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Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (40076)	3/14/2004 11:27:26 AM
From: ILCUL8R	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110631

From a DEVIANT to an ex-DEVIANT -g- who wrote: "All of MS is crap but I do like Microsoft Word, it is the best imo, Excel too has finally become the best spread sheet for macros etc." I am to the point of installing the reader utility for MS Word. It's difficult to swim upstream and buck the tide. Next time around probably will be a new machine with pre-configured software and I will learn to use all the M$ software previously avoided. Else, will go to Linux and PerfectOffice, etc. Cheers................

To: maceng2 who wrote (40076)	3/21/2004 3:47:20 AM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110631

New hacking tool hijacks file-sharing networks 18:09 19 March 04 NewScientist.com news service Computer hackers have started using peer-to-peer networks to remotely take over hoards of "zombie" computers, adding yet more malicious capability to the hackers' tool-kit. Network administrators at universities from Europe to the US recently detected the tool, a worm called Phatbot, on their machines. Phatbot is currently under analysis by the US Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with a group of security analysts. They say that Phatbot represents a new way for hackers to send spam and launch denial of service attacks that bring down websites by flooding them with traffic. However, although the worm has infected millions of computers, it is not clear whether it has yet been used for these malicious purposes. "We know that the functionality is out there - but we have no idea of knowing if it is already being used to launch attacks or send spam," says Joe Stewart of computer security services provider LURHQ in Chicago. Virtual assembly point LURHQ has posted an analysis of Phatbot's capabilities online. Like most stealthy computer worms, it is a piece of malicious, executable computer code posing as an innocuous program, called a Trojan Horse. It invades a computer through a security flaw in Microsoft Windows. Once it has successfully infected a computer, it disables security programs such as firewalls and anti-virus software, scours the hard drive for email addresses that it can use for spamming and attempts to spread itself to new computers. It also opens "backdoors" in the operating system that turn the computer into a zombie controlled remotely by the virus writer. For virus writers to issue orders to these infected computers, they need a virtual assembly point where they can talk to all the computers at once. So far the most common assembly point has been an internet chat room. "It's the logical extension of where these people already hang out," says Stewart. Harder to shutdown But Phatbot's victims are instead remotely controlled via a peer-to-peer (P2P) network - the same technology used by controversial file-sharing websites like Kazaa. "The only thing that attracted my attention to Phatbot is that the author is using peer-to-peer rather than Internet Relay Chat programs," explains Stewart. This new mode of command is not necessarily more dangerous, but it could make these zombie networks more resilient. "It's not really that much more insidious but it is harder to have it shutdown, as on a peer-to-peer network there is no central point of control," says Stewart. Mikko Hypponen, director of F-Secure, an antivirus software company based in Finland agrees. He told The Washington Post newspaper: "With these P2P Trojan networks, even if you take down half of the affected machines, the rest of the network continues to work just fine." Celeste Biever lurhq.com