Happily married with Spyware

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Roshi229

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Being "that guy from IT" (hw/sw desktop support for about 800-1000 computers) i see a lot of faces everyday... some a little too often ;) So it's not by chance that today while trying to enjoy a smokebreak i was cornered by two ladies, one i'd helped out a few times when her system was pritty messed up. The other lady i hadn't seen too often asked me, "so i hear you run a little job on the side or after hours (jokingly) even got a 1-800 number or something..."
"actually it's 1-900, but that's not the point...," i said
"well i've got a problem.."
(don't you all i thought to myself)
she continued, "last night i was checking my email at home... just as i finished my 5 year old girl came in with her Lizzy McGuire cd from McDonalds wanting to listen to it, just as a popup came up on the screen. It was a naked woman with a you know what in her mouth! my daughter freaked! i'm afraid to even use the computer, can you help?
i took another drag off my cigarette and said "yeah, i could."
she said she was willing to pay me back... to which i chuckled a little and pictured the popup... a thought still fresh in my mind.
so to make a long story short... i agreed to help the poor lady out but then realized this: "if i were a single guy again... looking for a middle aged woman with lotts of baggage, i've found my edge"

yes, once again i'm happy i'm married to a wonderful woman, and even happier yet i can take care of my PC so that something like this won't happen to me, as i too will have a child, expecting Sept. 8th ;)

please, keep your pc's clean... this is not something a 5 year old should be asking you to explain!!!!!
 
yeah spyware and adware have gotten ridiculous. ive heard far too many stories similar to that :(
 
I spend more and more time cleaning up spyware / adware as appose to virus now days.

ME :- It's spyware.
CLIENT :- It's just as bad as a virus.
ME :- Pretty much... btw that will be $XX amount for cleaning that up. And stop going to those free pr0n sites.
 
Were all guilty of naughty sites sometimes, even by accident.

Spyware is unavoidable, but people like us on the forums can highly reduce the amount of spyware we get by being smart.

pronomgr.exe isnt also spyware, and it's an intel app for intel m otherboards. I relised this after spending an hour trying to remove it with apps, than googled it :p
 
*Switching to security mode*....beep...beep...beep...security mode initialized.

Only once have I stumbled to one of those perverted sites, and that was a total mistake. I was looking for the soundtrack to a vid game. The girl who sits next to me in Comp Sci. gets that trash everyday in her Yahoo account 'cause she subsribed to some website that was apparently clean. She unsubsrcibed, but it has come back to haunt her. That stuff is sick, and scary if you ask me.
 
You cant really get spyware unless you go to a website with that kind of stuff.

That is NOT true. You can get spyware almost anywhere now.

http://www.techweb.com/wire/hardware/54201306

November 30, 2004 (2:40 PM EST)
Unprotected PCs Fall To Hacker Bots In Just Four Minutes

By Gregg Keizer, TechWeb.com

The lifespan of a poorly protected PC connected to the Internet is a mere four minutes, research released Tuesday claimed. After that, it's owned by a hacker.

In the two-week test, marketing-communications firm AvanteGarde deployed half a dozen systems in "honeypot" style, using default security settings. It then analyzed the machines' performance by tallying the attacks, counting the number of compromises, and timing how long it took an attack to successfully hijack a computer once it was connected to the Internet.

The six machines were equipped with Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003, Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), Microsoft Windows XP SP1 with the free ZoneAlarm personal firewall, Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Macintosh OS X 10.3.5, and Linspire's distribution of Linux.

Not surprisingly, Windows XP SP1 sans third-party firewall had the poorest showing.

"In some instances, someone had taken complete control of the machine in as little as 30 seconds," said Marcus Colombano, a partner with AvanteGarde, and, along with former hacker Kevin Mitnick, a co-investigator in the experiment. "The average was just four minutes. Think about that. Plug in a new PC--and many are still sold with Windows XP SP1--to a DSL line, go get a cup of coffee, and come back to find your machine has been taken over."

Windows XP SP1 with the for-free ZoneAlarm firewall, however, as well as Windows XP SP2, fared much better. Although both configurations were probed by attackers, neither was compromised during the two weeks.

"If you're running a firewall so your machine is not seen, you're less likely to be attacked," said Colombano. "The bot or worm simply goes onto the next machine." Although Windows XP SP1 includes a firewall, it's not turned on by default. That security hole was one of those plugged--and heavily touted--by Microsoft in SP2.

The successful attacks took advantage of weak passwords on the target machines, as well as a pair of long-patched vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. One, the DCOM vulnerability, harks back to July, 2003, and was behind the vicious MSBlast worm of that summer. The second, dubbed the LSASS vulnerability, was first disclosed in April, 2004, and led to the Sasser worm.

The most secure system during the experiment was the one running Linspire's Linux. Out of the box, Linspire left only one open port. While it reacted to ping requests by automated attackers sniffing for victims, it experienced the fewest attacks of any of the six machines and was never compromised, since there were no exposed ports (and thus services) to exploit.

The Macintosh machine, on the other hand, was assaulted as often as the Windows XP SP1 box, but never was grabbed by a hacker, thanks to the tunnel vision that attackers have for Windows. "The automated bot/worm attackers were exclusively using Windows-based attacks," said Colombano, so Mac and Linux machines are safe. For now. "[But] it would have been very vulnerable had code been written to compromise its system," he added.

For the bulk of users who work with Windows, however, Colombano didn't recommend dumping Redmond's OS and scurrying for the protection of hacker-ignored platforms.

"Update Windows regularly with Microsoft's patches, use a personal firewall--third-party firewalls still have their place, since Microsoft's isn't suited to guard against outbound attacks--keep secure passwords, and use some type of anti-virus and anti-spyware software," he advised. Of the list, the firewall is the most important. The study concluded, for example, that Linux- and Windows-based machines using an application firewall were the best at preventing attacks.

"No machine is immune," he counseled. "No human is safe from every virus, and it's the same for machines. That's why people have to have some personal responsibility about security. You have to be a good citizen on the network, so you're not only protecting yourself, but others who might be attacked from exploits originating on your machine."

You don't EVEN have to be surfing, JUST connected and you can get spyware/worms/trojans/etc. Liz
 
anyone who surfs unprotected by a firewall desrves what they get!

Uhh, did I say that?

Really, I have straightened out several people's computers, and each and every one of them were online without a firewall, an antivirus program, anti-spyware/adware program, their Windows had never been updated, etc. Sort of like the guy who totalled his RV...when the cops asked how he wrecked, he said, "I dunno. I engaged the cruise control and went back to make a sandwich..."

I read an article recently that stated how the new generation of computer user don't see the need for protection, as opposed to us who have been involved with computers from the get-go. I have to admit it...I agree.
 
"actually it's 1-900, but that's not the point...,"
lol roshi. You know how to make a story interesting.

-I had seen her face once....perhaps two times before. It was dark that evening and she came in smelling of a sweet perfume that made memories flood through my head....::takes a drag from the cigerette::.....I knew this girl was trouble from the start...but I had to ask-

"So whatcha need?", I say to her in a subtle almost monotone voice..

"I need something removed from my life...", looking at me with the helpless big blue eyes.

"Oh yeah? Don't we all sweetheart....So what do you need removed?", I ask waiting for her to spout her needs through those beautiful red lips

"I need.......I need a trojan removed.."

-I couldn't believe what I was hearing...was she for real? Or another lost gal playing with my insides...I had to know-

FIND OUT TOMORROW ON "As your PC turns.."
 
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