Posted on 11/08/2009 1:59:37 PM PST by decimon
Of all the sinister things that Internet viruses do, this might be the worst: They can make you an unsuspecting collector of child pornography.
(Excerpt) Read more at tech.yahoo.com ...
What operating system?
Linux?
If so, and you are connected to a broadband router through a CAT5 cable, it ought to simply work.
It sounds like the police are alerted to certain ISP addresses being sources of child porn, and they track down people who log into those sites and arrest them and take their computer to search, and if they find bad stuff charge the person with downloading child porn.
So if someone else used the computer to go to child porn sites or installed a program on it to go to child porn sites in the background while connected to the internet, the person who was registered / logged onto that computer would be suspected of visiting those sites.
In some cases it does look like a setup. Doesn’t anyone ever flush (clean) their Internet browser cache every time they log off, or am I the only one? (Not that I visit porn sites, but I just flush everything out so It’ll load all new pages next time so I don’t miss anything new).
This sure shows a really good reason not to leave your computer unattended when you are logged in.
It looks like pirated software sites and sites that provide “free” porn would be ones to avoid.
Also with file sharing programs (bit torrent comes to mind), I would think = it’s possible that some of those files could be child porn.
Security software used to detect viruses on a computer can only identify viruses that the security software ‘knows about’. So if you are using a program like Nortons or McAfee, those programs get regular updates of virus definitions. When you run those programs, they match their collection of known virus definitions to all the files on your computer looking for a match. Virus definitions may be combinations of certain registry key entries, hidden or public files, folders etc. The virus defintion is sometimes called a ‘signature’ so detection software may look for a very subtle collection of changes to your machine. So any virus program you run is only as good as its last updated virus definitions. New viruses come out every hour and definitions have not been written for them yet. If you don’t keep your virus definitions updated (keep NOrtons’, McAffee, Panda etc. updated) then you are only checking for viruses addressed prior to the last time your machine was updated.
The feds may be using software that has a virus definition for this porn virus but the home user may either not be using software that detects viruses, not aware it needs to be updated, or is using a program that does not have a definition (what to look for) for that virus yet.
I run more than one security program on my machine and they don’t detect the same collection of bugs.
You could store your bookmarks on delicious.com and reconnect to your account when you booted up.
I think the kiddie porn pervs are intentionally loading this virus onto their machines - then they can be as ‘sick as they wanna be’ and if caught, they can exclaim ‘oh no! it must be that porn virus I read about on democraticunderground.com!’
I had not thought of the wireless aspect, but that would be correct. If the person with the wireless router just leaves it set to the default password, then anyone in the neighborhood could access it.
You can also use MAC Address filtering feature of your router. This allows only designated devices to communicate with your internet access.
We'd never had a laptop before, and this one hasn't been out of the house yet. Can we just go to a Starbucks or hotel and fire up?
Doesn’t have to be specifically for this. Any virus or Trojan that turns your computer into a zombie, and there are a lot of them, can get your PC to download anything.
From what I understand, most kiddie porn sites, stolen credit cards and most hacked software sites are loaded on zombie computers and use redirects like tinyurl to set them up as servers. Once a computer is compromised, anything can go on, including locking out the original user.
It allows the hacker to cover his tracks by using a computer with which he has no connection.
I was going to reply that they probably do but then thought that the virus could betray them for downloading from the kiddie porn websites.
You can. But turn on your Firewall first. If you're running Vista the firewall is on by default. If you're running Windows 7 it's on as well. There are some improvements in Win 7 firewall as well.
If you're on Windows XP, you have to choose to turn on the firewall. There are variances in Win XP configurations. This Microsoft link shows you how to set it in Win XP.
I guess but I'm a bit cyber paranoid. I don't like having my information everywhere out there.
>>The neighborhood young’uns can put all kinds of stuff on your drive.<<
Malicious hackers are almost the same as virus authors. For them, we bring back the stocks.
>>I guess but I’m a bit cyber paranoid. I don’t like having my information everywhere out there.<<
I have a friend that is all over me for not having a Facebook account.
But I keep my RL info in cyberspace on a very, very narrow footprint. Facebook will accomplish exactly zero for me.
In that case, you could use a live cd of incognito.
You could even configure it to store everything in a TrueCrypt volume.
But I keep my RL info in cyberspace on a very, very narrow footprint. Facebook will accomplish exactly zero for me.
That stuff has no appeal to me. And why I would appeal to others I can't imagine.
My 30ish neighbor, a network engineer, cracked my WEP in about 2 minutes to show me how unsecure it is. I took his advice and started using the TKIP and screening for MAC address. It's sage advice.
I'd done some cruising around and it does appear the firewall is on by default.
>>hat stuff has no appeal to me. And why I would appeal to others I can’t imagine.<<
I usually get “it helped me get in touch with old friends from HS/College/etc.”
My answer: I am already in touch with any of those people who I want to be in touch with.
Adults who still identify with their HS days strike me as very, very strange.
Good point.
I was also thinking that they can ‘flood the zone’ (legal system) with false charges against innocent people and therefore make it more time consuming and costly to hunt for the real pervs.
Then again, what if someone who doesn’t want pervs looking at abused children in secret (web surfing) so they wrote a virus that actually downloads incriminating evidence? I dunno. I find it suspicious that this virus doesn’t ALSO do other damaging things (erase key software, send spam from your email, steal identity information etc. Hmmm.
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