Posted on 03/16/2006 7:43:24 PM PST by yhwhsman
In May 2005, a trojan called PGPcoder was discovered in the wild by Websense Security Labs. The trojan's purpose was to encrypt a user's files, then demand a ransom for their decryption. Although this scheme seemed novel, it is actually predated by over 15 years, by a similar scam in 1989. LURHQ's Threat Intelligence Group has now discovered a third such scheme involving ransomware which we are calling Cryzip.
Unlike PGPcoder, which used a custom encryption scheme (which was subsequently reverse-engineered by LURHQ), Cryzip uses a commercial zip library in order to store files inside a password-protected zip. Although the zip encryption is stronger, a brute-force attack is still possible on the files, especially if one has a copy of the original file inside the zip.
(Excerpt) Read more at lurhq.com ...
One of the irritating aspects is that even people who send in the ransom money often don't recive the unlock code.
I'd prefer an operating system to an thing that needs to be endlessly tweaked. Something that runs software and is generally useful. And even fun.
Probably most of these idiotic geeks who create spyware and viruses and other malware are LUNIX users trying to herd us into LUNIX before springing some final trap.
No thank you.
Why does LUNIX use the penguin as it's mascot? They ripped off the O/S from UNIX so did they rip off their mascot from the 1980's video game Pengo? Pengo was fun and most LUNIX geeks are generally humorless and uptight so I don't think that's it. So where did they rip off their mascot from? I know they didn't come up with it on their own.
At least two full backups of important data stored separate from the computer is the answer. It is not difficult to do. IOMEGA has the fast REV drive now with replaceable 35 GB drives or there are many other solutions such as thumb (handy) USB drives.
You're wrong of course--just like most of the rest of your post. Google the history of the logo if you're that interested.
I absolutely agree.
There's no fun in having to buy, install and maintain anti-virus, anti-spyware, personal firewalls, service packs and who-knows-what.
Even IE5, which shipped with Windows 2000 Pro, is too obsolete for some modern software and has to be "upgraded" to IE6. Outlook Express still doesn't support yEnc, so it's almost totally unusable on usenet, and you have to buy a decent usenet client.
Meanwhile, my Linux servers just run happily in their closet in the guest bedroom. No need to touch them except for monthly backups. My Linux workstation supports anything I want to do on the Internet. No need to buy anything more, if there's something else you need you just look around SourceForge.
What got me was when I found XP won't restore backup files made in Win 95.
Actually, he got the basics from his college textbook, which had Minix, itself a UNIX clone written from scratch by professor Andrew Tanenbaum, a friend of the creators of UNIX.
I am beginning to think that the solution is to have an independant computer just for the internet. Keep a set of the operating system software and if something by passes all my protection, just reformat and reload, and start over.
Keep all my important stuff on a separate computer not connected in any way to the internet computer.
Wow! LUNIX came up with a penguin all on their own! Who knows, maybe one day they will write their own O/S and stop ripping of UNIX.
In the meanwhile, I'll play some games while waiting for someone to come up with an O/S that sucks less then XP.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
See Post #11.
Oh yeah, LUNIX is great as long as you never have to use it. It's when you want to do things like edit photos or process words. Then you have to know that Photoshop is called GIMP and Word for LUNIX is called Painful Rectal Itch.
I think the LUNIX geeks write the spyware and viruses so they can boast about how great LUNIX is and feel good that they belong to an exclusive club when they can't find any D&D players in the neighborhood. Otherwise, there's no reason for LUNIX to be so mind bendingly stupid.
I mean, when it first came out, yeah, it had to be mind bendingly stupid because they didn't have more then two bits of memory back then, but now it's a million years later so the only reason must be anti-social geek angle.
Well, at least it keeps them from the World Domination Plots James Bond used to have to break up in the 1960's.
Speaking of movie plot devices, I think my favorite version of UNIX ever is the one they used in Jurassic Park.
So, LUNIX is a rip-off of a rip-off, then. Very good, since Windows is a rip-off of a rip-off too. Except it doesn't suck as bad as LUNIX. Except for all the viruses and malware the jealous LUNIX geeks write it's a hardly noticeable level of suckiness.
But, realistically, I don't think there will ever be an O/S that doesn't suck, it's the nature of the machines. Maybe, one day, if there are organic computers that write their own O/S based on their biological function, that might be as close to zero suckiness as it can get, but it's probably a long way off if it happens at all.
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