On 13/05/2017 23:30, Shadow wrote:
On Sat, 13 May 2017 22:51:17 +0100, "David B."
wrote:

On 13/05/2017 22:14, Shadow wrote:
On Sat, 13 May 2017 17:47:02 +0100, "David B."
wrote:

Shadow's machine isn't compromised because of ...

An overnight weekly scan from Kaspersky's rescue disk.

Let me get this straight. You use a 'rescue disk' - downloaded from the
Internet - *from a Russian provider* - to ensure that you have no
malware on your Windows XP computer - is that right?

Yes.
I'd never trust anything from where the NSA can insert malware
with secret court orders.
The rescue disk's checksums hashes are available from various
sources. Wait, you have no idea what a MITM attack is, so you would
never know why I'd need to check the numbers.
Is that right ?

No. Not quite.

Whilst "the numbers" may be right, you have absolutely *NO IDEA* what
you are actually loading onto your computer .... and what it can or
cannot do.

Well, except for extreme cases, yes, I know exactly what files
are changed on my computer when I install a program. "the numbers"
just confirm you have the original file, and not an altered version.
I can't debug hardware backdoors, or firmware backdoors, which
is why the NSA and their customers use them so much. But I can rely on
major anti-malware companies which are not affiliated to the US
government like Kaspersky to detect at least some of them.

I have here on my bookshelf my Kaspersky AV Version 7.0 which I
purchased from a local computer store some 10 years ago. I have every
confidence in Kaspersky as a company AND in their products. They have
good and active forums too - you can find posts from me there under my
BoaterDave name.

I tried it just the other day. Although this version is way out-of-date,
Kaspersky offered me, as a previous bone-fide customer, a 50% discount
on their current products. What excellent customer service, eh?!!

Example of malware detected by Kaspersky and hidden from the
rest of the world ? Stuxnet.

An excellent discovery. :-)

SOME_SITE.aspx

Thanks. A good example of "active content" if you enable
javascript to view the page. And I thought you were stupid. Sorry.
[]'s

Your apology accepted. ;-)

Perhaps I have misunderstood you, and if so *I* apologise. If you really
have been on-line using a computer with no anti-malware protection
installed, visited what you THINK was the real Kaspersky web site and
downloaded a 'rescue' disk, I believe that the joke is on you.

As you are so keen to tell folk, you are a doctor, NOT a computer
scientist.

I refer you to this post:-

From: Poutnik
Newsgroups: alt.comp.freeware
Subject: Massive attack of ransomware
Date: Sun, 14 May 2017 08:07:25 +0200
Message-ID:

Methinks you have been hood-winked, Shadow. ;-)

--
"Do something wonderful, people may imitate it." (Albert Schweitzer)

Ransomware??
LOL

IDIOT!

On Sun, 14 May 2017 07:51:54 +0100
"David B." wrote:

From: "David B."
attn david brooks (Devon):
This is a REAL "bad guy" hunter in action!!

'Accidental hero' halts ransomware attack and warns: this is not over

The €œaccidental hero€� who halted the global spread of an unprecedented ransomware attack by registering a garbled domain name hidden in the malware has warned the attack could be rebooted.

The ransomware used in Fridays attack wreaked havoc on organisations including FedEx and Telefónica, as well as the UKs National Health Service (NHS), where operations were cancelled, X-rays, test results and patient records became unavailable and phones did not work.

But the spread of the attack was brought to a sudden halt when one UK cybersecurity researcher tweeting as @malwaretechblog, with the help of Darien Huss from security firm Proofpoint, found and inadvertently activated a €œkill switch€� in the malicious software.

Live/ Ransomware cyber-attack: disruption to last for days, says NHS Digital €“ live

British prime minister thanks NHS staff for working overnight after attack of €˜unprecedented scale

Read more

The researcher, who identified himself only as MalwareTech, is a 22-year-old from south-west England who lives with his parents and works for Kryptos logic, an LA-based threat intelligence company.

€œI was out having lunch with a friend and got back about 3pm and saw an influx of news articles about the NHS and various UK organisations being hit,€� he told the Guardian. €œI had a bit of a look into that and then I found a sample of the malware behind it, and saw that it was connecting out to a specific domain, which was not registered. So I picked it up not knowing what it did at the time.€�

The kill switch was hardcoded into the malware in case the creator wanted to stop it spreading. This involved a very long nonsensical domain name that the malware makes a request to €“ just as if it was looking up any website €“ and if the request comes back and shows that the domain is live, the kill switch takes effect and the malware stops spreading. The domain cost $10.69 and was immediately registering thousands of connections every second.

MalwareTech explained that he bought the domain because his company tracks botnets, and by registering these domains they can get an insight into how the botnet is spreading. €œThe intent was to just monitor the spread and see if we could do anything about it later on. But we actually stopped the spread just by registering the domain,€� he said. But the following hours were an €œemotional rollercoaster€�.


€œInitially someone had reported the wrong way round that we had caused the infection by registering the domain, so I had a mini freakout until I realised it was actually the other way around and we had stopped it,€� he said.

MalwareTech said he preferred to stay anonymous €œbecause it just doesnt make sense to give out my personal information, obviously were working against bad guys and theyre not going to be happy about this.€�


https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...e-cyber-attack

My more cynical side suggests that this might be a good argument
against single payer. Afterall, the British National Health Service was
so starved for money they were still running their mission-critical
systems on Windows XP. Seriously?

On Sun, 14 May 2017 09:34:44 -0400, "Kurt V. Ullman"
wrote:

My more cynical side suggests that this might be a good argument
against single payer. Afterall, the British National Health Service was
so starved for money they were still running their mission-critical
systems on Windows XP. Seriously?

Yes, seriously, Win 7, 8 and 10 have been open to the very
same attack. Since their inception. The backdoor was created by the
NSA.
I suppose Fox News forgot to mention that.
[]'s

This is getting silly. People that infect their (and the
companies they work for) computers by clicking indiscriminately on
attachments or allowing webpages to install software from unknown
origin are hardly on topic here on acf.
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

In article ,
says...

On Sun, 14 May 2017 09:34:44 -0400, "Kurt V. Ullman"
wrote:

My more cynical side suggests that this might be a good argument
against single payer. Afterall, the British National Health Service was
so starved for money they were still running their mission-critical
systems on Windows XP. Seriously?

Yes, seriously, Win 7, 8 and 10 have been open to the very
same attack. Since their inception. The backdoor was created by the
NSA.
I suppose Fox News forgot to mention that.
[]'s

This is getting silly. People that infect their (and the
companies they work for) computers by clicking indiscriminately on
attachments or allowing webpages to install software from unknown
origin are hardly on topic here on acf.

Many companies don't care about the operating system. All they want the
computer to do is boot up so they can run other programs.

Microsoft Office has been more than enough for most to use for many
years, but they keep making small changes to it. Just as cars used to
be. The running gear was seldom updated,but the outer sheet metal was
changed every year just to sell something new.

Win XP had almost 15 years t work out the security bugs, jus think how
long it will be before win 10 has many of the security bugs worked out.

It sort of looks to me that with win 10 automatically updating its self
there might be an even greater ammout of ways to put in the malware.

On Sun, 14 May 2017 13:32:46 -0400, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Sun, 14 May 2017 09:34:44 -0400, "Kurt V. Ullman"
wrote:

My more cynical side suggests that this might be a good argument
against single payer. Afterall, the British National Health Service was
so starved for money they were still running their mission-critical
systems on Windows XP. Seriously?

Yes, seriously, Win 7, 8 and 10 have been open to the very
same attack. Since their inception. The backdoor was created by the
NSA.
I suppose Fox News forgot to mention that.
[]'s

This is getting silly. People that infect their (and the
companies they work for) computers by clicking indiscriminately on
attachments or allowing webpages to install software from unknown
origin are hardly on topic here on acf.

Many companies don't care about the operating system. All they want the
computer to do is boot up so they can run other programs.

Microsoft Office has been more than enough for most to use for many
years, but they keep making small changes to it. Just as cars used to
be. The running gear was seldom updated,but the outer sheet metal was
changed every year just to sell something new.

Win XP had almost 15 years t work out the security bugs, jus think how
long it will be before win 10 has many of the security bugs worked out.

+1
Excepting the deliberate bugs, of course.

It sort of looks to me that with win 10 automatically updating its self
there might be an even greater ammout of ways to put in the malware.

No doubt, specially if they can download the security patches
and analyze them before other mortals install them. Even if a zero day
exploit is only available for a few hours, it's enough.
Of course they have other sources too.

Expect a 1-2 day lag before your AV supplier has triple
checked the definitions and remedy (or you will be looking at yet
another SNAFU like AVAST's, that locked all the PC's from internet
access.)

http://news.softpedia.com/news/lates...t-515628.shtml
[]'s
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

On Sun, 14 May 2017 09:34:44 -0400, "Kurt V. Ullman"
wrote:

My more cynical side suggests that this might be a good argument
against single payer. Afterall, the British National Health Service was
so starved for money they were still running their mission-critical
systems on Windows XP. Seriously?
Thyey couldn't use anything newer on their OS2 server???