[Hidden-tech] who knows about botnets?

[Robert Heller]

At Mon, 8 Jan 2007 14:59:14 -0500 Seth Seeger <seth at seeger.ws> wrote:

> 
>    ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
>    ** You too can help the group
>    ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>    ** If you did, we all thank you.
> 
> 
> There are three very easy things you can do:
> 
> 1.  Never connect your computer directly to the internet.  Always have 
> a hardware firewall in between.  (Any of the Linksys/D-Link/etc 
> router/firewall products.  They're rather inexpensive.)

This mostly only makes sense with broadband connections (such as DSL or
Cable).  For dial-up a good firewall program works well (Linux includes
this as part of the kernel -- in fact, the firewall router boxes are
small embeded Linux systems configured as firewalled routers).

> 
> 2.  Never use IE.  There are other very good browsers out there.  My 
> two favorites are Firefox and Opera  (both free).

Don't use Outlook Express either (see below). Almost any other E-Mail
program is better.

> 
> 3.  Do not download games or pirated software off the internet.  Legit 
> applications from reputable sources are great.  But never download 
> games advertised as "free".  And never download pirated software.  Both 
> are good sources of viruses, adware, spyware, etc.

Don't open E-Mail attachments, unless you are really, really, really,
really sure they are ligit.  Even better, configure your E-Mail client
NOT to display HTML E-Mail by default and NEVER automatically open
attachments.  It is *best* to use a plain-text E-Mail client and reject
all E-Mail that is text/HTML only.

> 
> -Seth
> 
> On Jan 8, 2007, at 10:01 AM, A - Z International wrote:
> 
> >   ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
> >   ** You too can help the group
> >   ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
> >   ** If you did, we all thank you.
> >
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > The NY Times ran a very scary story on the front page yesterday about 
> > botnets and their potential for destroying computers and gathering 
> > financial information. They did have a box that offered advice, most 
> > of which I knew about and was doing, thanks (in a funny way) to that 
> > identity theft incident of mine a year ago.
> >
> > Anyone know about Noscript and other utilities that will help these 
> > predators stay clear of our systems -- primarily us Windows users?
> >
> > best,
> >
> > Amy Zuckerman
> > Hidden-Tech Founder
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
> >
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>                                                                                                

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
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