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Thread: Limiting online vulnerability

  1. #1

    Question Limiting online vulnerability

    Hello All,

    If I am being hacked/cracked by a determined enemy, as I believe I am (see posts below), would it matter if I limit my time online - I have broadband. In other words, get on, do my business, and get off the Net. No loiter time. Would it matter if I got on the Net at odd times of day, assuming the enemy is in my time zone? Or would the hacker, having already acquired me as a target, fire viruses my way at his liesure no matter when I was online and for how long?

    Thanks for your help.

  2. #2
    Banned
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    Chnage your IP .....if the attacker is determined to get you, he will no matter when you're onlien.

    btw: get a AntiVirus and Firewall.... then you wont have to worry.

  3. #3
    AntiOnline n00b
    Join Date
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    Hi
    And why have listener got Negs I am recently Noticing People (newb's) getting these undue Negs quite often now a days. It's not a good trend people should be more responcible using the AP system


    What make you belive you are being attacked . Firewall Logs. Suspecious Files appearing or file being deleted from your System. Can you be a bit specific about the reason or you being Suspecios

    would it matter if I limit my time online
    Hell No i my openion not it wouldn't, and hey man where did you get this crazy idea, Running away is never a option it would never save you. ya but not getting online would certainly help. But someone might get physical accsess to your system waht would you do then stop using it at all.......

    Get a good Antivirus .. update all the necessary Security patches/Updates released by microsoft.and keep in the look for new ones released by them.

    You can also get a good FireWall . But remember a Firewall is only Good When you configure it well otherwise it is even worse than having one.


    --Good Luck--
    [edit]
    Dang MemorY you are fast ...

    [Edit 2]
    OK i don't mind negs But when i get one i do expect a Valid Reason For that...... Come on out and Give me one......... I do care about my AP's and Expect Others to Do the same(Show some responsilility while useing the AP system).........

  4. #4

    Re: Limiting online vulnerability

    Originally posted here by listener
    Hello All,

    If I am being hacked/cracked by a determined enemy, as I believe I am (see posts below), would it matter if I limit my time online - I have broadband. In other words, get on, do my business, and get off the Net. No loiter time. Would it matter if I got on the Net at odd times of day, assuming the enemy is in my time zone? Or would the hacker, having already acquired me as a target, fire viruses my way at his liesure no matter when I was online and for how long?

    Thanks for your help.

    I see someone supposedly has been tracking you and showing up in your vicinity since 02-09-2002(your first thread). Now what have you done over the course of 30 months to stop this activity?
    Law-enforcement?
    ISP?
    PI?
    ect.....Just real curious to be honest! Is it a possibility that it's just a coincidence or that you might have an imaginative mind in some case. Not saying that to be an ass or anything, but I have that type of mind set, every now or then I sware I have deja vu monthly!

  5. #5
    Senior Member therenegade's Avatar
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    What posts below?

  6. #6
    Some Assembly Required ShagDevil's Avatar
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    Swordfish_13, I can see why someone might want to neg listener for this thread.
    In this thread, listener asks an almost identical question.
    Can you avoid attacks from a certain individual by not being online at the same time the hacker is?
    (dated:05-20-2004)
    granted, there was no answer in great detail but instead of starting an entirely new thread, why not bump up the old one instead? (now worries though, I have no intention of negging listener).

    In any event, I do feel bad for listener as he/she seems to be going through alot of b$.
    judging by previous threads, it appears that listener has: OnTrack, Pest Patrol, Zone Alarm Pro, Stop Sign AV, TDS-3, Spybot S&D, Spyhunter, and Norton 2000 installed (or had installed at one point or another).

    listener, out of these programs listed, which are still on your system? I'm assuming you still have ZA Pro? what do your firewalls logs look like (what leads you to believe you are still presently being attacked?)
    From your previous posts, it definately seems like you have someone who is determined to watch your online activties, especially your emails.
    It appears as though you have some good security setup (firewall, trojan scanner, AV, spyware/adware removal tools). I'm just baffled as what exactly is going on with your computer that's indicative of malicious activity towards you in particular. As for being online for short periods of time, I guess that could work on a very small scale but in the long run, I'm guessing it won't do you a whole lot of good.
    The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his - George Patton

  7. #7

    Reply to Above

    Hello All,

    Thanks for your replies. I gather it woldn't make much difference if I limited my time on the Net as a defense mechanism, if the attacker can fire viruses at my machine any time. Still, if the attacker is viewing my screen in real time when he is online, wouldn't it be smart to pick times when the attacker is not online, if you observe a pattern of behavior?

    ImitationRust,

    This whole thing started as a telephone harassment case years ago, with a high level of technical skill. Those attacks diminished when I got rid of my land line last fall; now my only phone is a cell. I went to law enforcement, but they were unable to do anything because I didn't know the full name of the attacker and had thrown away that person's phone # years ago. I traced calls, but they turned out to be false numbers. You can learn how to mask your phone # from online sources just like you can learn how to mask your IP. Also, because of the way the law is written, I was unable to subpoena my phone records. So the police were a dead end in that matter. And I suspect law enforcement will be of limited use in these computer attacks, which rose, not incidentially, when the phone attacks dropped off.

    ShagDevil,

    My main AV at this time is Stop Sign. EAnthology asked me to uninstall Spybot, etc., when I installed SS, as they are the whole package. I still have but do not use TDS-3, which was quarantined by my virus-infected Stop Sign virus scanner. I don't know what to do when I get my machine from the shop, whether to ad a router, a hard firewall, or what. I've gotten some good advice from this board, such as starting my computer in safe mode. I know the pattern of attack now and will not wait until things get really bad to react. As soon as my browser is hijacked, I will contact Stop Sign on the phone - no more emails - and map out a strategy for effective response. Any additional suggestions from this board are welcome.

  8. #8
    First off- Update windows (IE tools, windowsupdate.microsoft.com). Update your AV, update your Firewall. (you should have a firewall by now. Try Sygate, Kerio personal firewalls. If you want to pay, Norton Internet Security is what I use and works fine.)
    Second- reboot into safe mode. Run your antivirus on a full system scan, every HDD.
    Third- reboot into safe mode w/ networking and run housecall.trendmicro.com 's scanner, on everything.
    4th- Download the cleaner from moosoft (update it) run that in safe mode w/o networking if you can.
    5th- Run AdAware in safe mode w/o networking
    6th- Download Hijack This! from merjin, google for the site, the url isn't easy to remember.
    7th- Run Hijack This! Click scan, save log, and post the log here.

    Also, if you are comfortable with the command prompt....
    8th- run Fport from foundstone. Google for it, post the results here. Run it on a normal bootup, w/ networking.


    As for your stopsign AV, I googled for it, and I didn't even see it. I've never even heard of it!
    As soon as my browser is hijacked, I will contact Stop Sign on the phone - no more emails - and map out a strategy for effective response. Any additional suggestions from this board are welcome.
    You should never really have a need to call your AV provider. You can stop a hijack by updating your windows software and restricting scripts in your browser.

    As for the hacker viewing your screen in real time, the only feasible possibility of him doing this is through a trojan horse. That should be picked up easily by an AV, and if StopSign didn't, then StopSign sucks. Try a new AV. AVG, Bitdefender are ones I have used with some success. AVG is ugly though, Bitdefender is sexy. But they both seem to work great, which is what matters. Also, you can get everything in one package of NIS, I believe it has a firewall and antivirus plus a long subscription.

    You said something about EAnthology asking to remove spybot? Well, my googles have shown that EAnthology is nothing but spyware. Of course it'll tell you to delete spybot, it's kill or be killed!
    Download spybot again and run it as well. It's a good one.
    http://www.bigclassaction.com/press_...404double.html
    http://www.spywareguide.com/product_show.php?id=459
    http://www.pestpatrol.com/PestInfo/e/eanthology.asp

  9. #9

    Reply

    Thanks, Soda, for your detailed post.

    I didn't know you could restrict scripts in your browser. That's a good suggestion.

    You can find Stop Sign at eaccelaration.com. It's a complete package and it worked fine for awhile, blocking the No Close virus, or stripping it of its power. The No Close virus clogged my system in Feb. and eventually shut it down completely. I had Norton 2000 with outdated definitions - I had baeen concentrating on the trojan end with Spybot and all those programs. I got SS after that, and like I say, it worked fine for awhile. They had an update module, email server, threat scanner, etc. Using email to communicate with them was a mistake since my enemy has been known to read my email. Unfortunately you can download programs on the Net that will crack a msn password in 16 seconds.

    This is a patient, determined attacker. He eventually saw that the No Close virus was no longer working and came up with something else: All my defensive measures were broken down in the second wave of attacks: the update module disappeared altogether, the threat scanner no longer completed a scan, so I couldn delete the infected cookies, etc.

    My ability to survive online will depend not so much on an invulnerable defense, but on my ability to repair my defenses short of taking my machine to the shop. You and others have made valuable suggestions on how to do this. Thanks!

  10. #10
    Eaccelaration.com is NOT good. Pest Patrol has it listed as a Adware, probably one of the dirtiest Ive seen, personally

    http://www.safersite.com/PestInfo/S/....asp#Research.
    Adware: Software that brings ads to your computer. Such ads may or may not be targeted, but are "injected" and/or popup, and are not displayed within the form of an ad-sponsored application. Some Adware may hijack the ads of other companies, replacing them with its own. See also Spyware, Browser Helper Object.

    Exploit: A way of breaking into a system. An exploit takes advantage of a weakness in a system in order to hack it. Exploits are the root of the hacker culture. Hackers gain fame by discovering an exploit. Others gain fame by writing scripts for it. Legions of script-kiddies apply the exploit to millions of systems, whether it makes sense or not. Since people make the same mistakes over-and-over, exploits for very different systems start to look very much like each other. Most exploits can be classified under major categories: buffer overflow, directory climbing, defaults, Denial of Service.

    Firewall Killer: Any hacker tool intended to disable a user's personal firewall. Some will also disable resident anti-virus software.
    Reading the descriptions of this tells me that this is SUCK ASS software. It disables any competitors, (Ad Aware, spybot, Norton)

    ANYTHING that calls Ad-Aware "Attackware" should not be used. Adaware is reliable, clean software than many people on this forum use. I'm sorry to say I think you were tricked into downloading bad software. It has probably been interfering with your cleaning process.

    If you're machine doesn't contain a lot of valuable information, or you can back up certain non executable files easily, and you also have you're recovery disc's handy, you might want to consider a clean wipe. If you don't feel comfortable doing so, you don't have to.

    I suggest completely uninstalling that stopsign, eacceleration crap. Install BitDefender, or buy the new version of norton. Get a firewall, either the norton one or a hardware one if you are willing to cash out.

    Again, you DO have a trojan horse. There is no magical hack that can allow a hacker to watch your screen and log your passwords. Your AV should be able to detect it, which leads me to believe that Stop-Sign is worth poop. Get rid of it, and stop listening to its suggestions that monitor software, even if it detects a virus. You don't want it to make any decisions because it's proven its worth already. Then follow the steps I advised above.

    Good Luck, post again when you get a chance!

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