What is Digg?57 Comments
- Linkage155, on 10/12/2007, -5/+36Complete BS article, but as we all know, this is digg, and all the fanboys will be bouncing around here soon. Not even worth trying to explain why it's inaccurate.
- hello2usir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15>>"Without them [viruses] who knows how advanced network administration and security would be."
As advanced as they would need to be?
If there were no viruses, there would be no need for virus related security.
In other words, virus authors don't do society any favors aside from indirectly helping to strengthening antivirus technologies -- a solution to which they are the cause. - Phocion55, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15I'm running this exact experiment on my laptop for kicks. So far, nothing.....
Oh wait, I'm using Linux. - NoOneButMe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Installed On: Friday, January 12 2007 (I needed to resize *nix partition to run Adobe Illustrator + After Effects in windows : ) - Still no AV / Antispyware. Only firewall = router. Oh, and i use firefox. Im wondering what sites this person visits with IE to get that bad of an infestation.
- miken32, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Try running a wireshark capture on your DSL or cable connection one of these days. You would seriously be surprised by how many times someone will try to connect to port 139 in a minute.
- colincornaby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9"Only firewall = router."
This would be why. Your router is running NAT, which makes it hard for viruses outside the network to get to your computer. A lot of people have their computers hooked directly to the cable modem, which is very dangerous as this article shows. - vuke69, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Go ahead. Let us know how that turns out for you.
- miked123, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10What a load of *****. This scare talk is what keeps older and less knowledgeable people from fully utilizing their computers and the internet and also keeps selling subscriptions to Norton.
- pkulak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Your router is a firewall. And a damn good one too.
- RScott, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6My theory is that a majority of viruses are written by anti-virus companies. We are paying the bullies to protect us... Ha Ha Ha Ha
- demonthises, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Yes there is some scare-mongering going on in this article, but it is not complete *****.
IF you put a virgin XP machine online with no protection, it will become infected with something.
8 seconds is not an unreasonable time to get sasser. I had to remove sasser from my parents computer and my grandmother's computer once. Unfortunately at the time I didn't have a good firewall available to me, so I had to put both machines back only and download one. Within 30 secs, one machine was already running sasser again, and within a minute the other machine was also infected.
It definitely is not as bad as the author makes it out to be though. - eezzzz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I trust the tastes of people with "spin" in their name. Also, it burns when I urinate.. ironically, it started just 8 seconds after I turned on a computer lacking anti-virus and firewall. Reminds me of my first 8 seconds in Iraq.. I was all too quickly being disemboweled by the camel spiders that were chasing and attacking my hummer.
- vuke69, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"First, it was hit by Sasser,..." ~TFA
A WORM, go ahead an look up how they propagate... I'll wait... - sabotank, on 10/12/2007, -4/+75) Use a microsoft product
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5actually i have a hard time finding viruses, were the hell are they?
- dunezone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"indirectly helping to strengthening antivirus technologies"
Which directly leads to jobs for helping strengthen those technologies. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3thats exactly what i dont do and i get 0 viruses :D
- Kwipper, on 10/12/2007, -6/+8Woah there! Wait a minute! Now lets think about this article here.
You're telling me that the person in question just took a computer with a fresh install of Windows, with a disabled firewall and no Anti-Virus installed, connected it to his cable modem (or DSL) and instantly got a virus 8 seconds later? He didn't even surf the web or anything? Just 8 seconds after the ethernet cable was connected from his computer to his cable modem, it happened.
I am sorry, but I am going to have to call ***** on this one scare-mongering tactic.
no-digg - egbert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"But there's more to it than this, because virus creators are not making the world a better place. When someone loses their work to a virus, it makes them angry, frustrated, and unhappy. This ripples on to the folks they come into contact with. One way to view this is that the sum total of unhappiness around the world increases. This is not a good thing."
I did not realize viruses did this. Viruses increase the unhappiness around the world!!! That the final straw me must stop viruses NOW!!! - SamyIsMyHero, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4They are writing about something the BBC did more than a year ago. I will not be mislead into reading this article and thinking oh they are on top of this internet security thing. Get more recent information information week!
- SloppyJoe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This is stupid.. title should read
"How long does it take an idiot to catch a computer virus?" I don't run any AV software full time, I keep it around to scan anything I deem suspicious and I'm aware of what I'm doing on t3h interwebs.. I've not had a virus in years.... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It doesn't exist. This story is the typical scaremongering that sell copies of that Norton bloatware and keeps people scared!
Its blatantly inaccurate, and I marked it as such and so should anyone else who actually has a clue, unlike the submitter of the story. - Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2choosing an anti virus is like choosing a car
look around first don't just go with Norton because the computer store sells it - miken32, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Must have been the original XP. I did this very thing last week with XP SP2, and a blank admin password. I was trying to get into one of these botnets to see what the traffic looks like in Wireshark.
After an hour, I remember the built-in firewall, and turned it off. Then after another hour or so with no luck, I enabled file sharing. Then people started trying to connect, but with a bunch of default passwords; none of the scripts tried a blank password. Then someone actually managed to connect and... caused a system error that shut down file sharing.
I gave up and found an old Windows 2000 disk. Paydirt! - thewump, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2many dont see this level of attack soley because of their router. passive worms goto work on vunerable ports which routers block.
- musicbear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Is this based off that old BBC video about an unpatched WinXP box being plugged directly into the net? That's WWWWAAAAAAYYYYYYY old. Though, it's kind of fun to watch the thing go from zero to completely taken over by viruses and things until the entire CPU is full speed ahead just processing crap from the 'net. Unfortunately though, it's way old and way before service packs and stuff... yeah... we've come a long way huh?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1NO! First, it's your responsibility to protect yourself. Get a (good, not XP) firewall. Get a (or multiple) good virus scan program. Get MULTIPLE good adware/spyware/malware programs. Update your HOSTS file regularly.
OK, so you have a responsibility. So do others. Those RELEASING viruses should face jurisdictional prosecution. Those writing the code, even compiling it (if need be), should face no penalties. In fact, they should be encouraged and rewarded. Their efforts point out flaws in imperfect systems that would otherwise go unnoticed and thus would never be improved if not for the existence of viruses. - caseycoold, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Most IPs will block you if you start sending a lot of stuff out, especially here in the USA. But roadrunner doesn't filter my traffic at all.
And as for 8 seconds? B.S.
I have run with 2 firewalls and Norton Corp. edition, ad-aware pro and spybot, behind a router, and I have gotten crap before (was difficult), but I was looking for it.
I usually don't run anything other than the default windows firewall. And you know what? I have been to all kinds of nice hack sites/warez sites and I haven't gotten a good virus in YEARS.
And since IE7 I can't seem to find and malware.
Just don't click "download" on stupid crap, and you wont get infected. It's that easy.
Buried for old and inaccurate. - Crass22, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6welcome to teh internetsm, this is a typical websight.
- Kelmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@takeda
I understand where you are coming from but I hope you realise that what you are proposing is completely implausible. A car is a relatively simple device to manage safely from the perspective of the user but even so it can take months for someone to learn how to use it such that they can pass a driving test and receive their qualification. In comparison, despite advances in interfaces and simplification, the modern computer is massively complex such that attempting to explain how to use one safely to everyone who wishes to use it would result in a lot of people just losing patience with the whole thing. What will eventually result is a barrier to access a resource that everyone can, and should, have access to.
It would be nice to educate people about how to use computers safely but its far easier, practical and overall better to make the computer itself simpler to use and less liable to security breaches. For those who still want the freedom to do what they want with a computer then I'd suggest that computing equivalent of the kit-car but for Joe Consumer a locked-down system would probably be all they need if it is designed well. - sancho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The program you run is 'Windows.' I have a story of my own for this one.
Not all that long ago, I worked for a group which repaired computers in a local university. This was before Service Pack 2 commonly came preinstalled on computers, so when we reinstalled from the OEM image, we had to ensure that the network wasn't connected during a reinstall so that we could turn on the firewall and install SP2.
Well. One time I forgot. I left the network connected during the reinstall (which I thought took a little longer than it should, and began to get out the hardware diagnosis kit). After Windows finally came up, I started checking the hardware--it was fine. I figured it was a glitch or that I was imagining things, and continued the install. Upon installing Antivirus, I discovered around 40 viruses, and I realized my mistake.
Yeah. The computer was infected before the install completed.
What happens is that Windows has a number of flaws in the base install. If you install SP2, the firewall is on by default, so you probably won't get hit (though a flaw in the firewall could still lead to infection). But for earlier versions, you're vulnerable. The attempts are coming in almost constantly. It's fairly unlikely that you'll be able to patch before someone hits you, though it may be possible (purely luck-based) to get the install completed and turn the firewall on in time.
So yeah, you don't even have to run a program, move the mouse, click the keyboard. Just having that unpatched Windows box on the net (and not behind a firewall) is enough to get infected. - carguy84, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1ha, more like informationlastweek.com
- Chongo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is a good article to show your older parents though. It will at least convince them to actually install some anti virus / ad / spam programs.
- takeda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1He just run IE and went to those nasty XXX pages =)
I belive it takes about that much time for this stuff to get downloaded and install.
I agree, this article is just to scare regular users, and shouldn't even be posted here in first place. - takeda, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"As advanced as they would need to be?
If there were no viruses, there would be no need for virus related security.
In other words, virus authors don't do society any favors aside from indirectly helping to strengthening antivirus technologies -- a solution to which they are the cause."
Virus protection is just *****, and not really needed.
Viruses are actually show how many computer users are uneducated.
Why do you need to have a driver's licence to drive a car but you can be completly uneducated when using a computer?
If an automated and dumb program can get to your computer imagine how secure you are from true cracker... - Kwipper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Or it should be retitled to "How long does it take for a computer with a virgin copy of Windows XP installed to catch a virus.. or.. virus attacks, and the idiots who get them."
FYI: Rocky and Bullwinkle reference. - ronaldb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Now, disconnect your router, and plug the damn machine directly into your modem. Welcome to the real world.
- brasso, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2What was he expecting when connecting a computer with a five year old, unpatched OS to the Internet? Well, obviously this, but that wont happen with XP SP2 (which the article never mentions) that has been out for two years or something like that now.
- RTPMatt, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4"PC dont just get a virus by connecting to the internet."
Um, yes they do...though 8 seconds does seem a bit fast. - sancho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That's fine for a learning experience, but you'll probably just find old viruses/trojans/worms doing this. Run a fully patched install, or check your mail for executables to see some of the new stuff.
Some of the trojans out there are nasty. There's a relatively new one called Peacom (I think?) that basically sets up a P2P botnet and encrypts all of its connections. It's pretty hard for an IDS to deal with this sort of behavior. - netdroid9, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I still don't get how a virus can spread over something as big as the internet without at least knowing the user's IP address. Is it some kind of Brute Force mechanism? If it relies on accessing an Internet server, then most reputable sites probably won't get you infected, right?
- MrFoof82, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm skeptical myself -- 8 seconds seems short.
I'm in the process of switching to OS X completely, so I'm curious how long it'll really take if I nuke/pave XP and plug it directly into the cable modem, and time how long it takes for weird things to start showing up in perfmon (and enable counter logging). - duuk2k2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I would have guessed that most ISPs block common worm traffic, especially something as old as Sasser?
I know they sure do a good job filtering and shaping torrent traffic. - gsiliceo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Don't worry mac fanboys as your favorite plataform becomes more and more popular virus and bugs will start appearing. There is a price we windows users have to pay for the advantages we have, we just have to be paranoic, update everything, firewalls, antivirus, antispyware, etc
- thatsiebguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I stuck an unpatched, un SP1/2 XP machine naked on the net outside our DMZ. Nothing happened to it. That was some three months ago and its still there with nothing abnormal on it. Perplexed, I tried it from home on my cable modem (outside of my router) with a virtual machine and nothing happened to it. I was kinda pissed, I wanted to see some pwnage. I concluded that the last set of upgrades by our ISP included filtering the network.
- gooblegobble, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3What kind of program do you run to know you have a virus in 8 seconds?
And where can I get one to test this? - fun4stuff, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1more interesting would be how long does it take someone who has unprotected sex once a day with a different person each day to catch sex virus
- timmyblog, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1To answer a question with a question:
How long does it take to install Windows and IE? That's probably about the same amount of time. - atdigg, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3It's not *****, it happend to me, I forgot to unplug the computer from the network till I installed the patch and it was connected to the network less then 30 seconds and it still got a worm. Sure, if the computer is fully patched and firewall turned on it's another story, but don't fool yourself thinking that "it's unprotected only for couple of seconds, nothing bad will happen".
- supermeek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0this is the biggest load of crap i've ever heard. i've had an xp computer on the net for years totally unprotected and have only had very minor spyware intrusions that were very few and far between. i hate fear-mongering!
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