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How My Mom Got Hacked

nytimes.com

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Re: How My Mom Got Hacked

#31

Post by sp4ke »

BorisMelnik wrote: post #3

This may sound cliche, but ransomeware truly is plaguing the nation. 3 "phone room" busts here where I live in the last month or so, all of which were the "tech support" hot lines that you called into after you've paid the ransom to "fix your PC." sure, there are many different levels of extortion. Some outfits are very upfront i.e. "your PC has been locked..." others are much more subtle and appear to come across as…

The problem is not the ransomware neither the criminals ... it's the way internet/computer users became completely unaware of what they are using and blindly trusting everything.

Think of this as a natural balance to the ridiculously insecure internet and people's tech culture. If we are all going to live in a world where we use internet and technologies everyday, we should have a minimum of knowledge on how it works and not blindly trust everything.

One other point, it's useless to try stopping these guys, they are selling the software on the blackmarket with source code, the more you catch the more room you give to new criminals and the better breed the virus becomes ...

Re: How My Mom Got Hacked

#32

Post by Kiro »

ColinWright wrote: post #29
coda wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How her mom. Well read.

Thank you. I read the article in some detail, I didn't read the author's name. The author's gender is not evident from the text of the item. For what it's worth, I found your comment somewhat snarky.

"... and about dispatching her daughter to the Coin Cafe A.T.M. at the 11th hour."

I agree about the snarkiness though.

Re: How My Mom Got Hacked

#33

Post by sp4ke »

ColinWright wrote: post #13

So the title is "How My Mom Got Hacked" and the only thing it actually says about that actual title is: The virus is thought to infiltrate your computer when you click on a legitimate-looking attachment or through existing malware lurking on your hard drive, ... So, there's really nothing about how his mom got hacked. Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting article, interesting to read about the process that ensues o…

This may sound cliche, but click-bate articles truly are plaguing the nation

Re: How My Mom Got Hacked

#34

Post by jarcane »

sp4ke wrote: post #31
BorisMelnik wrote: post #3

This may sound cliche, but ransomeware truly is plaguing the nation. 3 "phone room" busts here where I live in the last month or so, all of which were the "tech support" hot lines that you called into after you've paid the ransom to "fix your PC." sure, there are many different levels of extortion. Some outfits are very upfront i.e. "your PC has been locked..." others are much more subtle and appear to come across as…

The problem is not the ransomware neither the criminals ... it's the way internet/computer users became completely unaware of what they are using and blindly trusting everything. Think of this as a natural balance to the ridiculously insecure internet and people's tech culture. If we are all going to live in a world where we use internet and technologies everyday, we should have a minimum of knowledge on how it works…

I think you're right: People are not afraid of computers anymore, and when they are, it's in all the wrong ways.

When I was younger the internet terrified people. I learned all kinds of simple "don'ts" in the 90s that it seems all got completely forgotten within a decade and now no-one learns anything anymore.

I didn't even use my real name online until a couple of years ago. It was like the first rule of the internet: never put your real-life details on the internet.

Now we have Facebook.

News stories and Outlook viruses made it abundantly clear that you should never ever ever click an attachment if you didn't specifically request it and know exactly what it is (And even then, best to double check).

Now there's a whole bloody black-market industry built on attachment malware.

I was told to never re-use passwords, never write them down, and never give my password to anyone.

Now we have apps that conveniently collect every single one of your passwords to provide a single-point weakness where one password unlocks your entire bloody online identity, and the point of even having separate passwords is completely lost. And it's somehow supposed to be 'more secure'.

I don't understand the internet anymore.

Re: How My Mom Got Hacked

#35

Post by andrewchambers »

jarcane wrote: post #34
sp4ke wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not the ransomware neither the criminals ... it's the way internet/computer users became completely unaware of what they are using and blindly trusting everything. Think of this as a natural balance to the ridiculously insecure internet and people's tech culture. If we are all going to live in a world where we use internet and technologies everyday, we should have a minimum of knowledge on how it works…

I think you're right: People are not afraid of computers anymore, and when they are, it's in all the wrong ways. When I was younger the internet terrified people. I learned all kinds of simple "don'ts" in the 90s that it seems all got completely forgotten within a decade and now no-one learns anything anymore. I didn't even use my real name online until a couple of years ago. It was like the first rule of the interne…

The point of services like last pass is that a website with shitty security won't compromise all your accounts on websites with decent security.

The point is you only trust one security specialist company rather than many non security specialist companies.

It's getting to the point where if you don't use something like lastpass, then reusing passwords to some extent is needed - or do you remember 20 different passwords for each site you visit, even when you visit them only once a year?

Re: How My Mom Got Hacked

#36

Post by TeMPOraL »

r0m4n0 wrote: post #14
JCole wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to backup to the cloud, have people forgotten about physical hard drives?

Yep, a good mitigation plan is a 2tb time capsule. All my precious cat photos are backed up on the regular, encrypted and within reach.

As long as you remember to keep that drive unplugged - otherwise it'll get cryptolocked with everything else.

Re: How My Mom Got Hacked

#37

Post by aet »

sp4ke wrote: post #33
ColinWright wrote: post #13

So the title is "How My Mom Got Hacked" and the only thing it actually says about that actual title is: The virus is thought to infiltrate your computer when you click on a legitimate-looking attachment or through existing malware lurking on your hard drive, ... So, there's really nothing about how his mom got hacked. Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting article, interesting to read about the process that ensues o…

This may sound cliche, but click-bate articles truly are plaguing the nation

How is this click-bate?

Re: How My Mom Got Hacked

#38

Post by joosters »

gringe wrote: post #28
joosters wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any complications or deep thinking required before pointing fingers. It's the criminals who are to blame. No amount of educating end users will magically fix these kind of attacks, whether or not people write articles about their ransom payments.

I beg to disagree. If you effectively made everyone realize that not paying utterly destroys the extortionist's business model, that does "magically fix these kinds of attacks" overnight. Not that I'm saying educating people about this is practical or even possible. One thing that I think is destructive though is "blaming the criminals", since a) we don't even know who they are, b) their business model depends entire…

Since, as you say, educating everyone is not possible, you can't destroy the business model. So let's keep the 'magical fixes' out of the discussion.

How does blaming the criminals distract from finding a real solution? (You haven't yet even suggested a viable solution that we could be distracted from)

Re: How My Mom Got Hacked

#39

Post by binaryanomaly »

Kiro wrote: post #30
binaryanomaly wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How my mom caught a virus that encrypted her personal files - would be a more appropriate title imho. But anyway after reading the article it's clear what happened. Evil mail attachement --> infection.

> How my mom caught a virus that encrypted her personal files Just as bad if you ask me. There's still nothing about how she caught it.

Yeah ok, leave out the "how" then ;-)

Re: How My Mom Got Hacked

#40

Post by fdsary »

venomsnake wrote: post #19
Sir_Substance wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would genuinely rather lose all my critical data to cryptolocker than put it in the cloud. Given a choice between my data being accessible by no-one or everyone, I will pick no-one every time. Data in the cloud /is/ available to everyone that matters. I'd also like to remind you that it can be impractical to back up some forms of data, especially in the cloud. High definition video (weddings, funerals, holidays) is…

Here is a good interview question: Design a simple system that uses amazon as backend to store encrypted data and the keys never leave your control. There were 4TB drives at 100-sh bucks for big things. The problem is not Cryptolocker because there will ALWAYS be malware that targets the data itself. And some people will do it just for fun.

I think Duplicity (http://duplicity.nongnu.org) is what you're looking for. For Ubuntu I know there's a nice GUI that anyone who can use a computer can set up. For other platforms I think cli is the only way, but someone could just write a QT/Cocoa wrapper around it.
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