How Secure Are You Really?
At the end of August this year right before I was to move, I got a very rude awakening. I was searching for an mp3 for a personal project and I accidently clicked on an attack site containing nasty malware. At the time, I was using ZoneAlarm and an alert popped up to allow svchost.exe access.
Now, normally I deny all ZoneAlarm program alerts I don’t recognize as something I want to give access to, but I was really tired that night, and my hand actually twitched and I clicked accept! Honestly, I did not want to click that but it happened! And the next thing you know, my desktop was hijacked, my browsers were hijacked, and it took me almost a week to get rid of this malicious trojan – the AntiVirus XP 2008 trojan, a rogue anti-spyware program. This trojan takes over your hosts file, your desktop, your browsers, and who knows what else. It was nasty!
Now, if a web-savy techie, geeky, internet consultant/marketer like me – who’s been online making a living since 1997 – can get infected accidently by malware or viruses, etc., can you imagine what’s happening to most people who aren’t so savy and have no idea they even have spyware or malware on their computers? They are mostly using Intenet Explorer and if they are not getting regular Windows updates on patch Tuesdays and if they are not using a proper firewall with proper browser settings and tools, or updated antivirus software, then they are very vulnerable and at risk.
Good old Microsoft Windows and Intenet Explorer is so full of security leaks. Ah, but Internet Explorer is not the only browser at risk anymore. Because of the huge popularity of Firefox, it is vulnerable too. I was using Firefox 3 when I got attacked. In fact, 3 of my browsers got hijacked: Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3 amd Opera 9.52. Luckily Netscape 8 was not affected and I was able to find solutions to get rid of the problem.
Now I use a really good Firefox add-on called NoScript . I enable scripts at sites I trust, only. I have a better firewall and I do regular port scans using SheildsUp at Gibson Research. I am just more vigilant about updating my anti-virus/anti-spyware programs. I can only suggest that you do the same.
The Internet is wonderful most of the time, thank goodness. Just make Intenet security a priority and you’re good to go.
Enjoy the ride!
February 27th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Faced related experience..!