wildchild

It’s happening more frequent than ever. Friends, family and internauts (not only) in MSN have been infected with the craziest things ever. Not to mention the least, computer infections; spreading from target to target! Silly URL’s pointing towards no-more existing webspaces or scripts ready to infect a PC even more…

“Trust no-one is the best and primary rule in computer security”.

You don’t know for sure that mail you received from your friend, with holiday pictures, is really coming from your real friend! E-mail can be forged and faked. Ask your friend if he has really send something you are craving to open a malicious attachment ready to take over your entire system.

When you meet someone from a chat and exchange with MSN, the files you receive come from an unknown stranger; possibly containing code to take over your system. This can be prevented by making sure which you receive and having the right tools available.

Your computer contains your personal data. How would you feel more than a million people could gain access to your system, reading your personal data, love letters and conversations with others? How enraged would you be, knowing your computer could be used for illegal purposes like trafficking stolen credit cards, children porn, or even to hack and disable other remote systems? It’s like leaving the key on your frontdoor, inviting burglars to look around which they can take, vandalise or even use when they are inside your warm comfortable house. When a virus writer has access to your system, a million other people could gain the same access to it and do the same illegal stuff; because such virus/trojan data gets known through the Internet and used by the other half of malicious people around the net.

Incoming data exists in many ways, when you are connected to the Internet, a normal PC not using the web, mail or anything could send and receive hunderds to thousands of packages, including a lot of “illegal traffic” in them. Depending you’ve got a hardware firewall (read again: hardware firewall) inbetween, you’ll be able to block most of that “illegal traffic”.

What makes it “illegal” is because these packets contains malicious data, ready to infect and (ab)use a system without the knowledge of the third party. Viruses and trojans won’t die out as long as there are companies creating solutions for them. Still, a virus-scanner is not the golden egg of the future. Most of these softwares work on signatures and constant monitoring of the memory and file system for any sudden changes. Virus creators are smarter too, avoiding such routines by creating stealth code, randomizers and much more magicians tools ready to thwart the end user.

All this happens in the day of today and more than ever. Currently I’m getting the most random and disturbing messages ever from friends and family! That’s also the main reason why I’ve created this post, which falls completely in my field of computer security for the last 15 years. I’ve never been affected with these kinds of things because I’ve been always very strict in which I do with the data I receive. Frankly; the rule “trust no-one” can be implemented in full 360 degrees on the Internet; even to your own friends! Some may not know, but there are some rules which will keep your system guaranteed virus free.

20 tips to protect yourself and thwart from those evil foes wanting to use your precious cpu power, disk space and line capacity!

Detailed facts why you should never trust any incoming data:

1. Trust no-one you don’t know with unknown data, it’s like unsafe sex!

If you do not know (the intent of) the person, be safe!

The computer virus is in many points similar to a human virus. Data can contain malicious code ready to take over your system, just like any virus can enter your body.

2. Your friends could be infected by a virus or trojan

Your best friends and family could have a virus or trojan waiting to infect hunderds of others, before they even notice or patch their systems.

3. Your contacts PC could be shared with others giving similar risks

Friends and family could share the PC with others, not knowing the current ethic around computer security, acting less responsible. Some of these systems include public library pc’s, schools or a cybercafes with irresponsible or malicious people visiting the same PC an hour before you or your friend got on the chat.

4. These could send out files or url’s, unknowingly, to infect others

Most users do not know what’s going on inside their pc and how to (re)act on certain elements. A lot of users with computer infections don’t even know what to do about it, so they start to tolerate their virus tearing their system speed down to a PC from the eighties. It’s only once the system fails it gives a “real threat” to the end user… because it doesn’t work anymore!

5. Without knowing themselves, because most of these programs act in stealth

Most of these virusses are hiding their active spreading for the eyes of the computer user. Virusses stealth install themself on the system, often haunting their users with crashes and system instabilities without knowing the exact reason! That’s the very reason you can’t trust a file sent from a friend or family member without verification before opening!

6. Which jumps from user to user

Just like a real virus, a computer virus is designed to survive and spread as much as possible; often causing system failures and data corruption at the very end. Viruses get more sophisticated by the day. A lot of trojans have a remote killswitch built in rendering the PC useless after it gets activated.

7. Most users care less about the security of their PC till it’s broken

They often see their PC’s going down to outragious slow speeds. System instabilities and crashes, error messages and dialog boxes get ignored till it’s too late! At that time the system could be infected with multiple viruses, spyware, adware and all kinds of software taking up precious cpu power, disk space and internet bandwidth.

8. You never know how responsible your contact is with his/her pc!

Often you don’t know the other side you’re chatting with, you don’t know the state of the system and the intents of the person. Is it a public computer? School or private PC? Those factors are unknown to you before you really know the user. Do you even know the contact in real? Often people impersonate others in chat channels, lure children to meet with same aged people while they are 20-30 years older; for the furthest extend, a total stranger could be someone who is interested to penetrate into your private life.

9. A virus scanner doesn’t protect everything but a major percentage, but only 80-85% of all common found virusses

A scanner is no golden egg! It’s no rocket science either. A scanner reacts on certain signatures found in files or the memory of the computer system. A lot of virusses in the wild are still not having a good way to be detected, because they use stealth routines, thwarting signature scanning at large.

10. The computer security world boomed the last few years and can barely follow the trend…

    1. Process: By acting pro-active, install patches and tools needed to protect your system. Be prepared!
    2. Behavior: Look with suspicion, act responsible and don’t ignore (important) dialog boxes.  Be thoughtful!
    3. Responsibility: By (re)acting on time with everything! Help others to prevent system abuse. Act responsible!

The security world has been getting a lot of attention lately. Lot’s of new threats on the Internet are currently haunting every system, each attacking for it’s own purpose and survival. Not only viruses and trojans are being famous but also botnets, DOS attacks, backdoors, spyware and other malware are in the top-list of any concerned netcitizen. A hardware firewall often gives a lot of protection for the network layer, while a virus scanner gives additional protection on the software layer. It’s all an and-and situation. Security is not just one product, it’s the process, behavior and responsibility to anyone around you.

How to protect yourself from catching that computer cold?

1. Even when a filename, message or url looks valid, looks may deceive!

Even when a file looks very valid like “holiday_photos.jpg” or “your_creditreport.pdf” looks can deceive. Or a deceiving subject like “A good laugh”, “our latest family pictures” or “a personal message to you” could convince you to open it quickly, because what could it hurt? Depending which operating system and programs you use to connect to the Internet; you could receive other content than announced to you by your very own system!

This behavior can be partially fixed in Windows XP by turning off “hide file extensions for known file types” in settings.


2. Install a virus scanner and firewall if you didn’t already!

   A virus, spyware and other malware is the number one reason for most slowdowns and failures in a PC the last few years. Malware exists in many forms and shades. From simple dialers using expensive telephone numbers to trojan horses breaking open your PC for all to use. A virus scanner can save hours of wasted time, when needing to reinstall your operating system from malware. These two tools are sure not the mega-solution of the century, but it will thwart off the most virusses in the wild. Be good with your choice, since a lot of known brand virus-scanners are not always the best ones! A firewall will take care of your inbound and outbound traffic over the net. If any malicious content gets received it will be blocked, dumped and/or logged for the proper authorities. Without firewall or virus-scanner, your new, unpatched system could be infected the very second it would be plugged in on the Internet.

   There are two kinds of firewalls, with each pro and cons:

   • The hardware firewall: Which will protect you and your network from floods, scaled & Denial of Service attacks, trojans and other malicious packets. This system might require high maintenance because of the nature of the protection. It’s the best firewall option available currently. It’s available in many forms, although it will be always consist of a device inbetween the world wide Internet and your PC (network).
   • The software firewall: Gets installed on a user PC, since it protects against most malicious content. It won’t be 100% waterproof, because such software runs on top of the network stack which could be crashed by some viruses. A software firewall will never be plugged inbetween a the Internet and your systems making it prone to crash.

   A recommendation is F-secure Anti Virus (payware) and Yoggie’s Firestick Pro (hardware firewall for no cost!)

3. Never open any file you are unsure about, even with a virus scanner!

   A virus-scanner is not a golden egg, it will protect you for as far as it can and knows the latest viruses!

4. If your friend sends you weird messages & url’s, do not click on them!

   “Curiousity killed the cat” … If you are not running in a sandboxed environment; don’t click on them. These strange messages will take you mostly to a location where you don’t got the choice anymore to click before “something” gets automagically installed.

5. Install Firefox or Chrome, get rid of your insecure browser now!

   Internet Explorer has proven it’s failure in security the last years. That’s why I’d suggest to get Firefox or Chrome; which will offer you the same Internet Experience with added security and privacy.

6. Use a computer only for browsing and e-mail? Get an Apple!

   I’d wish I could say different, I’m partially a convert. Why? Because it just works! You plug-it-in and it boots up. An Apple is very configurable and all-above-all, it currently does not contain any viruses yet because of the design of it’s securityinterface towards the end user. For people difficult to interact with computers this would be solution number one since these things update for anyone on a breeze! For professionals this machine also offers everything needed of a toolbox.

7. Update your system as soon as you receive any security updates!

   I can’t stress this out more than ever; when you see any security update becoming available: INSTALL IT; remote exploits can be a pain when they happened to your system to remove without reformatting the entire drive. Once your computer gets infected with a new trojan or virus using the latest bugs, you’ll risk to have an unstable system ready to reinstall.Most viruses, trojans and malicious packets are based upon old unpatched code.

   Patches will protect your operating system from catching the latest malicious exploits; Keep your system patched up at all times!

   If you are using Microsoft Windows, use the Windows Update tool to patch your system.

   It’s not always a very good idea to put Windows Update in automatic mode, since your vendor could issue a wrong patch which could mess with your current production environment. Best is to acknowledge all patches by hand, so you know which problematic patch needs to be uninstalled. If you really do not want to go through the hassle of weekly updates, you can change Windows XP to automatic by:

   1. open Control Panel
   2. click System
   3. go to the tab Automatic Updates
   4. click Keep my computer up to date…
   5. click Download the updates automatically and notify me when they are ready to be installed.
   6. Automatic updates are now activate!

   A better safe option is “Autopatcher”, a freeware tool doing it all for you!

8. Get an alternative messenger and mail client to prevent automatic infections!

   Like Internet Explorer, Messenger and Outlook are not so great in handling security. Thunderbird, Adium, Trillian and dozens of other messenger clones are waiting to be discovered; often offering a lot more options for free than the original client!

9. Don’t use unverified P2P sources, keygens & illegal copies which often contains malware!

   Unverified software can contain malicious code ready to take over your system. If you don’t know your software you’d be playing with fire. You’ll get burned just because of the effect of wild trojans and virusses waiting to be discovered by your virusscan vendor.

10. Use strong computer passwords and don’t install unknown/useless/unused softwares.

    Most Internet protocols are poorly written with security in mind. Brute force attacks will try to find your passwords one by one, unless you’ve got yourself an exotic password protecting your valuable data. Strong passwords consist of atleast 8 characters with the least 3 mixed !sp3ci4l! characters. The mix should contain at least one numeric, 1 special and 1 upper/lowercase character to make it strong.

    Usernames, passwords, login details and other user information are transmitted in clear text over the net; so the use of secure software is adviced. TSL protects mail and browser sessions in a secure fashion, while proftpd will offer SFTP …

    Don’t install unknown software from strangers or p2p networks, useless or unused software, as these need to be maintained too.

    Examples of very strong passwords $uPRe8E! /PoW!WaH!\ Th1$1$4VLtr4$tR0NgP4$$w0rD!! (this is an ultra strong password)

    Examples of quite strong passwords Cod2fvaib# Tomvlwe4@ Powwahh42!

    Examples of weak passwords fido1507 jv130270 59210212 1379 gunther12 sevenup! dictionary Son1979

    ps: Be sure to use a password which can be used through any browser session. Some passwords give difficulties with special characters like the &. Be very sure your password is not a standard word in the dictionary as it will be vulnerable to daily dictionary attacks.

    Hope you have learned a bit more about computer security and their generated critters ready to eat your system. They’ll be waiting,  if you don’t watch out …

    Signing out … Freaking Wildchild

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