Cyber attacks

**angels355** · 02-20-2010, 03:24 PM

On fox news this morning, the former justice dept prosecutor for cyber crimes, now working for fox news computer security (Nabim?), was talking about cyber attacks this week which reveal massive internet holes in the internet infrastructure. They were asking are we ready for increasing attacks and "cyber wars". I didn't get the whole story as I was walking in and out for errands. The expert was saying that the individual at home needs to be vigilant in keeping up with security updates, operating system updates etc (OS updates, browser updates, antivirus, antispyware, firewall), and that we have to be much more responsible in getting these updates. That we can not delay in downloading them, saying (paraphrasing) "when we park our car and accidentally leave the doors unlocked that we go right out and lock them." He says that is the type of vigilance we need to exercise with computer security updates, that we should "never press the "remind me later"" button for security updates, that they need to be updated immediately. Myself I prefer to do my updates manually, but I am fairly vigilant. They go on to say that now days, attackers don't want to just steal financial information, but also cause system damage too. Many cyber attacks and theft are from organized crime (personal study, magazine and internet articles). For example there are former Eastern Block countries that have large software companies that do nothing but evil so to speak, their line of business is exclusively focused on ID theft etc, and they have a big budget because it is so profitable. And they are beyond our reach because they are protected by the country they are in.

BTW, there are large corporations who employ or have departments that specialize in examining hardware components from China to make sure they don't have trojans an other malicious software embedded in their firmware and bios.

I was wondering if anyone here has any further information about the level/severity of current cyber attacks, are we going to have a storm of cyber attacks, are we heading for cyber wars in attacks from the internet?

I was using Win 7 RC, but it is going to begin to shut down March to June, so I have been reverting to my dual booted Win 2000 (also boots into 3 or 4 or more Linux distros). Sales have been glacially slow, and haven't had any offers for jobs as Chief Mad Scientist, so I'm not sure when I can buy a Win 7 license. I have had a few security updates for Win 2000, but is it a vulnerable OS now? I have I think one unused license for win xp pro, perhaps I should dual boot with that on my P4 32 bit internet computer for greater security? I have one unused Vista license which I hope to use on a more powerful 64 bit computer. I used to have the philosophy of using my worst computer for the internet then using my best for flight simulator (perfect logic normally!). However I work so hard on the internet, and I need to change pages fast, do graphics fast, and upload graphics fast, I really need a fast computer for the internet plus broad band internet. Society advances so fast that it seems that dialup is just not adequate (but braodband is so expensive!). Also, I can tell the difference between a fast computer and an older computer in doing my internet work.

Basically I have to have Windows for dialup, I have yet to be able to do dialup on linux.

Regarding OS security strength and vulnerability, just off the top of my head I would rank them in this order ("1" being best: )

1. openBSD (personal study)
2. pcBSD? (logical)
3. Apple OSX (article from zdnet.com) (might be better than pcBSD for security?)
4. obscure Linux distros (Loki)
5. mainstream Linux (article from zdnet.com)
6. Windows 7/Vista (personal opinion extrapolating from zdnet.com article)
7. Win XP (article from zdnet.com)
8. Win 2000 Pro (article from zdnet.com)
9. Win98SE (uh boy, this is not very secure at all, but one thing it has going for it is that not very many people use it any more. It was an amazing OS in my opinion, but it is very vulnerable)

The article I reference above from zdnet.com came out about three years ago, it stated at that time, Windows had 236,000 threats from the internet, viruses, trojans, etc. Linux, often used by corporations, gets attacked by malcontents/criminals who wish to attack these corporations, so surprisingly Linux had 700 threats from the internet at that time. Apple's OSX 10.4 at that time, had 7 threats, SEVEN, incredible. I have a friend who has used an Apple laptop w/ OSX 10.4 for about 5 or more years to run his website, has never installed an antivirus program, and has never had a virus. One time w/ Win 98se, despite how careful I am I got a virus in six months, I erased the hdd (darik's boot and nuke) and resinstalled; other than that I have had very few viruses on 98se when I was using it due to how careful I was.

OpenBSD on their website a couple years ago stated that they have only had I think 3 or 4 security vulnerabilities in the previous 4 or 5 years. Incredible.

If I have a broadband connection I use mainstream Linux, perhaps I should look into pcBSD or the rare Linux distros Loki suggested (more suggestions?). With dialup I have to use Windows. I'm not knocking Windows at all, Windows is crucially important for running Flight Simulator.

Feel free to comment.

***loki*** · 02-20-2010, 08:16 PM

The biggest threat to computer security is the user, not which OS you are using. With the exception of the Win95-ME and Classic Macs, most systems can be secured to roughly the same extent.

Recently the US Air Force worked with Microsoft to some up with a custom version of XP that was more secure out of the box than the default. They did this after doing internal audits and finding their own security varied widely across their networks. With this custom XP, all USAF computers can be set up with a base OS that is quite secure.

The problem with computer security is that most of the attacks involve some form of social engineering to succeed. This can be tricking the user into going to a compromised website, opening an email attachment or even just phoning them. So while you can create the most secure operating system in the world, it won't matter if the user just hands over the information. Of course this doesn't mean that one can ignore security updates as they are still very important, but they are not the only problem (and arguable, not the worst one).

**angels355** · 02-20-2010, 09:16 PM

Recently on criagslist someone has been sending robotic responses to ads, and using seemingly legit sounding email addresses from hotmail, yahoo, and gmail. I would be suspicious when I get 15 responses all at the same time. I would switch to linux on a separate hdd to open them, out of 15 one would be legit.

Myself I only go to good websites, however there are legit websites like job search websites that have a zillion cookies and some that don't look too friendly. I guess i've been in a very big hurry, normally I set my browsers to prompt me every time before accepting a cookie. I'm sure you can set IE8 to do this but I've been in a hurry and didn't have it set like that on IE8, so when I scan with AVG free I'll get maybe 10 trafficamp cookies, darn. That was the nice thing about ad aware that I used to use (there were conflicts w/ later versions), it would find bad cookies right away and get rid of them. Spybot I believe can be set to do this also but I have been too busy. I used to clear my cookies regularly, but again I've been too busy.

I've heard about that AF XP, btw is regular XP supported until 2014 w/ security updates? I think Linux or Apple OSX is just a nice no-brainer method of being more secure. When linux distro versions are no longer supported that's it they get nothing whatsoever, Ubuntu 7.10 was one of the best wireless editions, came out Oct 2007, that's not that long ago, but you can't get any updates or anything. I don't think synapic works either. The newer editions (I use 9.10 also) after 7.10 all don't have nearly as good wireless drivers.

Friend of mine who's a hardware enthusiast was complaining about Linksys routers saying they perform soso and have all sorts of vulnerabilities, and has a few times applied a sledge hammer to them (I'm not the sledge hammer or bazooka type). He says he builds his own router that is simple and secure. I'm not sure if I'd buy that, but one day when at last I have more money than sense (personal goal) I would like a cutting edge router w/ firewall.

Do you know if at this time there is a greater number of cyber attacks like something is going on like a purposeful attack, or are there just naturally more than in the past?

***loki*** · 02-20-2010, 10:47 PM

Most attacks over the Internet these days don't come directly through the OS or network, but usually through a program running on top of the OS. Flash is a big one, and PDF files are another one. Neither of these are unique to Windows and could be used on Macs or Linux computers as well. As the number of Mac users grow, and few have an anti-virus program installed, it's only a matter of time before something hits the Mac community.

The only way to really be secure is to pay attention to what you are doing and use common sense. Don't give out personal info unless you are very sure about where it is going (no bank I know of will send you an email requesting info...), and don't open emails from people you don't recognize.

I'm not sure that there is anything unique about the recent cyber attacks against Google and others. These sorts of attacks are being reported more often and more companies are finally taking them seriously. Many companies are still too embarrassed (or scared of lawsuits) to report security breaches unfortunately. Hopefully recent events encourage those using older, and out of date, browsers and operating systems to upgrade.

**angels355** · 02-21-2010, 01:41 AM

Thanks very much.

**copperpen** · 02-21-2010, 04:41 AM

I do not think that any operating system is hack or virus resistant. The reason MS systems attract so many malware attacks is the size of the user base. I am sure that if Linux was the major player it would have the lions share of attacks.

**Paxx** · 02-25-2010, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by angels355

...
Do you know if at this time there is a greater number of cyber attacks like something is going on like a purposeful attack, or are there just naturally more than in the past?

The Chinese and Romanians have been pounding my routers with various requests since 1998, hundreds of times per day. Other country's IP addresses show up occasionally but those two remain far more frequent.

Doing a whois on these IP numbers results in that Shanghai university mostly, with the one in Beijing coming in second. Calling the contact numbers available from whois was an interesting run through the Chinese phone hell ending up with someone who apparently forgot english during the conversation. I got a good chuckle out of that.

On another call putting someone on the line who does speak Chinese (my neighbor) resulted in "students learn and train many lessons"/click.

heh

**angels355** · 02-25-2010, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by Paxx

The Chinese and Romanians have been pounding my routers with various requests since 1998, hundreds of times per day. Other country's IP addresses show up occasionally but those two remain far more frequent.

Doing a whois on these IP numbers results in that Shanghai university mostly, with the one in Beijing coming in second. Calling the contact numbers available from whois was an interesting run through the Chinese phone hell ending up with someone who apparently forgot english during the conversation. I got a good chuckle out of that.

On another call putting someone on the line who does speak Chinese (my neighbor) resulted in "students learn and train many lessons"/click.

heh

I bet they do. Their army has a cyber attack division. Isn't it weird how things that sound crazy one day are true the next generally speaking. BTW the financial crisis in Europe is getting alarming.

Any way, it made me nervous that the iFly 747 developers, half of them had Chinese Army uniforms. I watch a lot of "Twilight Zone" episodes.

You edit video as I recall, you don't have to elaborate if you don't want to, are you of special interest to them or are you just a random target? Do you posses a special recipe for almond fried chicken?

In the US, an official laughed off the Chinese hacking, saying that they are just explorers of information, as if they were harmless. I'm not so sure about that. BTW the White House lowered the the level of scrutiny on Chinese spies in the US, this is because we owe them a ton of money and have no spine. I think we could save money by assigning the problem to one man, Bond, James Bond.

I think the Romanians are after your Nieman Marcus platinum card.

Would it help to be behind two hardware routers w/ firewalls?