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Home PCs under increased threat, say experts

STEVE MERTL

Canadian Press

Latest comment posted at 1:51 PM EDT 27/09/06

Hackers starting to target home users heavily because home users are the weakest link in security chain ...Read the full article

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  1. andy c from Canada writes: the sad part is that alot of people think it will cost them money and yearly renewals to acquire the necessary software to secure there computers when in reality, there are plenty of free anti virus, anti spam, and firewall programs readily available to secure one's computer.
  2. K B from Vancouver, Canada writes: The phishers and the spammers are in it for a buck, so I get that motivation, but the viral hackers? Please, can Canada bring back corporal punishment, just for them? Actually, I think even Amnesty would agree torture is called for in these cases...
  3. Banquo's ghost from Canada writes: There are only two reasons for anyone's home computer to be unprotected anymore. Ignorance and/or laziness. All the necessary software can be had for free - anti-virus, ant-malware, firewalls etc. and new browsers have anti-phishing filters. Perhaps it's time to require home computer users to demonstrate a minimum level of competence prior to being hooked up to the web. Or maybe it's time to require ISPs to implement the server side safety protocols. Or perhaps it's time to require financial institutions to be more honest and forthcoming about the risks involved with online banking. One way or another this situation must not remain at status quo.
  4. Stude Ham from Outremont, Canada writes: I was almost convinced some truly nefarious threat had emerged to undermine the use of internet capable home computers until it became apparent that the article was based on a report stemming from the Synmantec crews. No doubt, this report was a poorly disguised attempt by Symantec to flog some more of its rather less than sparkling computer security products in a marketplace which has pretty much run massive rings around this company's rather stodgy products. The G&M should have stated the source of its headlines up front rather than buried that fact almost invisibly in the body of the article. Caveat Emptor!
  5. Bobby Bitman from Victoria, BC, Canada writes: Make the punishment fit the crime! Enough of the namby-pamby, slap-on-the-wrist justice. It's payback time for honest people. Those dysfunctional spammers should be forced to open and read EVERY SINGLE piece of crap e-mail they sent from their mailing lists as part of jail time. Hackers should be put to work (for free) under the big boot of the authorities (sort of like the old-fashioned chain gangs) repairing networks they've destroyed. Identity thieves will be forced to personally apologize to the victims, do financial restitution, and never be allowed a passport, credit card, or drivers license.
  6. Vapor Pressure from Alberta, Canada writes: The word on the street with the kids is Symantec doesn't stop the worst stuff and the free virus software works better. I've been a customer for 6 years and although I refuse to buy the subscriptions and just buy the CD's ... I think it may be time to look at Telus' offering or that free stuff. You know you have a problem with your kid's computer (its always their PC's) when the Symantec is disabled and you can't enable it. That's when you get out the DOS boot CD you made 4 years ago and do the FDISK 'cure all'. For the every day computer user an external drive with 'One Button Backup' is the most important piece of the equation (and to use it regularily). You can't rely on the antivirus stuff, even that 'good' free stuff. Unless your willing to say good bye to all the family photos, home movies, and the music collection you spent hours ripping from your CD and LP collection.
  7. albert v from canada, Canada writes: 'When it comes to protection, Turner recommends the usual precautions — up to date anti-virus and anti-spyware and spam filtering, along with a sturdy firewall.' Well, well! made by guess who? Symantec, the Chicken Little of security programs have fallen on hard times in recent years with users switching to various flavours of Linux, or free for the asking Internet available security utillities. Keep it up!!
  8. Paul G from Toronto, Canada writes: I don't know what Stude Ham (#4) is crying about, the source of the article was listed in the first paragraph. Let Symantec do a little self promotion here, their report as to the direction of hacker's activity is accurate. Symantec's home user products under the Norton brand are bloated but the average user needs software that does everything itself. However I find that Symantec Client Security is tops, very lean and responsive. I've tried other products only to be dissapointed.
  9. andy c from Canada writes: #3. my dad was recently booted off rogers high-speed cuz his computer was allegedly part of a bot network. after a quick format and reinstallation of anti virus/anti spam software he was good to go (bottom line: some isp's are being proactive about the problem). i think the main problem is two part. first, users have to be better educated when surfing the net and should have the proper software installed before logging on. second, Microsoft has to do a better job locking down windows and IE. if Microsoft can lockdown windows and IE then the only risk to a person's computer would be in the form of spam or if something malicious was email to the victim (comes back to educating the public)
  10. Mike laroche from burlington, Canada writes: Who do you blame, the theif/hacker/terrorist who walks in through an unlocked door ? The person who bought the door, and takes no responsibility to lock it ? or the person who made the door with 'lock-optional' ? Somewhere in the past, the automobile industry was told that seat-belt were not optional. Shouldn't somebody do the same to the Operating System manufacture ?
  11. Dick Ginkowski from Pleasant Prairie, WI, United States writes: This is a good reminder. I note that the Globe and Mail periodically has printed columns by attorney/consultant Mary Kirwan on these issues and would like to see more. (I know the rules here discourage linking to web sites but the link is contained in her columns.)
  12. Lewis Bartholomew from Courtenay, Canada writes: I know first hand what a hacker can do. I have an old HP Pavilion for my Memorial Project office. It had two different virus scan programs and a firewall, yet the hacker found a way past all of it. 18 months ago I was doing some research for our annual fund raiser, clicked on an 'innocent' link and lost almost our entire 4 years worth of research, programs, emails and Windows office suite. We didn't have the money to have this attack fixed (filled the hard drive with who knows what, drains the resources and blocks any use to the Internet from that computer. We now have been borrowing a MAC since then and loving every minute of it. Now if only we could afford to purchase our own for the office.
  13. Charles Murray from Toronto, writes: There has never been a successful compromising of a (non- Windows) Mac with a virus - never. This is not because of any lack of trying - it's because Windows systems are inherently vulnerable. This situation is likely to continue as Symantec, Microsoft and other antiviral sellers have a vested interest in viruses continuing to exist. As for spam - governments need to take a stronger stand.
  14. campbell mcdonald from Victoria, Canada writes: I think we need to acknowledge that when it comes to information transmitted online, there is no security.
  15. Michael Rudas from Royal Oak MI, United States writes: While the risk asessment is valid, consider the source. Of course, it is in Symantec's business interest to pump up the hype around this issue; I have personally found Symantec's security software to be somewhat buggy and a resource hog of epic proportions-- though their free tools for removing specific viruses are VERY useful. Good free anti-virus programs include AVG and Avast. A major recent attack vector has been cross-site scripting (XSS-- Google it), for which no consistent strategy has yet been formulated for protection. Use of the alternative browsers Firefox or Opera for most browsing can help security, as Internet Explorer has many unpatched flaws-- though the upcoming IE7 is better, without a doubt (and you've gotta install it for security), I'll still stick with Firefox. Another strategy for virus avoidance is using operating systems other than Windows. On PC hardware, the primary alternative is Linux. A bootable-CD 'live' Linux can be downloaded (for free) from sites such as http://www.kanotix.com, which will provide a complete browsing environment (you can also install Linux from a Kanotix CD). By default, the live CD never touches your hard drive. I run Linux about 95% of the time and LOVE it.
  16. Robert Wiseman from Scarborough, ON, Canada writes: Re: Post #10 'Who do you blame, the theif/hacker/terrorist who walks in through an unlocked door ?' I have a right to not lock my door, but no one has a right to open it and walk in uninvited. It is a simple matter of respect for privacy and personal property, that needs to be backed up by the law. Let's require the ISP's to not co-conspire with these thieves and put up blocks to prevent this activity.
  17. andy c from Canada writes: 16. you dont have to lock the door to your house or car or secure your wireless network but most people do. if there was a cop on every corner the maybe some people would follow your lead and not lock your door but the reality is that there is not. i dont think a thief, hacker or terrorist is taking there rights or yours into consideration when they break into your home or are lifting your passwords off your computer. as for isp's taking a more proactive approace i think that it's in there best intrest to make sure there networks are bot and spam free seeing as bot nets and spam take up valueable bandwith and affect there customers directly. most isp's offer some sort of anti virus or anti spam for free or will boot you if your part of a bot net.
  18. Mrs Gay from United States writes: Check out a reseller in ON for Postini and that will stop all of these issues.
  19. John Akermanis from Toronto, Canada writes: Home PC security is the responsibility of the owner, not the ISP or the government. The problem is, people as a whole do not understand the consequences visiting sites of a unknown nature and downloading cute smilies and such just load up your PC with Spyware. General rule of thumb, if it's free, be skeptical, it's likely laden with spyware, or even worse yet, trojans, viruses. Unknown emails, don't open them, just delete. Above all buy good antivirus software and enable your build-in firewall if you have one. If you have kids, be sure they use their own PC and not yours, it will take them less than 10 minutes to infect your PC with spyware and viruses. Kids just think they know everything, so why argue, let them screw up their own machines and keep your own personal information safe.
  20. John Stanson from Vancouver, Canada writes: re: Banquo's ghost from Canada writes: 'There are only two reasons for anyone's home computer to be unprotected anymore. Ignorance and/or laziness. All the necessary software can be had for free - anti-virus, ant-malware, firewalls etc.' This is naivitee in the extreme. There is no such thing as full protection. If you are on the internet, you are unprotected... it's all a matter of how *vulnerable* you are. You can install all the anti-everything software & put up all the firewalls in the world, but if a sophisticated hacker really wants to get into your system, then someone, somewhere probably can. There are no such things as locked doors on the internet. Anonimity doesn't exist. Don't forget that the L0pht guys once told the US congress that they could do anything from taking out power grids to shutting down the internet. Getting past consumer firewalls on your home PC just isn't that difficult for smart hackers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L0pht
  21. New Age Redneck from Fredericton, Canada writes: I'm thinking my next computer will be a Mac. As far as I know, none of my acquaintances who own one have ever endured these problems. Does someone out there have an opinion about this?
  22. mike clark from 7 Iles, Canada writes: norton ( symantec ) 2005 expencive junk $150.00, put it in the garbage and reinstalled free protection, also they now charge you more if you need it on more than one PC. And don't you wounder how come every 3 months in 2005 we had a run of new viruses and who spent money and who made money, of course we are supposed to be really dumb.
  23. Anti Elvis from Waste of Money, Canada writes: Number 20. Ah, it's been some time since I've seen L0pht Heavy Industries mentioned on the net, or their bros known as Cult of the Dead Cow. Ironically, it's groups like that that have helped the computer networks of the world 'harden' themselves. Regardless, a good hardware firewall, a patched browser, virus and spyware scanners are a must in today's computing world. You can infect your machine just by visiting a website with the right browser/web server (read microsoft). I spent many years working in the world of the Internet, and I can tell you the number one problem IS people are cheap and lazy. They'll spend 80 bucks to rebuild their PC, but won't spend 30 bucks on a virus scanner.
  24. glenn leong from Calgary, Canada writes: I recently had a problem with a trojan for which Symantec did not have a solution for, or was not in their database. The trojan installed and ran the 'artm_new.dll' file. This 'dll' launches 'internet explorer' in the background under the 'winlogon' services and, therefore, cannot be removed manually. In fact, the process it spawns (internet explorer) relaunches itself if it is killed. This 'internet explorer' process is used to communicate to a remote server that can have access to your computer. I believe 'artm_new.dll' also spawns 'spoolsvv.exe' and 'comdlj32.dll'. One of these processes, turns your computer into a SPAM e-mail server! Wonder where all your SPAM is coming from? Maybe from your own infected computer! or many thousands like it! Governments should work together on shutting down these remote servers that are controlling the infected computers. p.s. To remove 'artm_new.dll', it has to be deleted on reboot. I used HiJackThis to do this. How this file got onto my computer?.. i'm pretty sure i just viewed a 'bad' website with 'internet explorer' :-)
  25. Anthony B from Sydney, NS, Canada writes: We seem to be coming at this problem from the wrong direction. If criminals were active on your neighbourhood, would you just put a lock on your door and leave them out there to prey on someone else? These cyber-criminals are terrorists and need to be treated as such. Make them a target in the War on Terror. Get the global community onside. Get serious about the problem. A couple of years in Guantanamo Bay would be an effective deterrent against these felons. Oh, and scrap the Youth Justice Act..... no 'kid gloves' for these jerks.
  26. brad f. from Canada writes: NEW AGE REDNECK (#21) - Mac OS X (the operating system) has been greatly improved and offers better security. It is based on Unix (not unlike Linux, although those are seperate entities). It is much harder for many of these same viruses to work on a Mac in the same theory (they can't in practice because they've been written FOR a Windows machine) and even though there's one known virus that has an effect on OS X still requires one step on the user's part to actually APPROVE the execution of the virus program. So, you really have to be ignorant to let it run. There's some debate over what will happen in the future as more PC users slowly switch to Apple computers, but here's one thing you'll like to know: Apple doesn't bother with putting as much wasted time and effort into attempting to curb illegal copies of the OS X operating system. You dont even need a serial # to install it on a Mac, and when Apple releases updates (including security updates), EVERYONE is free to download and install them. The updates are made available quite regularly, too. This is unlike MIcrosoft's practice (in short, there's more bureaucracy to get around including the company blocking people from downloading certain security updates when they detect that you are *apparently* using an unauthorized copy of windows.
  27. Tarek Adelman from writes: I have been an Apple Macintosh user since 1985 and have NEVER had a virus, nor have I ever run virus protection software. The recent Apple ads are true: not only do the latest Apple offerings contain all the style and elegance of a desktop or laptop, with its stable UNIX underpinnings, it is now the best PC as it runs the latest (sic) version of Windows (XP is now 5 years old)... all at a price comparable with the Dell packages.
  28. Anti Elvis from Waterloo, Ontario,, Canada writes: To Number 21 asking about Mac's. Here's a point of view of a guy with both platforms (for 15ish yrs). Where does Mac win over Windows? - spyware - viruses - ease of use - crisp, sharp graphics - stylish - MS Office for Mac as good as Office for Windows - network configuration - Safari the web browser - Mac Mail - all things multimedia - automatic updates - speed. The weak point of Mac is...the mouse sucks & MSN for Mac could use a few improvements. If you're willing to take the time to understand the Mac OS (a cheap book and a few hours), you'll find it's a great choice. AND!!!!, Mac's do NOT cost more than Windows machines. Apple Computers may seem expensive, but it's because they don't build lower end machines. If you compare the hardware you'll find that Mac is as cheap and sometimes cheaper than Windows based computers. Personally, I'd start with an iMac, a true thing of beauty. The Mac operating system is built on BSD UNIX, a hard core OS used by true geeks that, when secured, is rock solid. Mac's are a very good choice for the typical user
  29. brad f. from toronto, Canada writes: one more comment: you can download free tools that indicate upload and download bandwidth your computer is using. once you get the hang of how data transfer works you'll be able to have an ide aof something suspcicious going on. My roomate knew something was going on when his computer was transferring about 6 bytes/second. Doesn't sound like much, but he checked his network logs and it showed some automated server was trying to break into his computer and he blocked the IP. I know many people just want to use a computer and do everything and downloading hwhatever they want without having to think, but the fact is, computer nerds are the new cool kids. Well, maybe not quite... but you get the idea.
  30. Seb D from Ottawa, Canada writes: Banquo (#3) : How popular do you think electricity would be if, every time you turn on your coffee maker, you had to make sure you're wearing rubber shoes, holding on to a ground wire, and you've turned off your fridge, TV, AC and furnace. Rather than training everybody to be an electrician, certain safety protocols and standard designs exist to avoid accidents. Similary in computing, rather than training everybody to become a certified network administrator, maybe security software needs to be more straightforward and loopholes should be closed. Make it easier for people to protect themselves and the internet will become as widespread as the telephone.

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