon! I really feel that most of you out there should stop Internet banking and use phone banking or go psychically to the bank. I have been demonstrating the use of Rootkitrevealer to Sunshine Coast Computer Club members.

© 2007 Peter Daley

Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.

By Peter Daley

Your ADSL Broadband modem is your high speed gateway to the Internet. It is also your first line of defence against attack, so it should be secured. Isn’t it already? NO. The vast majority of home and small business modems are being operated by their owners, thinking that it is secure and it ain’t!

Imagine that every new model of a Toyota, Holden, or Ford Car built, was sold with the same set of keys. You would all be jumping up and down complaining. Anyone could have instant access to your new car. Hey, that’s just crazy! Yes it is.

And yet every model of broadband ADSL modem is sent from the factory with the same user name and password, plus the supplied username and password is generally admin and admin, or admin and password. Now that’s just crazy. Why? Because all a hacker has to do is detect what model modem you have, and they’re into your network or computer. In actual fact, they don’t even need to know what model, because different manufacturers use the same generic password. Plus most service providers may only supply a couple of different models of a particular brand, so If they find out which ISP you’re using, they pretty well know what the password for your broadband modem will be.

This modem security issue could easily have been avoided by modem manufacturers generating a unique User Name & Password for every modem and sticking it under the modem, or in the supplied booklet! You would still be able to change it later.

Well, what can you do? Change the factory supplied username and password! The modem will be supplied with a small paper manual, or there will be a manual on the installation CD. Look for the item that refers to manual access, or manual set up, and follow the instructions for changing your username & password. If you’re going to change this password, create one of those real random ones that everybody hates to try and remember. Don’t use birthdays, pet names, 1234, or something simple. You have to make it complicated. Hackers have sophisticated tools that can crack simple passwords in seconds. So make is random, use some upper-case letters, numbers and symbols. Also, make it at least 12 characters or longer if possible. You don’t need to remember it, stick it under the modem, or in a special password book. Some models will only allow you to change the password, but not the user name.

(This is important, the password and user name we want you to change is not the user name, (generally your email address) and password you have been supplied with by your ISP for accessing the Internet. This password and user name are also in the broadband modem. If you’re seeing these entries, you’re in the wrong place. Leave these entries alone, or you will lose access to the Internet!)

Another item to check while you’re in there, is that your modem firewall it turned on. A firewall is a defense system built into modem, that monitors what systems are allowed to have access to and from the Internet. Think of it like a security guard on a building, watching who or what is allowed to enter or leave the building. It is a very big part of your Internet security and must be on a standard or high setting. If you set a firewall setting too high, you may lose Internet access. Consult your modem manual. If it is not on, you have probably already been hacked! I have come across seven ADSL modems in the last fortnight that had been hacked, and their firewalls had been turned off.

This means the hacker can not only have complete access to all your connected computers, but also potential to redirect you, or your staff, to malicious or counterfeit sites which look like your bank, but are not! They can also redirect traffic through your Internet account. This traffic can be lots of spam, virus attacks, terrorist or hacker communications. The hackers just love this because they can send all this malicious stuff anonymously. It’s going through your Internet account so it is difficult to track.

Why would anyone want to do this to my computer? These days the hackers can make big money out of it. Crime gangs pay them good money to pilfer credit card information, bank user names and passwords, or send spam etc. It used to be just sport. “I can do this to poor unsuspecting saps”. But now they can make good money doing what they enjoy. Isn’t that everyone’s dream! The IT industry just makes it easy for them.

© 2007 Peter Daley

Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.

By Peter Daley

In my opinion, the Windows operating system is now owned by the bad guys. They’re sitting back laughing at the pathetic attempts of the average computer user to secure their Windows computers.

Recently a hacker group was reportedly caught in control of an estimated 1.2 million computers, mostly home or small business computers. This is just one gang. For this to happen, there must be something drastically wrong with Windows security. Is it that Windows security is simply overwhelmed, or does it need a drastic rethink and redesign? OK, you could point the blame at the large number of inexperienced computer users, but if they can’t even visit web sites in safety, what chance do they have.

I am in this business, and I mainly work on Windows machines and I have seen it’s security situation deteriorate. Recently, I found three computers, newly purchased, with a virus infection already on them. I re-installed another computer’s operating system, using it’s recovery disk, only to find the computer had a virus installed by the recovery disk. So what chance does the average joe have if they can’t even be guaranteed a clean computer at purchase? These infections were caused by third party programs that had been bundled with the Windows operating system to value add the computer. I am constantly working on Windows computers and it is very rare these days to find one totally clean.

I have been recommending to clients and Sunshine Coast Computer Club Inc. members, who are Windows users, to install at least two virus checkers, two spy ware removal tools, two RootKit Checkers and a good firewall program, plus make sure they get regular updates. This may give them a fighting chance at keeping their system secure! Why? because no single virus checker, spy ware tool, or rootkit checker is not sufficient any more, to detect the avalanche of malicious content presently attacking the Windows operating system.

This is simply put, a ridiculous situation!

(I personally us the Linux Operating System, which is at present, virtually virus free in comparison to Windows. Apple/Macs computers are also far more secure.)

As I see it, Windows users have four options.

1. Only use a Linux, Apple/mac based computer for the Internet. Use your Windows computer for other tasks. Don’t connect it to the net.

2. Stop using Windows and use a Linux or an Apple/Mac computer.

3. If you insist on using Windows on the Internet, install the recommended free software, or something similar, which I will suggest in future blogs, and keep it all up to date, and scan the computer regularly. (Read further for the first suggested program.)

4. Do not keep passwords, confidential, commercial, or private information stored in an Internet connected Windows computer!

This security situation is a major issue.

It is a big waste of your personal and business time and money.

It places at risk your confidential, personal and business information.

It places at risk your financial transactions.

It also presents serious issues about national security. Imagine the national chaos caused by 1.2 million computers being shut down at once!

We should all collectively start demanding greatly improved security rather than accepting the present situation as part of owning a computer.

As an exercise, download and install Clamwin, a free opensource antivirus program on to your Windows Computer to use as your second antivirus program. It will be used to cover the back of the other antivirus program, by checking that it hasn’t missed anything.

http://www.clamwin.com

Once you have downloaded and installed Clamwin, it will create a rifle sight Icon in the system tray. (The system tray is the line of icons that appear at the bottom right corner of the task bar on your opening Windows screen.) Double click it to open it, if Clamwin asks to update the first time it opens, let it.

A. In the open Clamwin program window, left click the “Preference” button. This is the first button top left of the Clamwin window. Make sure the ‘report only’ item is selected.

(NOTE: This is important when running a second virus checker on a system. Why? So is to prevent the possibility, (in this case Calmwin), from deleting or removing the other virus checkers virus database. If it were to delete this file, the main virus program will not be able to detect viruses.)

B. Now go to the “Advance” tab, and make sure all the four boxes here are ticked.

C. If your present virus checker scans incoming emails, you will also need to go the “Email Scanning” tab, in Clamwin and untick the email scanning items. This is so it doesn’t clash with your other virus checker trying to scan incoming emails.

D. When connected to the Internet, click the update button. After the update is finished, highlight your local disk C drive from the drive list in the main window, and click the “Scan Selected Files for Viruses”, button. The furthest button to the right in the button bar.

On some computers this scan could take 8 hours or more, so do this when you can leave Clamwin to do it’s job. Now you can get on an with those jobs around the house you been putting off . You spouse will be happy.

It is very likely that a large number of you will find viruses that your other virus checker missed. Be careful because if it says it found a virus at the other virus checkers address in the file system it is most likely a false positive. It has just detected the other virus checkers virus data base as a virus.

© 2008 Peter Daley

Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.

By Peter Daley

Hackers have sophisticated tools that are freely available on the Internet that can break simple passwords, like your cats name, 1234, or anything simple, in approximately 10 minutes. So all of you need to re-think how you create passwords. All your systems that use password access need to have a good complicated password.

I can hear all of you greenhorns out there moaning and saying “my simple password is so easy to remember, and I use it for everything. This makes my life so much simpler.” Well the hackers are laughing at you, because it makes their life so much simpler too!

Yes, I know there are computer programs that claim to safely sort all your passwords on your computer for easy access, but truthfully, you can’t rely on them not to be hacked. The hackers see them as a little honey pot of all your passwords, with every thing in one place. It just saves them a lot of work. Never store password information on your computer, and change passwords regularly.

It is very important that you create complex passwords for everything, banking, Internet accounts, Broadband/wireless Modem, and Internet Game site access, etc., that contain some upper case letters, numbers, and where possible, characters like #, &, or similar. Unfortunately, some password creation systems will not allow you to use characters like #, &, or similar, in the password. If they don’t, then use a complicated mixture of upper case, and lower case letters and numbers.

It should be at least 12 characters long. Why? Because hacker’s have sophisticated password cracking tools, that can break the average dictionary word based password, with a few numbers thrown in, in a few minutes! The longer the complicated password, the harder it is to crack.

I know some people who have changed banks simply because the bank web site wouldn’t allow them to create a complex password using characters like #,>, &, etc. For those of you scratching your head right now thinking how am I going to create all these super passwords, here is a free tool you can use. It is an Ultra High Security Passwords Generator, kindly provided by Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation.

https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

Use the second row, the 63 random printable ASCII characters row for general password creation. For those of your ready to panic, you don’t need to use all 63 characters for each password just 12 or more characters, randomly selected from those shown. (For those of you using Linux, use this tool to create a really good admin root password.)

If this bit stressed you, read this Free Book on Stress Management.

The facts are that most computer users are way out classed. The crime gangs are employing some of the best computer minds in the world, and paying them good money to create more ingenious and sophisticated hacks. So everyone using a computer needs to get their act together, and stop thinking that your computer is a communication and entertainment tool, and realize that it is continually under sophisticated attack, and you need to raise your understanding of computer security, and defend yourself.

I am constantly hearing of personal bank accounts being pilfered. In some cases the banks have refused to reimburse the amount lost. The American stats for 2007 were 3.83 million Americans lost an average US$1500 each from their bank accounts through bank pilfering. Now that all adds up to a lot of money!

A month ago the criminal Internet economy was estimated to be making $150 billion dollars annually worldwide. It is now making more money than the north American drug trade. So they have a lot of money to re-invest in research and development.

It is not much use going to all the trouble of creating wonderful complicated passwords if your computer is already hacked. Because hackers will have it as soon as you type it. (The statistic show 25% or more of you reading this articles are hacked already.) So get yourself up to speed, and read my previous blogs that outline how to secure your system, and keep it safe, plus use the suggested tools to check to make sure your system is clean.

© 2008 Peter Daley

Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.

By Peter Daley

The Windows virus situation has gone from bad to the ridiculously bad. I am telling you how it is, and not what the industry would like you believe it is. They’re not in control, the bad guys are!

Just look at this virus total site and you will get a good clear picture of what most Windows users, and our Windows IT infrastructure is up against.

This site assesses the effectiveness of the major Windows virus checkers. Firstly click on the “More Information” link, and then scroll down the page. Here you will see a list of virus checkers they are using for testing virus discovery rates. Most of the major Windows virus checkers, free and commercial, are listed.

Now click on the “Statistics” link at Virus Total and look at the first of two pie graphs. The first one shows the number of suspicious files sent to them for virus testing in the last 24 hours. Yes, that’s correct, this snap shot is only for 24 hours. The blue part are files that were not virus infected, the red part are files that in the last 24 hours were found to be virus infected. Large numbers wouldn’t you say! Well, now go down to the second pie graph and check out the success rate of all those virus checkers you saw in the list, at finding virus infected files. OK, the new malicious files here will eventually be added to the viruses discovery data bases of the listed virus checkers. This may take a day or even weeks.

Pretty shocking situation! Statistically, at best Windows virus checkers are only finding 37% of the viruses. So if you are confidently using the virus checker you paid $50 to $100 or more for, it ain’t going to find all the viruses! OK, the salesman told you that it’s all you needed to protect your Windows Computer. Well it is not, and far from it. It doesn’t matter whether it is a free, or commercial virus checker, they’re all in the same boat, which as far as I can see is sinking in a tidal wave of malware.

How clear can I make it, no single virus checker is finding all the Windows viruses.

So as I pointed out in this blog I wrote 15 months ago, you need more that one virus checker in Windows to have any chance of finding all the viruses. Back then, I was suggesting Windows users use at lease two checkers. This year I am suggesting using three.

Here are my free virus checker suggestions for non commercial use. You need to use multiple virus checkers with caution, because one virus checker can find the others virus detection data base, and think that it has found a virus and remove it. This would then disable the virus checker.

Generally, in most circumstances, these virus checkers will work together. If you already have a virus checker installed, and are happy with it, try installing one of these and see if they will work together without clashing.

AVG Free (Use this as your main auto scanning / email scanning virus checker)

Avira Free can be used instead of AVG for those who find AVG clashes with something on their computer.

Both AVG and Avira offer paid versions which provide more protection features.

Clamwin, make sure you read the bottom part of my previous blog here, on how to set up and use Clamwin as a secondary virus checker. Us this as a guide on getting multiple anti-virus programs working together.

Comodo Internet Security suite.

(NOTE 1: Comodo Internet Security is also a firewall, so if you don’t want to use the firewall feature, just download the Comodo Anti-virus program separately.)

(NOTE 2: It is important to turn of Comodo’s Anti-virus background scanning off if it is not going to be your main virus checker. You click on the Comdo Icon an then the “Antivirus tab / Scanner Settings” and drag the  “Real Time  Scanning” to the “Disable” position. )

If you have multiple anti-virus programs all with their real time scanning features turned on at the same time, it will slow down your computer. So only have one program with their real time / background scanning feature turned on at any one time!

Read my blog here on Firewalls.

This will provide you with three virus checkers which will work together. Collectively, their combination will be far more effective than any single Windows virus checker. They should be updated, and run through your Windows computer regularly.

You are also faced with the fact that a lot of modern virus checkers are now flagging more files as viruses incorrectly. Flagging a file as a virus incorrectly is called a false positive. In my opinion, anti-virus vendors are panicking. Most of them now know that they have no chance with their present Windows technologies, of detecting anywhere near all the malware! Ironically, the hackers are submitting their creations to the Virus Total testing site, to see if their code will be detected as a virus. Now that is innovation for you!

What a ridiculous situation,. You will be spending a part of a day or so, every week, just updating and scanning with your virus checkers, to make sure your Windows OS is clean! Well all I can say is good luck, you’re going to need it Watch out for those false positives. A lot of our club members now use Linux for the Internet, and use Windows for other things. (If you use Linux for the Internet make sure you have created a good root password, and have the firewall installed and set up securely, plus constantly install all the latest distros updates, and patches.)

The Chinese are smart, they have created their own secure operating system “Kylin” for their critical infrastructure computers. It is based on Linux / BSD. The Russians, Chinese and the criminal gangs are just laughing at our inability to protect our private and commercial IT infrastructure.

© Peter Daley, 2009

Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.

By Peter Daley

Lets look at the facts.

Virus checkers are at best, only finding 37% of the latest threats.

From the statistics of on line virus scanners, it’s generally agreed that 25% of all computers have malicious content on them, (some would argue the true figure is as high as 70%!)

This means hundreds of millions of computer users have their finances at risk. The vast majority of these infected computers are using Windows. Windows has a 95% market share. Therefore hackers aim their exploits mainly at Windows users.

Here is a Solution.

Use a Live CD disk. This bypasses all the Windows keyboard loggers, trojans, viruses, spy-ware and rootkit exploits, that may presently be on your computer. I know of no other system that does that.  There are huge advantages in doing this. As you can run an entire clean operating system from a CD, you can start your computer from it, and get on the internet with a lot more safety because:

1. If your normal operating system has been infected with keyboard loggers, trojans, viruses, spy-ware, rootkits, or bootkits, these will be inactive, because the CD loads a complete clean and separate OS (Operating System), each time you use it. The operating system is completely separated from your normal OS etc., Windows, Linux or Apple.

2. The CD can’t be written to, so no keyboard loggers, trojans, viruses. spy-ware, rootkits, and bootkits can be recorded on the disk, hidden, then activated from the CD later. When it pops out, and you pop it back in the next time to use it, you know it is totally clean!

3. The Mandriva Live CD has a good firewall. This helps prevent intruders breaking in, and installing malicious programs.

4. You can use it for safer Internet banking, financial transactions, changing your online passwords, or as a safe system when your are travelling. (You can’t assume other people’s computers, or those in Internet kiosks are clean.)

5. You can also put visiting friends and relatives on the Internet, using the Live disk, and know that when they’re finished using the computer, you can restart, and it is totally clean.

Of course once you master using the Live CD, in a Live CD session, you should change your important passwords. The reason is that hackers may already have stolen this information, by hacking your Windows computer. Using the Live CD does not change your computer in any way. You can go back to using Windows, and it is exactly as it was before you used the Live CD.

Most of the present exploits are designed to install trojans, viruses, spyware and rootkits, on the hard drive of mainly Windows computers. This is so they can control the computer, and steal passwords, credit card numbers, personal information, and banking information etc. The Live CD system bypasses all this, and in my opinion, if used wisely, can give a great deal of extra security.

Ok, the Live CD can’t be updated with a patch. This is one of it’s great strengths, because it can’t be recorded on to, so no malicious content can be recorded on it. (Lots of these Windows machines are fully patched, and still infected. Patching doesn’t mean the machine is clean. If you already have malicious content on your computer, patching does nothing. When a hacker finds a vulnerability, he doesn’t tell the world, he keeps it hidden, so he can exploit it. Patches only fix those vulnerabilities, the honest computer experts discover.) Live CDs are regularly updated to new versions, with all the latest updates and patches. They are available as a free download, or can be purchased for a small fee as a CD. The Live CD updated versions are generally available every 3, 6, or 12 months, depending on the version. There are differences in security between different versions, so you must do security checks before using any.

There are no perfect systems, I give no warranties on the use of this system. You use it at your own risk. The computer security situation is such, that new unknown hack techniques, and systems, are being developed constantly. No one can honestly give a guarantee that any system is totally safe. This is the safest system I can think of at present.

(c) 2008 Peter Daley

Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.