At the risk of broaching that particular “forbidden topic” (i.e. illegal distribution of copyrighted mp3s, there I said it, let us not speak of it again lest this thread be locked) – how would I know, if the RIAA made good on its thread to actively hack into the computers of Kazaa users, delete files, maybe upload a virus, whether or not they force through Congress that bill which would give them immunity from such underhanded tactics?
Would there be direct signs (i.e. strange computer effects, files mysteriously disappearing, the word “fnord” appearing between every sentence in my journals, etc.) or would I never know?
And finally…how can the RIAA tell a regular, active K*zaa user from someone who never downloaded a single mp3 from an illegal source? What’s to protect the innocent user from the RIAA’s illegal (for now) tactics?
P.S.: To the mods, please forgive me if the words used in my post are in and of themselves against the rules, since I’m unclear on exactly what the rules are about that. Really, the OP title is the relevant question: If the RIAA is hacking my computer, how would I know? And how can I protect myself?
First of if you’re worried about getting hacked, get a firewall. ZoneLabs has a good one called ZoneAlarm. Basically what this does is block all traffic from your computer unless you say otherwise. (everytime you run a new program with it on, you’ll have to tell it to let it access the internet.)
As for the signs, it just depends. More than likely it wouldn’t be anything more than deleting the mp3’s.
Telling who uses kazaa? Pretty easy, just go on Kazaa and start getting usernames from that. After that it’s a matter of geting an IP address from the username.
Ok, another question (which is sort of a hijack, but hey, it’s my OP) – is it important to have a firewall while I’m still on dialup? There is no question that I’ll be getting ZoneAlarm once I can afford to go DSL…
From the ouside world, the only differences between dialup and faster connections are[ul][li]Speed, obviously, andIP assignment.[/ul][/li]An always-on connection usually retains the initially-assigned IP address indefinately; a dialup user is assigned a different one, typically according to the particular modem you land on at the ISP’s shop.
So you are vulnerable either way, but your vulnerability is much less with dialup, since if your computer is discovered by the wily cracker, by the time he gets around to using it, you are no longer at that IP. And he may not want to fool with low-speed connections when there are so many faster ones available.
Frankly, having a firewall set up isn’t going to help if the RIAA decides to hack something you want to use through it. For example, if you run a web server, file sharing program, or other, then these must accept inbound connections. I find it likely that if the RIAA wants to go after people, it’ll do it by exploiting features available in the myriad filesharing programs. Having a firewall doesn’t help here, as it would have to be set to ignore this traffic in order for the programs to work.
I suggest you look around this site if the RIAA is your major concern here.