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Our tech guy is always groaning about home users- that is users who work
from home using company owned laptops, whose computers are always infested
with malware. The worst cases are usually people who let their children
occaisionally use the equipment to surf the internet. Another one who always
has alot of trouble is the 82 year old founder of our company who doesn't
actually actively work at the company anymore but is always calling saying
he constantly gets unrelenting popups advertising sex websites. I wonder
what he may have been up to?
I think most of the time these people aren't paying attention to the things
they click on including reading the license agreements, etc.
The company I work for is in far from having a fascist attitude toward what
people are using the equipment for, but we recently had to block some
websites including youtube, myspace and facebook and the that has really
improved our network utilization.
--
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Halbert wrote:
> Our tech guy is always groaning about home users- that is users who work
> from home using company owned laptops, whose computers are always infested
> with malware. The worst cases are usually people who let their children
> occaisionally use the equipment to surf the internet.
My brother not only uses MySpace, but also downloads a bunch of demo
games. Having high speed probably doesn't help at all.
Sam
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From: Sabrina Kilian
Subject: Re: infested computers - how does it happen?
Date: 4 Dec 2008 19:40:35
Message: <49387883@news.povray.org>
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stbenge wrote:
> Do any of you out there know people who always seem to have infested
> computers? Can you spot a pattern of (mis)use which may be valuable to
> help these people keep their computers healthy?
>
> Sam
I help one cousin keep a computer. The pattern was her kids and husband.
She used it for ebay and banking, nothing else. They had to play every
game they saw an advertisement for. "Free Demo" meant the game had to be
downloaded, the EULA ignored, and everything clicked through.
The kids also wanted free music. Some P2P programs exist to just share
stuff, others want to make some money and install all sorts of ad-ware
pop-ups and other junk. Pointed the kids to the Wikipedia page that
lists which ones are malware free, and threatened to make an mp3
deleting script that would run on startup. Didn't work, but they are in
college now, so someone else's computer problem.
Another one was the 'must click' syndrome. You know the type, who use
MySpace or Facebook and have to install every application or icon pack
they see. "New emoticons, I have to have those" or "It's free, why
shouldn't I install it?" The basic economic speech of "Free just means
you are paying for it in ways you aren't looking for." is sometimes
enough, other times it's not.
Last one I can think of was running the computer without a firewall.
This was during the middle of Blaster's outbreak. They had turned off
the router because it had blocked some installed game, and the computer
wouldn't quit restarting. I put the router back on, ran the network
through it, and waited an hour drinking tea. To prove a point, I put it
back on the modem without a firewall, and only had to wait 2 to 5
minutes before it restarted. I think they still keep the router in the
loop. Public wifi is also on this list, though I hope Windows has gotten
better default firewall settings since Blaster.
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Sabrina Kilian wrote:
> stbenge wrote:
>> Do any of you out there know people who always seem to have infested
>> computers? Can you spot a pattern of (mis)use which may be valuable to
>> help these people keep their computers healthy?
>>
>> Sam
>
> I help one cousin keep a computer. The pattern was her kids and husband.
> She used it for ebay and banking, nothing else. They had to play every
> game they saw an advertisement for. "Free Demo" meant the game had to be
> downloaded, the EULA ignored, and everything clicked through.
Some EULAs I ignore. I'm pretty confident with most well-known and
trusted programs (eg. POV-Ray).
> deleting script that would run on startup. Didn't work, but they are in
> college now, so someone else's computer problem.
Good news for your cousin!
> Another one was the 'must click' syndrome. You know the type, who use
> MySpace or Facebook and have to install every application or icon pack
> they see. "New emoticons, I have to have those" or "It's free, why
> shouldn't I install it?" The basic economic speech of "Free just means
> you are paying for it in ways you aren't looking for." is sometimes
> enough, other times it's not.
Yes, I think I'm starting to see how this happens. Now to convince my
little brother not to do these things...
> Last one I can think of was running the computer without a firewall.
My little bro's firewall was off as well. He didn't even realize that he
had one, let alone that he should always keep the thing on! Oh well, if
his dad wants to buy him a new computer every two years, it's not my
problem :/
At least I can prevent people like my dad misusing his computer when he
finally gets online :)
Sam
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"Sabrina Kilian" <"ykgp at vtSPAM.edu"> wrote:
> [...]downloaded, the EULA ignored, and everything clicked through.
There was some thing I'd gotten (I think a piece of hardware) where its
instruction sheet explicitly tells you to 'just keep clicking next until the
dialogues go away' on installing. It was a reputable product, too, just
instilling poor behaviour processes in users.
--
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.freesitespace.net
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> Do any of you out there know people who always seem to have infested
> computers? Can you spot a pattern of (mis)use which may be valuable to
> help these people keep their computers healthy?
I have a friend who is exactly like this, I had fixed some software issues
on his computer a number of times, then finally a stick of RAM went bad and
I built him a new PC with a fresh installation of XP. Within a few weeks he
called me up to go and take a look because it wasn't working. What he had
done was incredible, not only had he downloaded and installed almost every
piece of anti-virus/spyware/malware software in existence, he had installed
all sorts of dodgy software when prompted with "Your computer seems to have
a virus, install XXXXX to fix it". The result was a huge mess, I have no
idea whether he actually had a virus or not, but it wouldn't have made any
difference. I fixed it for him by just reinstalling XP, installed ONE AV
software and told him that it would catch absolutely everything so no need
to install any other anti-whatever software. Haven't heard from him since!
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scott <sco### [at] scott com> wrote:
> I have a friend who is exactly like this, I had fixed some software issues
> on his computer a number of times, then finally a stick of RAM went bad and
> I built him a new PC with a fresh installation of XP. Within a few weeks he
> called me up to go and take a look because it wasn't working. What he had
> done was incredible, not only had he downloaded and installed almost every
> piece of anti-virus/spyware/malware software in existence, he had installed
> all sorts of dodgy software when prompted with "Your computer seems to have
> a virus, install XXXXX to fix it". The result was a huge mess, I have no
> idea whether he actually had a virus or not, but it wouldn't have made any
> difference. I fixed it for him by just reinstalling XP, installed ONE AV
> software and told him that it would catch absolutely everything so no need
> to install any other anti-whatever software. Haven't heard from him since!
I once knew a person who told me that he wanted to "try linux", and that
he downloaded it and ran it, and that it broke his IE because its home page
would always go to a porn site even if he tried to change it.
Given that linux is not something you simply "download and run" in Windows,
I don't have the faintest idea what exactly is it that he downloaded and ran.
Clearly whatever he did, whether it was that thing he downloaded, or
something else along the way, he got a IE homepage hijacker. But the way he
described it made it clear that he thought that "linux" was something which
breaks your IE.
He ended up reinstalling the whole XP because of a homepage hijacker.
(He clearly didn't know what malware and homepage hijackers are, nor ever
heard of malware removal tools.)
I'm pretty sure that to this day he is still convinced that "linux" is
something which breaks your IE.
--
- Warp
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Halbert <hal### [at] gmail com> wrote:
> I think most of the time these people aren't paying attention to the things
> they click on including reading the license agreements, etc.
I suppose that it wouldn't help to install a good firewall and resident
malware scanners in their computers because they would nevertheless pay
zero attention to what the software is telling them and allow everything.
--
- Warp
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Warp wrote:
> I once knew a person who told me that he wanted to "try linux", and that
> he downloaded it and ran it, and that it broke his IE because its home page
> would always go to a porn site even if he tried to change it.
> I'm pretty sure that to this day he is still convinced that "linux" is
> something which breaks your IE.
Heh. I needed a laugh... :-D
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From: Jim Holsenback
Subject: Re: infested computers - how does it happen?
Date: 5 Dec 2008 07:26:23
Message: <49391def@news.povray.org>
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"Invisible" <voi### [at] dev null> wrote in message
news:49391861$1@news.povray.org...
> Heh. I needed a laugh... :-D
Well then try this on for size. I get a call from my sister-in-law ....
don't know why but my computer is running real slow! OK .... going into town
anyway so I stopped by. 78 Mahjong games running. I asked .... How did you
manage that!!! Turns out she thought she WAS quitting the game when she was
done. She was clicking on the (-) instead of the (x). Doesn't the (-) mean
take away she asked. Lord help my aching head! Now my wife wants to get her
a digital camera for Christmas.
Jim
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