Hey everybody, sorry i've been offline for so long, but i've been <i>offline</i> .
Due to recent activities i began to suspect my computer had been compromised, by viuses (which i recently learned is the appropriate plural vor a virus - and not viri which i had previously thought - (do i use parenthesis too much (probably (definately)))) - as i was saying - by viruses, trojans, and rootkits (oh my). My computer had been running without a re-install for two and a half years, which is more than twice what i usually go before something forces me to go with a <i>tabula rasa digitalis</i>. In case your thinking "What kind of porn sites is he going to that he catches viruses that force him to re-install his OS?" I would like to say that the activities tended more towards the larcenous than the lustful. Or in the non-poetic - P2P not porn.
After attempts to clean the system, i decided that it was time - besides there was a lot i wanted to do in the way of re-organizing that would also be easier to do from scratch. So I make the mental list - OS disk, essential programs disks, list of drivers needed (espesially for internet connectivity (damn, parenthesis again)), and moving all the data i want to keep off-storage, etc. Fast foward, the PoNR having been crossed, i re-install the OS, the basic network related drivers, the firewall, connect to the internet, update the OS, update the drivers, update the firewall software. Then comes the long road of reinstalling and updating and configuring all the other software. Anyway I think i'm rambling here, i'm gonna go get something to eat...
Much better, where was i? Right, i had just finished re-installing all the software. So, with a brand new OS, I implemented the new security intel i had aquired while trying to detect and clean some of the more tenacious malwares. Firewalls, proxies, anonymizers, et al. Now i was ready to go back to the mean streets of the digital underworld. OK, thats a little damatic, but only a little. Once i had my (this is going to be fun to say - ) firewall completely stealthed, an encrypted tunnel to an anonymizing web proxy, and the latest in open source real-time spyware detection, I was able to log onto the "hidden wiki" a loose collection of sites that cater to all kinds of info that would benefit from being anonymous and secure. Things like how to increase your security <i>even more</i> - and i'm talking full blown paranoid, goverment is out to getcha, level security, were what i described above is only 'step one' in a ten step list with multiple options; or "hacking" programs. {Side note on "hacking" programs. I never really trusted hacking programs that were easily available, like on the web - it's like buying a "collectors item"-- at wal-mart. So i guess these programs are somewhat legit (which in this case is a rather ironic use of the word)} ( hah! Take that parenthesis! I mixed it up with some braces).
Also present were the low level conspiricy theorist stuff, polictical "underground", contoversial books, etc. Surprisingly absent was porn, I would expect to see the really freaky-deaky stuff - like dogs in latex being ridden, horsey style, by hairless midgets though mashed potatoes to the sounds of a theremin. The stuff that doesn't even have to do with sex - know what i mean? And please, somebody out there say they know what i mean. :)
Anyway, after my little forray into the world wide underbelly, it was back to my own less than laudable endevers - hopefully prepared for the worst. 'Twas not to be. (cool, i got to use the word 'twas. hehe.) Then, after just a few days, with no "hits" from my anti-virus software or anti-spyware progs. and not downloading anything that i didn't "know" what it was, and certainly not running anything that i didn't trust, I got a virus alert on an .exe i was downloading, which of corse i didn't finish and deleted the partial file. Just to be safe I ran an online virus/spyware scan, honestly not expecting anything to come up, i mean after all the trouble i went through securing and arming myself against it. But, yep, i had caught something. Now, the curiosity kicks in, how effective is AV/AS? I download as many AS softwares as i can and get a list of online scanners - the total: six to run from my PC and another six from online. I disconnect from the network, physically disconnect. Reboot in safe mode, i wanted to boot to safe mode command prompt, but the software would not run from there (even better would be to boot from a CD-ROM, but alas i don't have such). Once in safe mode, i run all six scans one after the other, then reboot in safe mode with network support and run the online scanners. I had four occurances of malware (real malware - not tracking cookies or anything relativley tame), in just a few days after a clean install, with the best defense i could muster while be vigilent to NOT let any in - AND each one was caught by a different scanner!
Granted i was in highly suseptable area but, man, that's a pretty shitty track record really. So i scrubbed and scoured; and cleaned and wiped; and disinfected and deleted. I am confident that i am now free of contamination, although it is ultimately just that confidence - not real certainty (that would require another re-format and re-install). The lesson here, if there is one, is simply stay off of P2P - you WILL get a virus or worse. Oh, and that AV/AS software sucks right now - or at least they are currently losing the battle with malware. I base that last on the apparency (is that a word - yep it's a word) that there is not a comprehensive, or nearly comprensive, scanner/detector currently available.
Anyway I'm back online now and safe from any baddies, but that's what i've been doing. What are you guys up to?
As always please, please, please ignore any spelling mistakes. I don't want to have to change my handle to non-spelling-james, or worse, too-lazy-too-run-spell-checker-james. Think of it as a quirk.
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