So what happened to you today? - Topic Powered by eve community

Member

Posted

GOODNIGHT

everyone is entitled to my opinion

Posts: 3929 | Registered: February 12, 2003

Ignored post by dawntreader posted

heavyboots

Member

Posted

Well, once you restore the system (and I offer sincere wishes for good luck & smooth sailing during that endeavor), first thing is to kick the IE habit. Go download Firefox. While you're at it, grab some of the excellent extensions they have available for it, like:

FlashBlock
MediaPlayerConnectivity
AdBlock
BugMeNot

Now admittedly, you could still theoretically & eventually get zapped surfing with FireFox, but they seem to be pretty responsive to security threats and they have a seriously kick-ass Updater system as of 1.5. It's so fast and easy to update FireFox with patches it's ridiculous!

Posts: 4697 | Registered: January 14, 2003

Ignored post by heavyboots posted

Bigend

Member

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Marshdrifter:
quote:
Originally posted by dawntreader:
i didnt just click on it i tried to view it and when i tried to view it in my media center my system crashed. you guys can blow steam over what may have happened. I know what happened.

Obviously you don't. Everybody loads the avatars
for viewing everytime a page loads. Considering
the massive collective amounts of virus software
that must regularly scan this forum, you'd think
that either someone else would have a similar
problem or would have had some sort of virus
warning from their antivirus.

quote:
A trojan virus was set upon me and did all kinds of damage.

I believe you, but it's obvious that you're
unaware of its origins.

quote:
take up for that f.......... newbee if you want.

Ah yes, and length of occupancy is the true
status here.

quote:
I am royally pissed.

I don't doubt it and can truly empathize with
your plight, but flinging around unsupportable
accusations helps nothing and noone.

you are such a nice person.

a cynic is just a disapointed optimist

Posts: 19 | Registered: April 07, 2006

Ignored post by Bigend posted

colin

Member

Posted

Believe me, DT, I know what it feels like to have a bunch of files deleted by virii or malware. I believe you, OK? I think you know what happened, but I also think you should try to avoid jumping to conclusions.

See, I, personally, would have blamed Media Center. That came bundled with my system but it gives me the willies. It opens up ports and trys to be really "friendly" (i.e. do stuff when you don't ask it to... like set itself up as a constantly running service). If for some reason your system is exposed to the internet without a firewall, or your firewall is setup funkily, I wouldn't be half surprised if somebody hit some exploit in your Media Center software based on an open port.

Even so, that's just a hunch. I wouldn't be so certain about the cause of an infection without very good evidence. (And what I was doing at the time the system went nuts is not good evidence, actually, because many of these things act on a delay, or in the case of worms can come straight in off the internet with no warning.)

Even assuming that hasad is both obsessively malicious and impressively technical, he would still need to be very, very lucky to catch you specifically with an exploit like you described. If you did nothing special, then why didn't it hit anyone else? If you did something special (including viewing his avatar through the view image menu) then how did he know you would do that before someone else did?

No doubt there is someone out there who deserves a good whippin' for what they did, but also consider the possibility that you may have ruined some entirely different person's day because you're sure you're right. That would probably make the real asshole out there pretty happy if he knew about it.

And yes, goodnight.

________
You have to give up

Posts: 11975 | Location: Silicon Valley (not Japan) | Registered: May 28, 2003

Ignored post by colin posted

Gromit

Member

Posted

I bought a new motorcycle. Looks like this:

-----------------------------
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger; comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."
-- Mel Brooks

Posts: 7579 | Location: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: February 02, 2003

Ignored post by Gromit posted

lithos

Member

Posted

Gromit:

Coming to some pavement near you, fast.

The Lithos School of Curiousity is now enrolling

Posts: 12032 | Location: KG, BNE | Registered: May 15, 2004

Ignored post by lithos posted

Gromit

Member

Posted

The trick is to keep yourself off the pavement, actually.

This afternoon we discovered that our local gallery is hosting this exhibition of photographs by the late David Moore.

What an incredible photographer. I must go again. It's worth browsing that site, but here are a few images as an example of his work:

-----------------------------
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger; comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."
-- Mel Brooks

Posts: 7579 | Location: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: February 02, 2003

Ignored post by Gromit posted

Bravus

Member

Posted

Tasty, Gromit. I was reading somewhere a guy who credited his never-having-dropped-a-bike status to advanced rider training courses, and that makes sense to me. I wanna get a bike when I get to Oz, and will be looking to keep advancing my skills, by training up in a safe controlled environment, as well as by riding carefully and assuming that all the cages are actively trying to nail me.

________________________
differently mediated

Posts: 12611 | Location: all up in ur netwurx | Registered: January 11, 2003

Ignored post by Bravus posted

Gromit

Member

Posted

Get all the training you can, think of it as an exercise in risk management.

So - when do you expect to be arriving back in Godzone?

[Edit: I might cross-post those David Moore pics to the "About Photography" thread.]

-----------------------------
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger; comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."
-- Mel Brooks

Posts: 7579 | Location: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: February 02, 2003

Ignored post by Gromit posted

Bravus

Member

Posted

July 1, plus or minus a day. We'll probably buy a car first, and then I'll likely salary package a fairly new bike, but likely a 250 or 400... something unthirsty and not too fearsomely powerful. Is yours a 600? Wih Brisbane weather being what it is, and after 5 years in a climate where people only bother registering/insuring their bikes for half the year, it's just too tempting.

________________________
differently mediated

Posts: 12611 | Location: all up in ur netwurx | Registered: January 11, 2003

Ignored post by Bravus posted

Member

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by colin:
Believe me, DT, I know what it feels like to have a bunch of files deleted by virii or malware. I believe you, OK? I think you know what happened, but I also think you should try to avoid jumping to conclusions.

See, I, personally, would have blamed Media Center. That came bundled with my system but it gives me the willies. It opens up ports and trys to be really "friendly" (i.e. do stuff when you don't ask it to... like set itself up as a constantly running service). If for some reason your system is exposed to the internet without a firewall, or your firewall is setup funkily, I wouldn't be half surprised if somebody hit some exploit in your Media Center software based on an open port.

Even so, that's just a hunch. I wouldn't be so certain about the cause of an infection without very good evidence. (And what I was doing at the time the system went nuts is not good evidence, actually, because many of these things act on a delay, or in the case of worms can come straight in off the internet with no warning.)

Even assuming that hasad is both obsessively malicious and impressively technical, he would still need to be very, very lucky to catch you specifically with an exploit like you described. If you did nothing special, then why didn't it hit anyone else? If you did something special (including viewing his avatar through the view image menu) then how did he know you would do that before someone else did?

No doubt there is someone out there who deserves a good whippin' for what they did, but also consider the possibility that you may have ruined some entirely different person's day because you're sure you're right. That would probably make the real asshole out there pretty happy if he knew about it.

And yes, goodnight.

I am not a complete ass. When I logged on after the attack I did mention that person's name. In the heat of the moment mind you. Upon reflection I came to the same conclusion that you pointed out to me. Yes, it would be awful to ruin someone else's day because mine had been so thoroughly f..... . So I deleted all of those posts. Unfortunatley the genie had been let out of the bottle and the alledged offenders name was posted in my fellow board member's subsequent posts. I regret any ill fellings that may have arisen due to that momentary lapse of reason. Yet, again, I feel that a little ill will generated here due to my allegations, when balanced by the potential harm that could occur if I had not given a "heads up", is the lesser of 2 evils. You may not all concur, but hey, that is life.
ps..
I found the problem with a trojan hunter and have a new firewall that should be able to keep this kind of thing from happening again.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dawntreader,

everyone is entitled to my opinion

Posts: 3929 | Registered: February 12, 2003

Ignored post by dawntreader posted

Kradlum

Member

Posted

Went on pub crawll for collaehgues stag fdau,
I thik I mahnges 24 brs

Posts: 5847 | Location: London | Registered: April 02, 2003

Ignored post by Kradlum posted

colin

Member

Posted

quote:
I found the problem with a trojan hunter and have a new firewall that should be able to keep this kind of thing from happening again.

Glad to hear it, DT.

I also second the recommendation to switch away from Internet Explorer to Firefox (or Opera or some other browser you like) if possible. There are no guarantees, of course, but IE is the least safe browser to use, for a number of reasons.

P.S. And my apologies if my comments added to blowing things out of proportion, too.

________
You have to give up

Posts: 11975 | Location: Silicon Valley (not Japan) | Registered: May 28, 2003

Ignored post by colin posted

Member

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by heavyboots:
Well, once you restore the system (and I offer sincere wishes for good luck & smooth sailing during that endeavor), first thing is to kick the IE habit. Go download Firefox. While you're at it, grab some of the excellent extensions they have available for it, like:

FlashBlock
MediaPlayerConnectivity
AdBlock
BugMeNot

Now admittedly, you could still theoretically & eventually get zapped surfing with FireFox, but they seem to be pretty responsive to security threats and they have a seriously kick-ass Updater system as of 1.5. It's so fast and easy to update FireFox with patches it's ridiculous!

I did downlaod that and when I tried to use it , well it took so long to do anything I gave up in a fit of impatience.

everyone is entitled to my opinion

Posts: 3929 | Registered: February 12, 2003

Ignored post by dawntreader posted

Member

Posted

Also, while I do not want to go into any detail,(b/c whoever did this might be reading this post) there are still some traces of the attack on my hard drive that I have been unable to remove. I will have to take it in and have a professional clear up the problems.

everyone is entitled to my opinion

Posts: 3929 | Registered: February 12, 2003

Ignored post by dawntreader posted

Member

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by colin:
quote:
I found the problem with a trojan hunter and have a new firewall that should be able to keep this kind of thing from happening again.

Glad to hear it, DT.

I also second the recommendation to switch away from Internet Explorer to Firefox (or Opera or some other browser you like) if possible. There are no guarantees, of course, but IE is the least safe browser to use, for a number of reasons.

P.S. And my apologies if my comments added to blowing things out of proportion, too.

Colin, this is a discussion board. Any feed back I get I consider valuable in one way or another.

everyone is entitled to my opinion

Posts: 3929 | Registered: February 12, 2003

Ignored post by dawntreader posted

Justy

Member

Posted

Have you done the "Safe Mode Tango" yet? Shut down, reboot and hold down F8 when you see the bootup screen (or at some point before; timing is iffy), then run all your anti-spyware and virus tools. They should be able to delete the stuff that would normally still be running if you had booted normally.

If you've already done this, carry on.

_{»» "Forget infinity. I've got books waiting for me to read them." — colin
»»"Speculative novels of last Tuesday." — William Gibson}

Posts: 5216 | Location: Knoxville, TN, USA | Registered: January 12, 2003

Ignored post by Justy posted

Member

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Justy:
Have you done the "Safe Mode Tango" yet? Shut down, reboot and hold down F8 when you see the bootup screen (or at some point before; timing is iffy), then run all your anti-spyware and virus tools. They should be able to delete the stuff that would normally still be running if you had booted normally.

If you've already done this, carry on.

Thanks.. Will do.

everyone is entitled to my opinion

Posts: 3929 | Registered: February 12, 2003

Ignored post by dawntreader posted

Marshdrifter

Member

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by dawntreader:
I found the problem with a trojan hunter and have a new firewall that should be able to keep this kind of thing from happening again.

Excellent. I hope the cleanup goes well.

--
Fanaticism is nowhere. There's no
tenderness or humanity in fanaticism.
- Joe Strummer

Posts: 6963 | Location: Oisoconsing | Registered: March 26, 2003

Ignored post by Marshdrifter posted

lithos

Member

Posted

We got a washing machine yesterday! Along with a new flatmate!

Less rent to pay and I can do laundry!

The Lithos School of Curiousity is now enrolling

Posts: 12032 | Location: KG, BNE | Registered: May 15, 2004

Ignored post by lithos posted