What protection do you use?

[getvisible]

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I'm not talking about nocternal activities (other than hand coding by torchlight)

What do you use to protect your computer from hacking, spyware etc?

[getvisible]

my antivirus just quarantined an email from paypal.com - well that's what these geezers want us to think.

it's return address is Do_Not_Reply@paypal.com and comes with a nasty load.


Dear PayPal member,

We regret to inform you that your account is about to be expired in next
five business days. To avoid suspension of your account you have to
reactivate it by providing us with your personal information.

To update your personal profile and continue using PayPal services you
have to run the attached application to this email. Just run it and
follow the instructions.

IMPORTANT! If you ignore this alert, your account will be suspended in
next five business days and you will not be able to use PayPal anymore.

Thank you for using PayPal.



wrewiibi



W32.Mimail.J@mm is a mass-mailing worm that attempts to steal personal information. This worm displays a series of forms that ask users to enter their credit card information. (See the "Technical Details" for illustrations.) This information is saved and later emailed to several predetermined email addresses.

[Shane]

I thought I was very careful, I have Norton anti virus and Firewall, I am acutely aware of how trojans etc work, yet I still had employeewatcher and n-case on my system, which is a bit scary but at least I use more than one computer so the risk is halved lol.. hey ho..

I just found this tool.. NETCOP you can use it 5 times before you have to register it and pay for it but it does look like the dog's nads as far as anti spyware (and it has a 35% affiliate scheme lol) so here is the link With no aff ID

-----------ok I ran it now

shows no spyware installed.. hmmm methinks either it's not as good as it says OR other spy detection stuff I got is overstating it's case a little so you buy it and use it..grrr

[Marc Gear]

I just have junk mail filters on my email, and turn pop ups off on my browser.

I dont run any antivirus, firewall or ad blocking software as from experience, these cause more problems than they ever resolve.

[Shane]

Marc ????

I dont run any antivirus, firewall

Are you insane..

do you know how easy it would be for me to install a trojan on your computer and watch absoutely everything you do?

you really.. and I mean REALLY should use norton AV at the very least..

Trust I know what I am on about... cos when aaar were a lad I wor all interested in trojans n stoof cos it wa uber elite and CIA like...

nah really if anyone wants a live demo then let me know.. would scare the pants off ya...

now click here to a great GAME I found ...ahem.. tis that easy

--------

and even though I know what I am on about..I still got nailed with employeewatcher somehow too ! hmmm now which one of u guys sent me that feckin frog blender game..lol

[getvisible]

marc - I'm not going OTT here but I think you owe it to those you communicate via email with to do your bit to stop them getting viruses from ur machine.

I see not having a firewall/ AV software like openly sleeping with infected people without a condom and then sleeping with others!

Is all the data on your hard drive backed up and do you check any data you send home?

I'm freaked!

[Marc Gear]

Originally posted by ShaneRbn21
Are you insane..

Its been said...

do you know how easy it would be for me to install a trojan on your computer and watch absoutely everything you do?

you really.. and I mean REALLY should use norton AV at the very least..

Actually if you can get a trojan on my home PC i'd be very impressed as there are not a lot of exploits around for the operating system I use and the ones that are are pretty difficult.

My work PC would be a little easier as its windows, but you'd still have to get me to install something. I dont use a dodgy MS email client, and i mostly use non-standard software, except when i need to test something.

Norton is almost the most awful computer software you can buy, I cannot put into words exactly how bad it is. Its incredibly overzealous, slow and has a thousand other faults

Trust I know what I am on about... cos when aaar were a lad I wor all interested in trojans n stoof cos it wa uber elite and CIA like...

thats l334 not 'elite'

Been there, done that, and the exploits havent changed much. I've known people that were really into 'hacking' after seeing films like 'wargames' and 'hackers'... script kiddies and packet monkeys mate - the lot of em

trojans and viruses are targeted at the unintelligent. Look at that love letter virus from the other year - went around like wildfire because of all those dumb execs in big officed opening the email because it said 'I Love You' in it.

marc - I'm not going OTT here but I think you owe it to those you communicate via email with to do your bit to stop them getting viruses from ur machine.

Ask anyone, i never reply
No seriously though, there havent been any mozilla viruses for a while and if i got sent one, i wouldn't install it. Being able to use my PC properly without security software messing things up for me is much more important.

I see not having a firewall/ AV software like openly sleeping with infected people without a condom and then sleeping with others!

Dont believe all the hype that the software manufacturers want you to believe -
It isn't quite that bad. Eachtime zonealarm opens up a window to warn you someone is trying to connect to some funky high portnumber for Back Orifice or SubSeveen its just someone doing a scan, doesn't mean you have it installed or that they are out to get you personaly.

Is all the data on your hard drive backed up and do you check any data you send home?

everything i need is backed up to tape overnight at work, and i dont have anything at home i especially need which isn't availiable elsewhere again.

I'm freaked!

Jeez, i can tell i have to learn you guys some stuff - you mean phreaked

Seriously guys - i take security very seriously, and have good deal of experience in the area, shane probably knows that i mean *wink* and i'm not fumbling around with a PC full of dodgy stuff.

[wwwb]

i have to agree with marc on antiv (although we've got a hardware firewall and i use a scumware finder)

norton is the cause of most evil on pcs- it knackered my last pc, it didn't detect most viruses, its incompatible with loads of other software (used to get loads of calls on tech support about it)

IMO if you don't want icky ****e on your pc

1)Don't use Outlook Express (its got more holes than a holey thing) - try Pegasus Mail (free and non holey)
2)Don't use webmail in your browser especially Internet Explorer
3)Don't open mail from anyone you don't recognise or looks suss
3)Use Adaware
4)Be sensible
5)Buy a MAC

Edited coz forgot no. 5!

[renegade]

Marc, I'm stunned.
Your machine is probably already infected and if it isn't you are the luckiest person alive!
I have visited and repaired dozens of machines and EVERY machine I checked had spyware and worse on-board.
You've gotta install anti-virus as a bare minimum.

[Marc Gear]

Originally posted by wwwb
1)Don't use Outlook Express (its got more holes than a holey thing) - try Pegasus Mail (free and non holey)

Or <a href="http://www.mozilla.org">Thunderbird</a>

2)Don't use webmail in your browser especially Internet Explorer

Good advice.

[b3)Don't open mail from anyone you don't recognise or looks suss[/b]

I would add that you should never open attachments you're not expecting

4)Be sensible

or just... "THINK!!!!111oneonoeone"

[Marc Gear]

Originally posted by renegade
Your machine is probably already infected and if it isn't you are the luckiest person alive!

Okay... i've got mcaffee installed and its up to date, it just doesn't run all the time. I'll scan my HD and download ad-aware and tell you what i've got...

will post when i'm done.

[Marc Gear]

OMG!!!!

Ad Aware found 652 items!
excluding the installer for Kazaa (in my downloads folder), and some of those dodgy porn dialer software things that people mail (in my deleted email attachments folder) and the registry key for Real Media Player, it found about 645 cookies from various websites.

I read somewhere cookies were really bad and invaded your privacy and everything... should i delete them?

Bit of a let down there, i was hoping it might find something i didn't know was there.

The anti-virus sweep is running now!

[Guswold]

I'm no techy or reformed bad-boy hacker, but I have to agree with Marc - I think most AV products are worse than the stuff they're supposed to cure. I use ZoneAlarm for a firewall, but rely on MailWasher (and common-sense) to pick up Viruses as well as Spam, which is a darn sight quicker and less intrusive than Graham (Norton). Finally, a quick check with Adware every month or two reassures me that no other nasties have somehow crept in...

[Marc Gear]

0 infected files found!!!!

McAfee Results:
McAffee found the dialer programs i mentioned in the post above and decided they were 'potentially unwanted' which i more or less agreed with so i let it delete them.

Apart from that, it didn't find anything.

Yay me.

[renegade]

Originally posted by Marc Gear
0 infected files found!!!!

Impressive!
I'm not a fan of AV and firewall products but I wouldn't risk leaving broadband connected without both installed.
I've visited customers with dozens of trojans and hundreds of viruses on their machines (they're always impressed when they see stats like 645 zillion bad things on your machine).
I've personally been infected twice visiting the Microsoft update site after installing XP on brand new machines to do the updates before installing Norton and one of my mates runs a PC company which has a steady stream of punters delivering their unusable machines to him to sort out, it is only a matter of when, not if your machine is infected and remember - Pride comes before a fall