Posted on 10/08/2006 11:56:30 PM PDT by MadIvan
Home PCs could be under attack from hackers over 50 times a night, suggests a BBC News Website experiment.
The BBC News Website team set up a ‘honeypot’ PC – a computer that looks like a normal PC online but records everything that's done to it – in order to find out the dangers facing web users.
Every single time the 'honeypot' was put online it was attacked. In one of the busiest nights of malicious online activity, the computer was attacked 53 times:
1 hijack attempt. PC suffered buffer overflow attempt to subvert web server built into Microsoft Windows. A successful attack would hand over control of the machine to a hacker
2 "port scans" which look for weak spots in Windows software - reconnaissance by hackers seeking new victims.
11 attacks by the 'Blaster' worm - success would have rendered the machine unusable
3 attacks by the 'Slammer' worm - success would have left machine crippled and prone to crashing
36 fake security announcements/adverts for fake security software posing as warnings. Reacting to these could leave a PC clogged with spyware.
Over the course of the whole experiment, on average at least one attack an hour came from a dangerous computer bug with the ability to cripple an unprotected PC. And at least one attack per night was even more serious - an attempt to hijack the computer entirely – which could lead to the computer being turned into a 'zombie PC' and used to carry out criminal activity without the owner's knowledge.
The experiment demonstrates the vulnerability of unprotected home PCs to malicious hackers.
According to Symantec, 86 per cent of all targeted attacks on computers are aimed at home users. There are an estimated 200,000 malicious programs in existence.
Starting today, the BBC News Website is running a whole week of special features looking at the issue of hi-tech crime and giving people advice on they can stay safe online.
As part of the BBC News Website's 'Cracking Hi-Tech Crime[ specials the BBC also talks to the hi-tech criminals behind the viruses, 'phishing' e-mails and malicious programs putting home PCs at risk.
One hacker the BBC spoke to claims to have earned $10,000 a day from computer crime, another says that they can hack into many online shops within 3-4 hours and sell the data on for anything between $100-500. Unconcerned about the risk of arrest the hacker adds: "How can a cop catch me? Catch me if they can!"
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
My husband would agree with you.
I'm curious. Do you know what Windows programs will run on Linux? I have some expensive graphic programs.
Ping for later.
Norton caught a virus last night while I was looking at real estate websites in the UK.
yitbos
I'm with you.
ehhh... I do sometimes.. but other times I actually want to get something done and dont want to just "fix" Linux....
Use a router and software firewall, Anti-virus and an anti-apyware programs I suggest Zone Alarm(free), AVG FREE Anti-Virus and Spybot S&D(Free), Adaware personal(free), Windows Defender(free), whatever router you want D-Link, net gear etc.
All of these can be found at majorgeeks.com
you can buy a hardware router from newegg.com or wal-mart/target etc.
OH NOEZ, not H4X0RZ!
*rolls eyes*
google "wine" for linux. It is a program that permits certain windows programs to be installed and run normally on a linux desktop.
Not all programs will work, but quite a few will. :)
it allows them to run 1/2 aXXed...
LOL d00d. This post is teh sux.
It works pretty well for most "serious business" applications like Office. It can also deal with all but the latest flavors of Photoshop. However, you won't be a 1377 CounterStrike player with it. :)
Check out the wikipedia article on wine for a discussion of the pros and cons of using wine to emulate your MS software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_%28software%29
However, you can actually run a virtualized Windows XP desktop in your Linux if you desire the security of Linux along with the widely available Windows apps you can purchase at the Wal Mart, presuming you have a valid XP disc and enough power under the hood to handle the additional overhead.
Aw, I'm just tired of the science-illiterate media carrying on about the eeeeeevil hackers trying to destroy the world.
It is just another step on the road to gaining justification for the limiting and monitoring of all internet traffic "for our own good."
like I said it can run Photoshop 7, 1/2 axxed! buggy and with my icons at the bottom of the layers menu... etc..
no* icons at the bottom of the layers menu
Like, say, OS X.
Still, there's the XP virtualization route if you HAVE to use photoshop instead of, say, the gimp, or an earlier version of photoshop. There are also better emulation programs, but they cost money.
Like most things in life, it's a trade off. :)
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