Sunday, September 09, 2007
There have been instances of Trojan Horses and viruses sending themselves around via MSN. I am not sure for exactly how long has this been going on, but my first encounter had been in June this year, when several friends asked, nearly simultaneously, as to whether I had sent them links to some online photograph collection – we had recently performed a show so there was enthusiasm to view the photos. I replied, no, I did not take any photos hence I could not possibly post any of them on the net – wait a minute, who sent that? And I awake to some harmful occurrence.
“Did you click on it?”
Both affirmed.
Oh shit. And their computers became infected – both disappeared from the radar almost immediately to fix the problem.
Quickly I post a notification on my nick: DO NOT ACCEPT ANY LINK THAT COMES FROM ME.
* * *
The next time, I am nearly a victim.
A friend whom I seldom communicate with on MSN sends me, out of the blue, a zip folder marked Images, with the accompanying message seeking my opinion as to whether they should post them on their Facebook or Friendster accounts. I am about to concede when, thank goodness, I stop myself, because I find it strange how this friend could suddenly behave so vainly. And as I have mentioned, we have not chatted over the net for the longest time, so why is he suddenly sending pictures to me?
To confirm the matter, soon after chat windows from other contacts pop up with the exact same message and attachment – and I will always remember the file size being 71KB.
Quickly I post up an alert on my nick, warning people not to accept a zip folder that is 71KB large. Around the same time, other’s nicks also posted up similar warnings.
* * *
The third instance, I am not so lucky.
It is 4am when I suddenly awake with a start, realising that I have forgotten to switch off the lights and the computer once again – I had fallen asleep on the presumption of a ‘short nap’ before waking up again to resume my work. I had left my MSN running, so I see this chat window from another contact whom I have added but have never spoken to. It says that I can find out who’s deleted me from their list of contacts. I am not concerned whether I get deleted or blocked off other people’s MSN, but I was curious enough to kaypoh. And the link looks authentic enough.
Sure enough, I see a list of names who have deleted me from their address books, and quite convincingly these are people I have seldom or never talked to at all. But one area disturbs me: a guy who is currently online in my window appears in that website as having deleted my name. So if he’s gotten rid of me, why does he still show up? Something is not right!
Too late: I am inflicted with some intrusive, unseen entity. Jittery, I sit up and await a full system scan’s completion before I can pull myself back to bed.
* * *
The worst experience occurs the night before, and it really drains and frustrates me. Two attacks occur within hours of each other. The wretched thing sends some message to everybody in my network – both on and offline – to “check out some fun pictures”. And I have to do damage control, because Windows Live allows people to receive messages even though they are offline – the message will appear when they log on. And the last thing I want is for people to fall for that trap when they log on in the morning and allow a stupid malicious entity of ones and zeroes to spoil their day.
Thanks to Joel and my uncle Kevin for recommending me solutions: Adware 2007 and Windows Live anti-virus, both which work where Norton was insufficient. I think my computer is sufficiently cleaned, but I still feel nervous about going on MSN in case any malicious entity that went underground sudden stages guerrilla warfare on everyone in my MSN list.
* * *
Lessons learnt?
1. Be wary of links that may suddenly appear – if in doubt, ASK.
2. Backup your data. A good solution is to remove files that you rarely access from your internal drive and put them into an external hard disk. Don’t connect your backup drive to the main computer unless you need to use it. This way you free up space on your computer, and you close any link between the marauder and the rest of your data.
3. If you need to send links or files to your contacts, inform them appropriately so that they know it’s genuinely from you and not some joker out to wreck your computer. At the same time, don’t do something like this:
“Hey! Check out this link: blah-blah-blah, don’t worry it’s not a virus!”
… in one entire sentence.
People might think it’s a virus for all you know.
I don’t know if anyone’s smart enough to programme interactive viruses yet – something that could wait for the contact to reply first before it unleashes its trickery, but then your own windows will be flooded with replies from your contacts that it’s game will probably be up even before it can begin.
In any case, protect your computer, it’s damn shitty to waste your time trying to solve computer problems when productivity can be achieved.
¶ 9/09/2007 07:01:00 pm “Did you click on it?”
Both affirmed.
Oh shit. And their computers became infected – both disappeared from the radar almost immediately to fix the problem.
Quickly I post a notification on my nick: DO NOT ACCEPT ANY LINK THAT COMES FROM ME.
* * *
The next time, I am nearly a victim.
A friend whom I seldom communicate with on MSN sends me, out of the blue, a zip folder marked Images, with the accompanying message seeking my opinion as to whether they should post them on their Facebook or Friendster accounts. I am about to concede when, thank goodness, I stop myself, because I find it strange how this friend could suddenly behave so vainly. And as I have mentioned, we have not chatted over the net for the longest time, so why is he suddenly sending pictures to me?
To confirm the matter, soon after chat windows from other contacts pop up with the exact same message and attachment – and I will always remember the file size being 71KB.
Quickly I post up an alert on my nick, warning people not to accept a zip folder that is 71KB large. Around the same time, other’s nicks also posted up similar warnings.
* * *
The third instance, I am not so lucky.
It is 4am when I suddenly awake with a start, realising that I have forgotten to switch off the lights and the computer once again – I had fallen asleep on the presumption of a ‘short nap’ before waking up again to resume my work. I had left my MSN running, so I see this chat window from another contact whom I have added but have never spoken to. It says that I can find out who’s deleted me from their list of contacts. I am not concerned whether I get deleted or blocked off other people’s MSN, but I was curious enough to kaypoh. And the link looks authentic enough.
Sure enough, I see a list of names who have deleted me from their address books, and quite convincingly these are people I have seldom or never talked to at all. But one area disturbs me: a guy who is currently online in my window appears in that website as having deleted my name. So if he’s gotten rid of me, why does he still show up? Something is not right!
Too late: I am inflicted with some intrusive, unseen entity. Jittery, I sit up and await a full system scan’s completion before I can pull myself back to bed.
* * *
The worst experience occurs the night before, and it really drains and frustrates me. Two attacks occur within hours of each other. The wretched thing sends some message to everybody in my network – both on and offline – to “check out some fun pictures”. And I have to do damage control, because Windows Live allows people to receive messages even though they are offline – the message will appear when they log on. And the last thing I want is for people to fall for that trap when they log on in the morning and allow a stupid malicious entity of ones and zeroes to spoil their day.
Thanks to Joel and my uncle Kevin for recommending me solutions: Adware 2007 and Windows Live anti-virus, both which work where Norton was insufficient. I think my computer is sufficiently cleaned, but I still feel nervous about going on MSN in case any malicious entity that went underground sudden stages guerrilla warfare on everyone in my MSN list.
* * *
Lessons learnt?
1. Be wary of links that may suddenly appear – if in doubt, ASK.
2. Backup your data. A good solution is to remove files that you rarely access from your internal drive and put them into an external hard disk. Don’t connect your backup drive to the main computer unless you need to use it. This way you free up space on your computer, and you close any link between the marauder and the rest of your data.
3. If you need to send links or files to your contacts, inform them appropriately so that they know it’s genuinely from you and not some joker out to wreck your computer. At the same time, don’t do something like this:
“Hey! Check out this link: blah-blah-blah, don’t worry it’s not a virus!”
… in one entire sentence.
People might think it’s a virus for all you know.
I don’t know if anyone’s smart enough to programme interactive viruses yet – something that could wait for the contact to reply first before it unleashes its trickery, but then your own windows will be flooded with replies from your contacts that it’s game will probably be up even before it can begin.
In any case, protect your computer, it’s damn shitty to waste your time trying to solve computer problems when productivity can be achieved.
