[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Internet users 'should check for blackout virus' The German government says all internet users should check their computers for a virus which could stop them going online from March 8. The “DNS-Changer” program infects up to 33,000 computers in Germany each day, according to authorities who arrested those behind the scheme in November. A “DNS-Changer” infection means a computer connects to a fake version of the Domain Name System – the service which enables access to websites, the Office for Information Technology Security (BSI) said on its website on Wednesday. Rather than connecting to the normal DNS, an infected computer is instead re-routed to websites which criminals have manipulated and use for fraudulent activities such as the spreading of fake anti-virus software. Those operating the fake DNS have also been sending manipulated advertising to infected computers, manipulated search results and sent further malware to them. Although the FBI and European police authorities arrested many of those operating the fake DNS system in November, they left the system running while a real one was put in its place. But the fake one will be shut down on March 8, leaving those computers still connecting to it, in the dark. A quick check can be carried out by logging onto the site www.dns-ok.de which has been set up by the government, Deutsche Telekom and the German federal police. A simple green-coloured response from the site means your computer is free of the “DNS-Changer”. The BSI said the page would not start a program or download anything. A red response means your computer is infected, and the site will offer a number of suggestions of how to fix it. Poster Comment: Comments: J-Dub Hahaha....you Windows users have fun with this silly virus garbage! Windows viruses do not infect Linux boxes! One of the many advantages to using UNIX is that Windows viruses do not infect UNIX based systems. nemo999 My Dear J-Dub is correct that Windows virus infect Windows systems. But there are virus that are designed to infect Linux systems, and there are virus designed to infect MAC OSX. No Single Operating System is safe or secure. No one should gloat about operating system X versus Y, they all have weakness. It is the price that is paid to be connected. The only safe and secured system must be in sealed room, turned off, and disconnect from everything, and if you are still paranoid, take the CPU chip off the motherboard, granted it is not much use, but by all of the lords of the internet it is secure, plus it makes a great paper weight. J-Dub nemo, only 863 UNIX viruses exist in this world. ALL OF THEM require ROOT privledges, meaning that you would have to type a password for the virus to actually infect a UNIX system. No Linux user is dumb enough to install software that is not digitally signed. All Linux software requires a GPG key, which are not easily obtained. The chance of infecting a Linux system is less than 0.1%. Windows users are constantly infected since it is the most used OS worldwide. MAC users are infected since they do not require password protection for ROOT access. Any Linux user knows that if as long as if they don't grant permission by inputting a password, nothing can infect a system. And even if it does, Linux firewalls make Windows firewall look like a pathetic JOKE. I use Windows, MAC, and Linux daily. It's part of my job. But I can tell you that in all of my years of IT, I have NEVER EVER witnessed an infected Linux box. EVER. Since there are only 863 viruses currently applied to the UNIX architecture and Linux firewalls cover all of these, even a new Linux virus would still require administrative passwords to be inputted into the computer to gain a gateway to the system. If you believe that there is no safe or secure OS, you obviously know little about Linux for that matter because after 15+ years of working with Linux I have never even needed antivirus protection and have NEVER had an infected computer. No one wants to spend the time to create a UNIX virus since it's too difficult to attack UNIX. Windows is a system built for the beginner, which is why it is so easy to attack. Since MS has a 93% market share of the OS market, one would assume that too is another reason why Windows is more often attacked. Oliver Jones @J-Dub Yawn. Most people who run Windows (myself included) run it for the sheer breadth and quality of software that is available on the platform. Open source fails to make the grade, even for running basic stuff like office and production software. That makes Windows isn't going anywhere. (Lest you think I'm some clueless numpty, I'm an experienced UNIX system administrator with around 13 years of Linux experience, plus plenty of Solaris, AIX, HP-UX and BSD experience, plus networking and storage administration.) UNIX is great for hosting servers (and even then, most of my clients have to reboot their Linux boxes every 45 days or so, because the Linux kernel doesn't cope very well with very high loads. Windows Server doesn't have this problem, nor do any of the commercial-grade UNIXes.) However, with the possible exception of OS X (which was based on BSD, and designed with desktop use in mind), most UNIX operating systems - and Linux - are utterly crap for running desktop software on. At the end of the day, I administrate UNIX and Linux boxes by the dozen - but when it comes to doing my own stuff at home, I regard Linux as a time sink. I have a wife, a life and plenty of other things to do with my time - I'm no longer a teenage hacker with 18 hours of time per day available to spend tweaking my kernel or customising my desktop. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
Danke -------------------------------------------------------- Bright green - thanks.
Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson |
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||