On a somewhat related note to Joe's
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I have been nagging my boy's on the evils of download sites, toolbars and various "free" games. As an experiment I loaded a fresh W2k install on a box and let them each go to two of there favorite sites. The box has been running unattended for about three weeks and it finally has become so corrupt you cannot even log on to it. One boy went to a P2P site for music downloads and the other got into some casino games. I hope I have demonstrated to them what happens when you surf in places you should not be. I am rebuilding the box today and was really astounded at what was going on (I formated the harddrive twice out of paranoia). The outbound network traffic was really high even though there was nothing on the box application wise that would warrant this. The P2P java application was using this box as a server and who knows what it was being used for. I did this to show them that there are preditors out there but I was not aware how aggressive they were. Both of them look at me like I am the village idot but it has reenforced to me that home network security is very important. What if it was the computer I was paying my bills off of or had account information on.
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I have been nagging my boy's on the evils of download sites, toolbars and various "free" games. As an experiment I loaded a fresh W2k install on a box and let them each go to two of there favorite sites. The box has been running unattended for about three weeks and it finally has become so corrupt you cannot even log on to it. One boy went to a P2P site for music downloads and the other got into some casino games. I hope I have demonstrated to them what happens when you surf in places you should not be. I am rebuilding the box today and was really astounded at what was going on (I formated the harddrive twice out of paranoia). The outbound network traffic was really high even though there was nothing on the box application wise that would warrant this. The P2P java application was using this box as a server and who knows what it was being used for. I did this to show them that there are preditors out there but I was not aware how aggressive they were. Both of them look at me like I am the village idot but it has reenforced to me that home network security is very important. What if it was the computer I was paying my bills off of or had account information on.
An interesting experiment! If you don't mind, I'd like to print and distribute your post to all 3 of my classes at the college. I've covered this topic thoroughly in class, but I don't think it's real to them, any more than my customers take seriously the threat presented by their random surfing and downloading of freebies. "If it's Snowbird season, why can't we shoot them?" - Overheard in a bar in Bullhead City
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An interesting experiment! If you don't mind, I'd like to print and distribute your post to all 3 of my classes at the college. I've covered this topic thoroughly in class, but I don't think it's real to them, any more than my customers take seriously the threat presented by their random surfing and downloading of freebies. "If it's Snowbird season, why can't we shoot them?" - Overheard in a bar in Bullhead City
Sure use whatever you want from it. I was trying to prove a point and I wish I had recorded my findings better. My guess is that the P2P install from KaZaA was the eventual killer and probably introduced a Trojan or Remote access virus onto the system at some point. Even though I had this system on it own router and subdomain I would not let this type of experiment run on my home network again for three weeks unattended. I have a development server, three development boxes and two personal computers running on my home network. There may have been nothing on the experimental box but I have both my personal information and client data stored on my servers and computers. Even with them running behind firewalls using AV and network security if a bored hacker did backdoor into the test computer a week is plenty of time to hack into the real systems. This started out as a way to prove a point but I have spent the morning redoing the security on my servers and changing passwords on the workstations. I never expected someone or something to takeover my little computer out of the millions out on the internet in as little as three weeks. The other issue I have been thinking about is what them may have been doing with my domains and IP addresses. That little computer may have been sending untold numbers of spam or even participating in DoS schemes. Good luck with your students it is so much easier to learn it in class than the hard way. :)
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I have been nagging my boy's on the evils of download sites, toolbars and various "free" games. As an experiment I loaded a fresh W2k install on a box and let them each go to two of there favorite sites. The box has been running unattended for about three weeks and it finally has become so corrupt you cannot even log on to it. One boy went to a P2P site for music downloads and the other got into some casino games. I hope I have demonstrated to them what happens when you surf in places you should not be. I am rebuilding the box today and was really astounded at what was going on (I formated the harddrive twice out of paranoia). The outbound network traffic was really high even though there was nothing on the box application wise that would warrant this. The P2P java application was using this box as a server and who knows what it was being used for. I did this to show them that there are preditors out there but I was not aware how aggressive they were. Both of them look at me like I am the village idot but it has reenforced to me that home network security is very important. What if it was the computer I was paying my bills off of or had account information on.
My brother works phone support for Windows XP. He says the majority of problems are due to spyware and that it is almost a given that when the user scans the system, they'll find Kazaa, or to a lesser extent, Morpheus or Grokster. A teenager will also been in the house. The moral: mix a teenager with peer-to-peer networking and you will have no security. Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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I have been nagging my boy's on the evils of download sites, toolbars and various "free" games. As an experiment I loaded a fresh W2k install on a box and let them each go to two of there favorite sites. The box has been running unattended for about three weeks and it finally has become so corrupt you cannot even log on to it. One boy went to a P2P site for music downloads and the other got into some casino games. I hope I have demonstrated to them what happens when you surf in places you should not be. I am rebuilding the box today and was really astounded at what was going on (I formated the harddrive twice out of paranoia). The outbound network traffic was really high even though there was nothing on the box application wise that would warrant this. The P2P java application was using this box as a server and who knows what it was being used for. I did this to show them that there are preditors out there but I was not aware how aggressive they were. Both of them look at me like I am the village idot but it has reenforced to me that home network security is very important. What if it was the computer I was paying my bills off of or had account information on.
Thanks, I will take your permission to Roger for me to also share this with some friends who have been having a time with keeping their machine running. The one boy keeps saying, but if there was anything bad with the sights people would know. RIGHT. I wish I had the time to trace what may come through the instant messanger connections. I do not mind getting old. It beats all the other options that can think of.
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I have been nagging my boy's on the evils of download sites, toolbars and various "free" games. As an experiment I loaded a fresh W2k install on a box and let them each go to two of there favorite sites. The box has been running unattended for about three weeks and it finally has become so corrupt you cannot even log on to it. One boy went to a P2P site for music downloads and the other got into some casino games. I hope I have demonstrated to them what happens when you surf in places you should not be. I am rebuilding the box today and was really astounded at what was going on (I formated the harddrive twice out of paranoia). The outbound network traffic was really high even though there was nothing on the box application wise that would warrant this. The P2P java application was using this box as a server and who knows what it was being used for. I did this to show them that there are preditors out there but I was not aware how aggressive they were. Both of them look at me like I am the village idot but it has reenforced to me that home network security is very important. What if it was the computer I was paying my bills off of or had account information on.
That's not even the worst that can happen. A friend who is still on dialup got hit with a dialer which proceeded to make $900 dollars worth of international phone calls without him knowing about it. He had the habit of just leaving it on, and didn't even realize what was going on with his system.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
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That's not even the worst that can happen. A friend who is still on dialup got hit with a dialer which proceeded to make $900 dollars worth of international phone calls without him knowing about it. He had the habit of just leaving it on, and didn't even realize what was going on with his system.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon