Another question from the world’s most naive Internet user: I was surfing around last night, reading Straight Dope as a matter of fact, and my Intruder Alert alarm went off. This program was installed by a friend of mine, and I had little idea what it was for or what it did. Anyway, it started clanging and flashing, and sure enough, someone was trying to get into my computer, through DNS or port 53.
My questions are, why would someone want to attack little old me, how would they do it, and what could they get if they got in? Does this happen a lot? Could someone give me a virus, snoop through my bookmarks, access my bank account? Was it Big Brother?
Coulda been a lot of things…
First of all, it’s possible that the program is misconfigured.
Other than that, the most probable scenario that I can think of is that you’ve installed a trojan of some sort…NetBus, BackOrifice, Sub7…that sort of thing.
If so, I believe that most of the updated AV packages contain removers for the trojans. If the ones you have cannot remove it, then try searching the web for cleaners.
If this is what happened, then your machine is at the mercy of the intruder. Mostly, though, intruders just like to play with you–send Windows messages to your screen and cause programs to start running “all by themselves.”
However, files are often also deleted and virii are sometimes placed on your machine. Keystrokes are also frequently recorded–the intruder can actually read your passwords as you type them in.
Hey, just thought of something…this friend that installed your Intruder Alert…could he have been trying to get in? Maybe a demonstration of the software?
-David
Chances are that you weren’t the only one “attacked” at that time. More than likely the recorded event was that of a scanner, or port sniffer being used, instead of someone deliberately probing your systems’ ports.
Dash by http://www.grc.com/ and run Steve Gibson’s port probing routine and see what bells it sets off on your system. If you have a constant connection to the Internet, consider using a hardware firewall.
–Kalél
Common ¢ for all ages…
“Well, there was that thing with the Cheese-Wiz…but I’m feeling much better now!” – John Astin, Night Court
“If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.”
Thanks for your replies, guys. I checked out that link, and had my ports probed. Didn’t hurt at all, except that Intruder Alert went off about six times while it was going on. It must be an effective detterent, GRC came back and said that the software I had installed would have told the intruder that there was no computer on this end of the line, and rerouted any further intrusions to Intruder Alert’s site,not mine.
Reading that GRC site has made me a little paranoid about going online, with their descriptions of all the ways there are to attack my computer, but, I guess that’s life these days. Thanks again.
Sorry. I couldn’t resist.
thanks **Johnny L.A.[/b. Glad someone did that.