Wednesday, August 06, 2003
FROM RUSSIA WITH LUST
Truth be told, I understand so little about hacking and computer espionage, I'm a paranoid danger to myself. For the last several weeks I haven't said anything to anyone, but I was convinced that my blog and my computer were somehow selected by the Russians for use in their complicated stealth program that hijacks home pc's to send porn ads or uses your computer to view porn sites but only for ten minutes. Don't just say I'm crazy if you didn't click on the link and read the article.
This is from the same location as the PayPal scheme of a few weeks ago , and is probably the same group of Russians. In that one, bogus e-mails were sent to people asking that they report to fake PayPal sites and divulge confidential banking or credit card information.
Aside from the fact that sometimes paranoids are right, how do I know I am one of the 2,000, and counting, victims? Here are the Nancy Drew clues that led me to this conclusion.
Clue One, The Warning: For as far back as the event viewer log goes and before that, my system has been screaming yellow triangle warnings, up to eight a day, that "Your computer has configured the IP address for the network card with network address such and such. The IP being used is blankedty blank." I ignored it because I had no idea what it could mean, and it seemed harmless enough. I couldn't imagine why it was a "warning."
Clue Two: Bookworm Bitches keep showing up in my blog statistics of keywords that bring readers to I Don't Sleep At Night. I was very curious. Bookworm that I am, I even got excited. I thought "Wow, now this is a book group that doesn't play. They must rip a disliked book to shreds. Well alright. " So I naively clicked on Bookworm Bitches. I think there might even have been a picture of a young woman with a book and horned-rimmed glasses, but that was all she was wearing. It appeared to be naked college girls themed. I swear to you that was the only time this computer has ever clicked on pornography. I detest all manner of sleaze, whether in porn or main-stream publications or media which objectifies women. So why am I getting these click-throughs for Bookworm Bitches?
I finally went back to Yahoo today. I typed in "Bookworm Bitches in I Don't Sleep At Night". It might be the Russians re-directing to porn. Or possibly the attraction is the insane Yahoo gibberish combining two posts to read below the title of this blog, "in the Book of Revelation, a hillbilly bookworm on speed, a... ex or two have and the bitches they rode ... a name-dropping rag about people you don't really care about."
Actually, one of the quotes is from May 22nd is, "A coked out prophet in the Book of Revalations, a hillbilly on speed, a psychopath with an arsenal of high-powered weapons, a paranoid gun junkie, a womaniser, a drunk and worse." Question for today: What famous writer is Paul Theroux writing about here? Three guesses and the first two don't count.
Clue Three: They (the Russians) used Windows-based, high speed internet connections. I have Windows XP and a couple of months ago got broadband DSL.
Clue Four: I can't find my verbatim record of it, but twice I had clicks to the blog through "web and AOL e-mail addresses type in here." 'Splain that one Lucy. Of course, I also had "E-mail addresses for crate builders of America." Yes, those came to this blog.
Clue Five: I can feel myself losing readers as, with a long repressed sigh, I continue with number five to let the paranoia out.
My stats place, BlogPatrol, gives me IP addresses for readers. Some of these read "proxy." "Ah ha," I say. (Really I have no idea what that means, but I still say "Ah ha.)
Clue Six: This trojan attack is linked to the Paypal scam just weeks ago, right? THAT IS WHEN I OPENED MY PAYPAL account.
Clue Seven: The "migrating mafia" or "migmat" probably wouldn't have to try too hard to gain access to my computer. Walk right in. Set yourself down. Before I recently wised up, I gave my e-mail and computer password to every empty space on the internet that demanded a password. My reasoning was that this way I wouldn't forget what the password was. Duh. Pretty stupid for a paranoid, huh?
Clue Eight: The hours I keep are perfect for porno sites. I would guess more men are looking for porn at 2:00 a.m. than 7:00 a.m.
And the biggie and another reason I don't sleep at night: I have 16 unexplained programs on my computer that only show up on Add/Remove programs, and no one will tell me exactly what they are. And I spent one whole night in a maze over at Microsoft, let me tell you. Now I grant you that maybe Microsoft is not working with the migmat, but what role did Hong Kong Microsoft play, and why did my computer have to learn traditional Chinese twice? Well? And then only to find out that there was no information available on the Chinese website. So why the ploy to have my computer suck up Chinese? What was it really spilling?
The Hotfixes must remain or take damn near every program with them if I try to remove them. I wrote a simple query to Microsoft asking, "What is this?" As far as I knew it was a Microsoft address in America. I had to get it from google. All the product services addresses at Microsoft are designed only for forms that my question didn't fit. I have no idea why my inquiry went to Hong Kong, was assigned a case number and given the very kind attention of Mr. Jimmy Fung. Mr. Fung was most accommodating in that he would do everything including regularly correspond with me and offered to speak with me on the phone, but he would not tell me exactly what those 16 creepy things on my computer were. He said something about windows updates and security.
Who does that remind you of? Patriot Act? Homeland Security? Color Orange? I already have AOL security. Windows XP security. McAffee Firewalls, Privacy and God knows what else security. And 16 mysterious programs that cannot be opened, removed, searched for or seen in the files. And no one in America will talk to me about them. When I told Mr. Fung I suspected some kind of spyware that had now spread to a Chinese connection, he never wrote to me again. I didn't mind implicating Microsoft if I had to. If the shoe fits. The Russians could just be pikers compared to what Microsoft is capable of. Who knows what those Windows Updates really are. You can't find a satisfactory description of them before or after download--just a few sentences and they're on your computer and they don't come off unless you want to lose your other programs.
Who says I'm paranoid? Who says sometimes paranoids aren't right?
You decide.
But here is the final article for those who don't enjoy paranoia. Apparently, all I need to do is teach my computer Russian which if it learns it as quickly as it did Chinese, the problem is supposedly solved. According to this article, when it encounters a keyboard in Russian, it orders itself to "cease and desist."
Some folks know how to take all the fun out of a good paranoid fantasy. But I'll still be watching and waiting. Don't worry about that. And I've banned all future Windows Updates from my computer. I'm going to make it forget Chinese until I find out some things. And I'm changing passwords again.
Looked at what's on your computer lately?
So What Do YOU Think? COMMENTS
Truth be told, I understand so little about hacking and computer espionage, I'm a paranoid danger to myself. For the last several weeks I haven't said anything to anyone, but I was convinced that my blog and my computer were somehow selected by the Russians for use in their complicated stealth program that hijacks home pc's to send porn ads or uses your computer to view porn sites but only for ten minutes. Don't just say I'm crazy if you didn't click on the link and read the article.
This is from the same location as the PayPal scheme of a few weeks ago , and is probably the same group of Russians. In that one, bogus e-mails were sent to people asking that they report to fake PayPal sites and divulge confidential banking or credit card information.
Aside from the fact that sometimes paranoids are right, how do I know I am one of the 2,000, and counting, victims? Here are the Nancy Drew clues that led me to this conclusion.
Clue One, The Warning: For as far back as the event viewer log goes and before that, my system has been screaming yellow triangle warnings, up to eight a day, that "Your computer has configured the IP address for the network card with network address such and such. The IP being used is blankedty blank." I ignored it because I had no idea what it could mean, and it seemed harmless enough. I couldn't imagine why it was a "warning."
Clue Two: Bookworm Bitches keep showing up in my blog statistics of keywords that bring readers to I Don't Sleep At Night. I was very curious. Bookworm that I am, I even got excited. I thought "Wow, now this is a book group that doesn't play. They must rip a disliked book to shreds. Well alright. " So I naively clicked on Bookworm Bitches. I think there might even have been a picture of a young woman with a book and horned-rimmed glasses, but that was all she was wearing. It appeared to be naked college girls themed. I swear to you that was the only time this computer has ever clicked on pornography. I detest all manner of sleaze, whether in porn or main-stream publications or media which objectifies women. So why am I getting these click-throughs for Bookworm Bitches?
I finally went back to Yahoo today. I typed in "Bookworm Bitches in I Don't Sleep At Night". It might be the Russians re-directing to porn. Or possibly the attraction is the insane Yahoo gibberish combining two posts to read below the title of this blog, "in the Book of Revelation, a hillbilly bookworm on speed, a... ex or two have and the bitches they rode ... a name-dropping rag about people you don't really care about."
Actually, one of the quotes is from May 22nd is, "A coked out prophet in the Book of Revalations, a hillbilly on speed, a psychopath with an arsenal of high-powered weapons, a paranoid gun junkie, a womaniser, a drunk and worse." Question for today: What famous writer is Paul Theroux writing about here? Three guesses and the first two don't count.
Clue Three: They (the Russians) used Windows-based, high speed internet connections. I have Windows XP and a couple of months ago got broadband DSL.
Clue Four: I can't find my verbatim record of it, but twice I had clicks to the blog through "web and AOL e-mail addresses type in here." 'Splain that one Lucy. Of course, I also had "E-mail addresses for crate builders of America." Yes, those came to this blog.
Clue Five: I can feel myself losing readers as, with a long repressed sigh, I continue with number five to let the paranoia out.
My stats place, BlogPatrol, gives me IP addresses for readers. Some of these read "proxy." "Ah ha," I say. (Really I have no idea what that means, but I still say "Ah ha.)
Clue Six: This trojan attack is linked to the Paypal scam just weeks ago, right? THAT IS WHEN I OPENED MY PAYPAL account.
Clue Seven: The "migrating mafia" or "migmat" probably wouldn't have to try too hard to gain access to my computer. Walk right in. Set yourself down. Before I recently wised up, I gave my e-mail and computer password to every empty space on the internet that demanded a password. My reasoning was that this way I wouldn't forget what the password was. Duh. Pretty stupid for a paranoid, huh?
Clue Eight: The hours I keep are perfect for porno sites. I would guess more men are looking for porn at 2:00 a.m. than 7:00 a.m.
And the biggie and another reason I don't sleep at night: I have 16 unexplained programs on my computer that only show up on Add/Remove programs, and no one will tell me exactly what they are. And I spent one whole night in a maze over at Microsoft, let me tell you. Now I grant you that maybe Microsoft is not working with the migmat, but what role did Hong Kong Microsoft play, and why did my computer have to learn traditional Chinese twice? Well? And then only to find out that there was no information available on the Chinese website. So why the ploy to have my computer suck up Chinese? What was it really spilling?
The Hotfixes must remain or take damn near every program with them if I try to remove them. I wrote a simple query to Microsoft asking, "What is this?" As far as I knew it was a Microsoft address in America. I had to get it from google. All the product services addresses at Microsoft are designed only for forms that my question didn't fit. I have no idea why my inquiry went to Hong Kong, was assigned a case number and given the very kind attention of Mr. Jimmy Fung. Mr. Fung was most accommodating in that he would do everything including regularly correspond with me and offered to speak with me on the phone, but he would not tell me exactly what those 16 creepy things on my computer were. He said something about windows updates and security.
Who does that remind you of? Patriot Act? Homeland Security? Color Orange? I already have AOL security. Windows XP security. McAffee Firewalls, Privacy and God knows what else security. And 16 mysterious programs that cannot be opened, removed, searched for or seen in the files. And no one in America will talk to me about them. When I told Mr. Fung I suspected some kind of spyware that had now spread to a Chinese connection, he never wrote to me again. I didn't mind implicating Microsoft if I had to. If the shoe fits. The Russians could just be pikers compared to what Microsoft is capable of. Who knows what those Windows Updates really are. You can't find a satisfactory description of them before or after download--just a few sentences and they're on your computer and they don't come off unless you want to lose your other programs.
Who says I'm paranoid? Who says sometimes paranoids aren't right?
You decide.
But here is the final article for those who don't enjoy paranoia. Apparently, all I need to do is teach my computer Russian which if it learns it as quickly as it did Chinese, the problem is supposedly solved. According to this article, when it encounters a keyboard in Russian, it orders itself to "cease and desist."
Some folks know how to take all the fun out of a good paranoid fantasy. But I'll still be watching and waiting. Don't worry about that. And I've banned all future Windows Updates from my computer. I'm going to make it forget Chinese until I find out some things. And I'm changing passwords again.
Looked at what's on your computer lately?
So What Do YOU Think? COMMENTS
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