Use your brain - don't let your PC turn into a zombie - Polidicks

[quote] - One in five home computers are enslaved "zombies" - Enslaved PCs used by "botmasters" in cyber attacks - That means my computer has more of a life than I do IF you're in an office, like I am, take a look around. If there are 10 computers in the room, chances are one of them is a zombie. According to a University of Sydney cyber security expert studies have shown about one in five home computers and one in 10 work computers are "zombies" that have been taken over and used to conduct illegal activity. "The global average is 20 to 25 per cent that are probably infected which means about one in five," said Professor Michael Fry from the university's school of IT. "These computers are taken over remotely and incorporated into botnet networks." Botnets are networks of computers enslaved by malware allowing the "bot herder" or "bot master" to control them remotely. Prof Fry said remotely-controlled computers were being used in everything from organised crime to cyber warfare. "Controllers use botnets for stuff like identity theft, to launch mass spam campaigns, phishing attacks, and online advertising 'click fraud'," he said. "But the big one that they are becoming the weapon of choice for are distributed denial of service attacks." A denial-of-service attack is when someone directs such a huge volume of requests to a target website that the web server can't respond and the site becomes inaccessible to everyone. A distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack occurs when hundreds or thousands of infected zombie computers are enlisted to help. Prof Fry said botnets were today's "weapon of choice" for organised crime conducting DDoS attacks and there was a strong suspicion in cyber security circles that governments had also used botnets to sabotage others countries' IT systems. He said individuals were already using attacks such as these to extort money right here in Australia. "We had a case where a man in Alice Springs had his system go down one day," Prof Fry said. "A little later he received an email from a group saying 'this was us and pay up or we’ll do it again'. He told them no and the next day they attacked him, bringing his whole system down." They are even reports that individuals are able to hire botnets for a fee. [b]Aim for the head[/b] Prof Fry said the systems which were the most vulnerable to these sorts of attacks were "unpatched" machines — computers which haven't been updated with the latest defences from software providers. "These regular update requests can be a nuisance but are essential to stay ahead in the day to day battle against cyber crime," he said. Craig McDonald is the founder and chief executive of MailGuard, a company specialising in the online security needs of business. He said it was essential for individuals and businesses to check for regular software updates. "You're only as protected as the last update," Mr McDonald said. "And for businesses, as email is highly used for 'doing business', I would recommend a multi-layered managed email filtering service." Mr McDonald said individuals needed to ensure they followed all the directions given by their software and to run full scans of all computers. Prof Fry said the identification of malware could sometimes be extremely hard and the process had become an "arms race". "The less sophisticated ones can be tracked down and stopped, but the detection of zombies or the detection of bot masters can be very difficult," he said. "The whole thing is an arms race. You can develop a tool that is very good at detecting them but as soon as you do people are working to get better at covering their tracks. "It’s a global problem — governments, ISPs and everyone else." [b]The biggest threat?[/b] Last week Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the Australian Government would work towards the creation of its first ever national strategy for dealing with cyber security. "The Cyber White Paper will examine what we need to do to protect ourselves online, the role of government, industry and the public in protecting our interests," McClelland told a cyber security function in Sydney. The paper will be completed in the first half of next year and would look at a broad range of areas including consumer protection, cyber safety, cyber crime, cyber security and cyber defence, he said. Earlier this year the Federal Parliament was the subject of a cyber attack with the computers of at least 10 federal ministers, including Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Defence Minister Stephen Smith, targeted and confidential emails possibly accessed. The head of Sydney University's Centre for International Security Studies, Professor Alan Dupont, said cyber attacks were "possibly the biggest security threat facing Australia". "Of course we need to understand the technical detail of cyber crime in order to keep ahead of the game but we want people to think more broadly about cyber security," Prof Dupont said. "We are stressing the importance of how cyber attacks are conducted, why and by whom, in order to enhance understanding of systems' susceptibility to attacks. "If we don't get on top of this in a defensive sense, everything on a computer network is vulnerable to attack."[/quote] [url]http://www.news.com.au/technology/use-your-brain-dont-let-your-pc-become-a-zombie/story-e6frfro0-1226070293650[/url]

It begins...

Suddenly, your computer jumps at you and tears into your flesh!

[quote] Prof Fry said the systems which were the most vulnerable to these sorts of attacks were "unpatched" machines — computers which haven't been updated with the latest defences from software providers. "These regular update requests can be a nuisance but are essential to stay ahead in the day to day battle against cyber crime," he said. [/quote] [img]http://imgkk.com/i/ye5b.png[/img]

ENSLAVED COMPUTERS? Pharaoh, pharaoh Oooh baby Let my PC go Slavery is wrong guys

This is due to the fact that a lot of people who use computers have absolutely no freaking clue what "Anti-Virus Software" is, or even know how to conduct even the most basic computer maintenance. Somehow, whenever I think about this, I think about stereotypical soccer moms and stereotypical black women...

I was wondering why I would hear a strange moan every time I turned this thing on.

[quote]Last week Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the Australian Government would work towards the creation of its first ever national strategy for dealing with cyber security.[/quote] Totally can't see this going wrong again. :v:

Pfft if my computer is a zombie I think I'd know. Right my little laptop? Laptop?

[QUOTE=Madman_Andre;30304249]This is due to the fact that a lot of people who use computers have absolutely no freaking clue what "Anti-Virus Software" is, or even know how to conduct even the most basic computer maintenance. Somehow, whenever I think about this, I think about [B]stereotypical women[/B][/QUOTE] Fixed that for you.

This is what happens when most people use an OS that lets you run with the absolute highest privileges. Most people aren't cut out to use computers. Windows should be outlawed for its hubris.

[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;30311584]This is what happens when most people use an OS that lets you run with the absolute highest privileges. Most people aren't cut out to use computers. Windows should be outlawed for its hubris.[/QUOTE] :frog: Just because you use linux doesn't mean that windows needs to go.

Psssh, I have WinPC Defender I'm fine

Well my computer is fucking loud, should be dead, and is slow as shit so yeah I guess it has the qualities of a zombie.

[QUOTE=Ultra Violence;30304241]ENSLAVED COMPUTERS? Pharaoh, pharaoh Oooh baby Let my PC go Slavery is wrong guys[/QUOTE] [img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18590533/yeahIwentthere.png[/img]

I never patch my windows.

Well that explains why every time I use my PC with my lights off, I get an error message saying "Warning! You are likely to be eaten by a Grue!"

Computer why are you refreshing? ...Computer? :coupons:

[QUOTE]the Australian Government would work towards the creation of its first ever national strategy for dealing with cyber security[/QUOTE] Australia bans viruses?

good ol' useless usyd

So what happens if my computer infects me?

So it's not normal for my PC to be gnawing on my brain? Because, personally, I don't use it half the time.

[QUOTE=1239the;30304379]Totally can't see this going wrong again. :v:[/QUOTE] Yeah the Australian government would never try anything drastic to stop bad things on the internet. Oh wait they tried that and it failed :v:

Luckily I have this "Windows 7 PC Defender Pro" that strangely installed itself a few months back (nice feature I guess!). I feel safe knowing I'm protected from viruses and malware. It also installed about one billion IE toolbars though, what's up with that?

[QUOTE=demoguy08;30329307]Luckily I have this "Windows 7 PC Defender Pro" that strangely installed itself a few months back (nice feature I guess!). I feel safe knowing I'm protected from viruses and malware. It also installed about one billion IE toolbars though, what's up with that?[/QUOTE] IE = Internet Exploder?

[QUOTE=Madman_Andre;30304249]This is due to the fact that a lot of people who use computers have absolutely no freaking clue what "Anti-Virus Software" is, or even know how to conduct even the most basic computer maintenance. Somehow, whenever I think about this, I think about stereotypical soccer moms and stereotypical black women...[/QUOTE] Or their opinion on security is this: "LOL NORTUN PROTECTS AGAINST EVERYTHING I CAN GET NO VIRUS"

[QUOTE=certified;30329675]IE = Internet Exploder?[/QUOTE] IE = Internet Expulsion

[QUOTE=demoguy08;30329307]Luckily I have this "Windows 7 PC Defender Pro" that strangely installed itself a few months back (nice feature I guess!). I feel safe knowing I'm protected from viruses and malware. It also installed about one billion IE toolbars though, what's up with that?[/QUOTE] Your kidding, right?

[QUOTE=Tobba;30330005]Your kidding, right?[/QUOTE] Of course not! I have one too it's called Vista Internet Security 2011 Handy, I never had to lift a finger and it installed itself. It helps me clean over 122055 viruses with each scan. I don't know what i'd do without it. All 7 of my toolbars it came with are handy dandy too. One of them pops up with a little pig that oinks when I get a mail message. It's so cute :3:

Can't understand why people find it so difficult to keep their computers free of malware Just don't download suspicious files/smileys off of shady websites (or anywhere) and you'll be fine