[arachne] Re: illegal attachments?

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

Hi Rob,
        It's been my experience that most users
don't even pay attention to the boot sequence
when they boot their computer.  And that includes
even the computer literate group of users.
The users just turn on the machine and walk away
while it boots.  The only time they watch the boot
is if it refuses to boot.  Then it's too late.
    Users also set their computers up to upload 
files in the background,  blindly, so that they don't
know what files are being uploaded or downloaded.
The ISPs have access to the users computers and
blindly pass info back and forth.  That little flashing light
doesn't give you the identity of who is up or down loading
data but since it is often flashing for "apparently" no reason
users just ignore it.  

If I can't identify why my modem light is flashing then
I disconnect.   And I have found viruses by watching
my boot sequence, before they wiped out my HDD

Eric. 
          

On Sun, 9 Nov 2008 18:33:48 -0600 (CST) Rob <robo13@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!
> 
> I live in a town of just over a thousand people and I
> know the people at my ISP very well. They monitor literally
> thousands of virii, worms and trojans moving thru their servers
> everyday. They get complaints at their help desk everyday from
> people complaining about their internet service slowing down.
> They then access that person's computer just to find out they've
> been hacked, added to a botnet or infected. People go to websites
> all the time that download malware to their computers. People
> don't use their AV software because "it uses too much memory" or
> they use "M$ update". The ISP offers Postini for free to anyone
> who wants to sign up, but a lot of people just don't bother.
> Postini grabs just darn near every malware I've had come at me.
> It's really hard to protect people against themselves and it's
> an ongoing battle for ISPs, they're just doing whatever they can.
> When a defense is invented, malware providers WILL eventually
> find a way around it, and new defenses need to be found. Malware
> can hide in the HTML code or GIFs or JPEGs in an email, all you
> need to do is open the email, social engineering takes care of that.
> Postini gabbed an email onetime that had 'uninstall.exe' attached.
> I wonder how many people opened that one?
> Rob
> 
> -- 
> I don't play a lot of fancy guitar. I don't want to play it.
> The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks.
>                                       --John Lee Hooker
>       -----Pine Email on Slackware GNU/Linux-----
> 
> On Sun, 9 Nov 2008, L.D. Best wrote:
> 
> > Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!
> >
> > Sorry Sam, but you pushed a button ...
> >
> > Samuel W. Heywood wrote:
> >> Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!
> >
> >> 
> >> OK, but is this really necessary?  Don't most people examine 
> batch files
> >> to determine what they do before they run them?  Also, don't most 
> people
> >> do a virus scan and a spyware scan of ".exe" and ".com" files 
> before
> >> they run them?
> > Yes
> > No
> > No
> >> 
> >> Are there really a lot of people out there who haven't even 
> gotten the word 
> >> about how it is smart to practice "safe hex"?
> > The majority
> >
> > And the majority of people out there use an e-mail client which 
> strives to 
> > open attachments on mssgs rec'd so as to present a pretty picture 
> or play a 
> > song while you read or .... etc etc & soforth
> >
> > Now I know for a fact that Linux servers (at least Red Hat) can be 
> set to 
> > disallow SENDING of certain types of attachments.  I know that 
> because I have 
> > one of the few ISPs with a server which considers ZBM a valid 
> extension. <G> 
> > But afaik MickySoft servers *cannot* be set to disallow sending 
> certain types 
> > of files (or allow sending of only certain types of files) ... or 
> the ISPs 
> > who run solely M$ have staff who don't know how to do it.
> >
> > There are, however, a few plug-ins companies have learned that can 
> protect 
> > their networks to one degree or another. So most often you'll get 
> "illegal" 
> > or "virus infested" kickbacks from private rather than public 
> servers.
> >
> > Bottom line:  The majority of people use 'doze; the majority of 
> people don't 
> > know how a computer works; the majority of people don't know what 
> a "bat" 
> > file is (nor that they're .cmd files in XP ); the majority of 
> people have 
> > their e-mail readers (even those who don't use OE) set to open 
> attachments 
> > automagically; the majority of people bitch about Big Brother 
> taking away 
> > their freedoms while also bitching about Big Brother not 
> protecting them well 
> > enough.
> >
> > And "most" people trust M$ security and a *monthly* malware tool 
> to keep 
> > their computers/pda's healthy.
> >
> > As a consequence, most companies and many ISPs find they must be 
> responsible 
> > for keeping the users' diapers changed.
> >
> > l.d.
> >                 Arachne at FreeLists                  -- Arachne, 
> The 
> > Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --
> >
> >
> >
>                   Arachne at FreeLists                  
> -- Arachne, The Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --
> 
> 

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