Posted on 04/21/2012 2:24:07 AM PDT by iowamark
For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.
Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.
The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.
Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.
Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.
"We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get 'page not found' and think the Internet is broken."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I don’t want Uncle Sugar in my stuff either. It’s bad enough to know they are always looking at/for us, but to willingly open my computer to them seems nuts. When you agree to let the site act on your computer, you also say “OK” to any bad stuff it has to “offer”.
Joke is on you my friend. Google "Deep Packet Inspection".
If you’re running Windows 7, I’d recommend at minimum running Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 (which is a free download with continuous updates). Security Essentials 2.0 works closely with Windows 7’s own security features and will likely eliminate this known piece of malware.
Ping for fyi
“...it’s mostly a threat from news sites!!!”
Malwarebytes is, or the “things” it occasionally snags?
DPI?
“In addition to using DPI for the security of their own networks, governments in North America, Europe, and Asia use DPI for various purposes such as surveillance and censorship. Many of these programs are classified.”
That makes me feel better (;^0)
What are you using?
Okay, thanks; will check out Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0, and what else do you recommend above that level?
I don’t think Norton 360 will “let me” uninstall it, to change to Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0
IINM, once it’s “in there”, it ain’t coming out “peacefully”. I’ve been using Norton/Symmantec forever and have had no (can’t remember any) problems with intrusions. Now I’m wondering how many it’s let thru quietly to do DPIs.
Aw crap, this is a hell of a start to a weekend.
Getting off the grid would do some of us a lot off good!
lol
Name one private weather satellite.
Just so you know I am not simply an opinionated female. My husand and I run an IT support business for small and medium businesses. I’ve been in IT since the early 80’s, my husband nearly as long. My husband worked his way up through the ranks of IT to become the CIO of an international company. We don’t know everything, no one does, but we do have security certifications and one thing we work very hard at is making sure our customers are as secure as they can be and still conduct business.
Fact one: In the year since Symantec released Endpoint Protection 12.1 and we installed it in all of our customer base we have not had a single infected machine. I have not wasted any of my time or my customers’ money cleaning up machines.
Fact two: There is no technical solution for bad behavior. Most infections are because users override protections. The people who do this kind of thing long ago realized that social engineering was the best way to infect a machine.
for anyone who thinks they might have something nasty that interferes with their anti-virus, there is also housecall.trendmicro.com/ they are reliable, trustworthy and efficient. They also bought ‘hijackthis’ which is a renowned product.
Ping!
It let it do the automatic Quick Scans, and I run manually a full System Scan once a week. Because NIS 2012 checks just about ALL Internet activity, it's pretty good at stopping malware attacks.
Actually, most of my internet activity is prior to 6AM. I wake up EARLY. It's more a service to my friends and neighbors.
This is what I’m running, on the r/s:
Same as you NIS 2012, but with more tune-up/-back-up stuff.
Hmmm.
Rogue servers:
• 85.255.112.0 through 85.255.127.255
• 67.210.0.0 through 67.210.15.255
• 93.188.160.0 through 93.188.167.255
• 77.67.83.0 through 77.67.83.255
• 213.109.64.0 through 213.109.79.255
• 64.28.176.0 through 64.28.191.255
Simple instrutions to see if you have it:
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/november/malware_110911/DNS-changer-malware.pdf
I use MSE and Spybot but never really seem to need them much because I use Firefox with the “No-Script” add-0n. But none of that will stop the Gub’ment if they wish to see what you’ve been looking at and/or download. DPI gives them the ability and since the Gub’ment is intertwined with the ISPs because of the CALEA act its just a matter of a few knob twists that a few bots can be dropped on your system if the Gub’ment wants it done. They don’t need you to click anything at all.
I guess/sounds like, there’s no way to block DPIs, is there?
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