Signs of Failure

Security Software is annoying. They can slow down your computer and cause a lot of programs not to work. Norton by Semantic is one of the worst, it seems the more popular the software gets the more bloated it gets.

The idea is to throw stumbling blocks in front of bad programs. But good programs are sometimes affected. They can do this in many ways.

Security software often comes with what’s called a firewall. People picture a burning wall  or a line of fire when they think this, in reality it’s the opposite. The term firewall was to confine fire with in a building; the firewall would stop the fire from progressing further then that point.

Firewalls are traffic controllers; they let programs on or not. They are supposed to protect you from bad programs sending bad information, like Social Security info, personal info or loading advertisements onto your computer. However, they can prevent updates, games, and your software to log onto parts of the internet. If you have internet access, and you have a program that doesn’t have internet, disable your firewall.

Anti-Viral scanning techniques have gotten more complicated, at the same time so have viruses. In 1992 it would have been un-heard of to have a virus able to access the internet with “built in protocols” to communicate to its master. The program would have to be huge, and when little space to work with, it didn’t make sense. Viruses had to travel by floppy disks. They were called Viruses because like a biological virus, they infected hosts and made a replica of themselves. Because of this, they had to be small. Once you had a Virus load into memory, it would systematically infect every program you ran after that. This is kind of like walking into house with muddy feet. The people that walked on the dirty parts would just spread it further. Except with Viruses, it doesn’t diminish over an area. The war of virus and virus counters grows more complex every so often, a war of technology and engineering.

The world of viruses back then was different; viruses were made to protect programs (like Doom II and the gold bug). People often made viruses for the fun of it, or to see if you could, or even to send a message or protest. Viruses largely came from the United States from respected programmers in their different fields. They find an exploit and think “hey, I bet bob won’t like it if I do this…” Thus we have the mindset of early viral developers.

The anti-virus program would have to have a good algorithm for detecting viruses inside programs. Viruses could be put in anywhere in code, they could be lurking anywhere. Today, processors are so fast that security programs do what’s called “Active protection.” That means that the anti viral program is keeping track of all activity on the computer. There are not many successful viruses that will infect a program anymore, it’s too easily detected.

As technology increases, speeds get faster, there is more room to do things, thus things get more complicated. However, with the internet getting more popular a lot of money gets passed around via wire. It’s great for driving an economy forward, but it does have drawbacks. With that in mind, now think about a destitute country, where there is a failing economy. I remember being in an apartment, starving and poor, wanting to make money. I didn’t care how. I did a lot of very strange jobs, like an assembly line that smelt like urine. Being on the internet, I was trying out how to get a slice of it – in desperation. I know the motivation behind a lot of it. A few countries have turned to scamming, and causing fraud. These poor countries get away with it because they bring in revenue. The law makers will protect those that bring in money for circulation. This becomes a problem as more and more countries are jumping into this. That is the state of the world today in security. Yet it gets worse. Super hackers and/or Black Hats, come from modern countries. Black Hats exploit technology; some do it for personal amusement while others do it for a living. These threaten a lot of people. For example, this year a hospital database was broken into, this contained name, phone, age, birthdates, social security numbers, prescriptions, and medical history for over 20,000 people! Now that data is worth a lot on the black market. That can expose ALL of those people to identity theft. Where they notified? No. What does the US Government do? The Government does a media-blackout. I’m not sure why, but I wouldn’t think that they announce successful hijacks, or to keep people involved safe. Either way, people would like to know!

It also happens very often where game servers are broken into. This would be hacking for pleasure, unless they are trying to get at the credit card numbers, but that’s often handled by a third party, not the gaming company that hosts. So a hacker gets access to a few accounts and can have fun. Game hosts often take better care to their customers then say a hospital when it comes to protecting your private information.

I tell you this not to scare you, but hopefully you understand a little more about the dark side of the internet. The best defense against a hacker or a virus is your brain. You’re better protected by being informed, knowing what to look for, aware of how your computer works. Not what’s inside, but used to how it behaves? Who will you know when you are infected? If you notice a change in how your computer behaves, that should be a red flag. What changed your computers behavior? Did you install anything? What websites did you recently look at? Who was on your computer lately?

In 2007, pornography was a huge problem, still is to a good extent when it comes to viruses. Viruses and the like would infect almost any computer visiting porn sites. Porn sites are still a problem, but today it isn’t the only thing that you could be infected by. But just a warning, if you have ever seen porn on your computer or knows someone that does, get your computer checked out. Sadly, I’m alive today because of pornography. It’s given me a lot of work and a few jobs. In 2007 I was so used to how an effected computer acts; I could tell a computer was infected just by moving the mouse.

I’ve been in the business of cleaning computers from viruses for a long time. Telling an infected computer from a normal operating one is easy for me. But, for those that would like to know here are a few signs that you might have a problem. Computer one day turned very slow. Internet sites got noticeably a lot slower when the web used to be consistent with every website. A program is asking for money. A program appears on your computer you didn’t install. Your interface has suddenly lost some features like a start menu, pictures, or icons disappear. The internet browsers by itself, popup sites, ads, pornography pops up when you’re doing something that has nothing to do with the internet. Your computer tries to block a “hack” attempt when not connected to the internet.

Those are all good indicators that you could have a malicious software hiding on your computer. Now, this doesn’t guarantee you have a malicious program. But it’s an indication. Unfortunately, people typically will run their computer to the ground. By that I mean they use it until it’s not usable. For some reason that is beyond me, people will drag through misery as long as their internet or email works. This is the opposite of good. No one should drive their car into uselessness before getting it serviced. Why? Service is much more expensive and often you can lose your data. Some of my good customers bring it in at the first sign of trouble. Those are OK too, but try to clean it up by yourself before you service it. You may learn something!

I hope this helps.

-Ken

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