Don't wonder why it is happening, investigate.
I tried, but I don't have the tools to trace it with.
However, the only thing I noticed was when running an activity monitor
on UNIX was an outgoing network flow. In that moment I unplugged the
cat-5 cable to put a stop to it. At the time I was running Solaris 10.
On another platform, OpenVMS 6.2 with the intrusion software enabled, it
did catch and log the intrusion source. Odd that it came from some
military installation. But nothing was compromised on that system.
Something is wrong! It could be nothing like the your router and your
computer can't get it straight (okay it isn't really nothing and needs
to be fixed, but it isn't a security problem). But it could be something
really important.
Could have been someone with stealth tools, but who knows.
As the article had stated from NetWorkWorld, there are stealth tools
that can do this and they even go so far to say that all operating
systems can now be intruded upon without you knowing about it. I still
have to look into their claims for verification tho.
There is always a reason for this.
At the time I didn't have anything running but the activity monitor.
Then all of a sudden the cpu activity spiked up to around 70+%, no
harddrive activity, but with heavy outgoing traffic on the network.
Later I did find that a lot of internet websites that are visited leave
some cookies behind that from what I could find out about are actually
tracking your viewing habits for the purposes of advertisers.
Malware, or snoopware? More likely just tracking internet habits?
I don't know.
Yeah stealth processes are an extra layer for sure. But they still can't
completely hide.
That depends on how smart the writer was... there seems to always be
ways eventually that the public isn't informed of or aware of.
Lots of malware does this. As they think they are so smart that they
don't have to bug test their software. Guess again.
Depends on the operating system. The only system so far in my
experience that never shown any instability was OpenVMS. To many, when
they do see what appears to be instability is actually hardware
degradation. Under VMS and Solaris 10 logs are actually written to
inform of hardware degradation, and VMS takes it a step further by
identifying how many errors and the time of the error and which hardware
item caused it. But the average user won't need this extent.
There is an old VMS system that ran in Ireland that monitored their
railroad system that ran for 17 years non-stop. More of a testament to
DECs hardware than anything else.
On commodity hardware you'll hear where one person is experiencing
freezes, crashes or whatever on brand A and another person not
experiencing these problems running on brand B. On a UNIX system, when
it freezes up it shows a kernel panic. What I've found is that 95% of
the time it is bad memory, so doing a memory test always finds which bad
memory stick is faulty. Replacing the memory stick has always fixed the
problem. I'm not sure what bad memory looks like on Win7 tho.
Whoa! I know nothing about that but I don't doubt that for a second.
That is why the U.S. government funds cyber hacking facilities such as
the FBI and Homeland security. So far, most of the cyber hacking has
been traced back to China. Cyber warfare is currently going on.
You are absolutely right! You don't know how many times I have watched
somebody say it can't be done and somebody else comes along as does the
impossible. Yes I know this all too well.
Yes it can happen, and I was only worried back in 2001. As I installed
Windows 2000 without any anti-virus checker or anything and went
directly to MS website to update it. And before I rebooted, I installed
a anti-virus checker and did a scan and found two viruses just waiting
for me to reboot so they could be installed.
It wasn't from MS I am sure, I wasn't stealth on the Internet and they
found a port they could slip viruses through. Up to 2001 I thought that
was perfectly safe. Now I know better. And now I have been safe ever since.
The biggest thing I've found that prevents the majority of malware and
viruses from infecting your system is the proper choice of your ISP if
you have that option to choose from. AOL has a large investment in
keeping that stuff from getting at the end user, whereas a local mom n'
pop ISP doesn't.
I know you can get around a sandbox if you know what sandbox you are
dealing with. But I know of nothing that can get around all sandboxes.
Plus if you are trying to hack through a sandbox, it almost sounds
personal. And if you make it that far, I'll be watching. ;-)
Hehe... I'm waiting to see how the new Emergency Alert system for cell
phones and the internet will work and just how intrusive it will be.
Their last test was pretty lame and crude.
No this isn't so at all. It is very easy with total isolation. But that
is so restrictive, who wants that? The next step is much freer control,
but has no ability to change anything. This too is somewhat restrictive,
but it is far better than leaving the doors wide open. ;-)
They had a vms system there at defcon that was totally isolated. The
rules were how to intrude the system thru the net. Getting physical
access is another security level that big corporations have, but which
the end user doesn't have. IRC, OS X, Windows, Linux, and most UNIX
systems could be broke in by about an hour or two from the net.
And that was a few years ago. Progress pushes forward and who knows
what shady tools have been made now.
