thesidekickcat Posted July 20, 2006 Report Share Posted July 20, 2006 I posted this article link in a thread earlier today, but thought it ought to be on it's own thread so here it is.From the current August issue of PC World magazine. Some up and coming new ways for the bad guys to "get us"! Scary stuff. Long but very informative article."Ten Biggest Security Risks that you don't know about"Stay updated on everything, and surf safely folks.PatGod bless everyone Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JDoors Posted July 20, 2006 Report Share Posted July 20, 2006 A problem newer than that article (However, I don't pretend to understand it): "Virtual machines." Virtual machines were designed to allow you to run programs on your machine that would be 'encapsulated' in a virtual PC of its own. If anything crashed, it only crashed the virtual machine, leaving yours alone. If there were anything wrong with the program like malware, it only affected the virtual machine. Great way to test things or allow others to run things without bunging up your PC. So ... The evil hoardes have figured out a way to create a virtual machine on your PC without your consent. To you, it looks like your PC. It runs like your PC. But it's not, it's only a virtual machine running on yours. Meanwhile, your actual PC has been hijacked for whatever purposes they choose. You want to look for this? You can't. Anything you do to root it out runs in the virtual machine -- and that is running just fine, free and clear of malware, so nothing shows up! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thesidekickcat Posted July 22, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2006 (edited) I think I read something somewhere about Virtual Machines and how it could backfire on us. I didn't know how they work of what they were designed for in first place, and of course the crooks have to get in on and ruin anything they can in order to get control of our machines and the private data one way or another.I wonder if Hell will have a special section just for people who plan, execute, and benefit from such dastardly deeds against us and our computers? Seems like that would be a fitting place for them for eternity!!! I wonder if the Internet will survive the ever increasingly dangerous and undetectable Machiavellian attempts to destroy our safe use of our computers online, and how or what will be done to clean it up? I even read today that some of the newest phishing/pharming scams are now coming out of North Korea, along with the Mafia elsewhere doing it. I don't think I would have ever thought of North Korea for computer scams!!! I'll look for the Oregonian article on this tomorrow.Be careful folks.PatGod bless everyone Edited July 22, 2006 by thesidekickcat Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted July 22, 2006 Report Share Posted July 22, 2006 A problem newer than that article (However, I don't pretend to understand it): "Virtual machines." Virtual machines were designed to allow you to run programs on your machine that would be 'encapsulated' in a virtual PC of its own. If anything crashed, it only crashed the virtual machine, leaving yours alone. If there were anything wrong with the program like malware, it only affected the virtual machine. Great way to test things or allow others to run things without bunging up your PC. So ... The evil hoardes have figured out a way to create a virtual machine on your PC without your consent. To you, it looks like your PC. It runs like your PC. But it's not, it's only a virtual machine running on yours. Meanwhile, your actual PC has been hijacked for whatever purposes they choose. You want to look for this? You can't. Anything you do to root it out runs in the virtual machine -- and that is running just fine, free and clear of malware, so nothing shows up!Hmm, this seems like it would be really hard to do. VM's act like a completely fresh install of your OS. (since they are fresh OS installs just onto a "virtual machine") They'd have to somehow copy all your files and programs and settings from the host to the VM in order for the user to feel 'at home'. Of course, they'd notice a HUGE slowdown on their pc. With malware and what not running on the host, and the VM in only a certain ammmount of allocated memory, most people would notice. If you find some more info on that JDoors, I'd like to read it MattBTW, nice article Pat. A good read. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcl Posted July 22, 2006 Report Share Posted July 22, 2006 (edited) SubVirt: Implementing malware with virtual machines. Edited July 22, 2006 by jcl Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JDoors Posted July 22, 2006 Report Share Posted July 22, 2006 ... They'd have to somehow copy all your files and programs and settings from the host to the VM in order for the user to feel 'at home'. ... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thesidekickcat Posted July 22, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2006 (edited) Here is the article I talked about in yesterday's post, that mentioned North Korea now getting into the illegal activity of spoof/phishing/pharming etc. Good article plus fact box for more info.It was in last Sunday's Oregonian, so has a short time left in free archives.Something's PhishyBe careful folks and stay safe!I just read, albeit without understanding alot of it, the Virtual Machine malware article. WoW!!! Scary stuff!!!I am hoping it stays as a proof of concept only, rather than actually being used against us!!! Another link for those who like to keep up on what's new in the bad dudes arsenal....is the F-Secure security lab's blog.F-Secure Security Lab blogPatGod bless everyone Edited July 22, 2006 by thesidekickcat Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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