DDoS season begins, sites a little bit unstable

[OregonPete]

Glad you guys are back up and running. I appreciate all the good (and hard) work! :)

[skipps]

In response to post #8472887. #8473317, #8473437, #8474825, #8474982, #8475051 are all replies on the same post.

People should also realise that The Nexus is a very large site with a lot of traffic. It has and will always have a target painted on its forehead. There is always going to be someone targeting large sites like this regardless of its users using an AV or not. Asking the users to get smart is not the wrong thing to do but Iam afraid that it will not really have any effect on the amount of attacks on the site.

Nexus Team I hope things will quiet down soon and this headache will be gone. In any case thanks for the work you put into the site regardless.

[PopeClaudiusIV]

Again, I want to ask; Are you sure its a DDoS attack that's affecting traffic?

 

I mean, is there a way to tell a difference between that, and tens of thousands of people buying games during the Steam Summer Sales and wanting mods for them?

 

Almost every game Nexus currently supports has gone on sale once, sometimes multiple times.

 

If there's a way to tell the difference between the two I'd be interested to hear it, if not, I'd say the latter is far more likely.

[matt121291]

I have Norton AV, and managed to get a virus from downloading Climates of Tamriel. Norton still can't erase it and I'm not entirely sure how to rid myself of it. If anyone has any pointers, hit me up. Virus name is boot.pihar. Thanks :smile:

 

There are a few tools that are specific to certain hard to remove viruses - google the virus name and it may come up with one - But be careful. Your virus is what is called a rootkit - and these are especially nasty.

 

Try a NON windows linux based rescue disk - there are several free ones available - I use the Kapersky 10 - http://support.kaspersky.com/4162

 

You may have to reinstall your Windows Master Boot Record to get windows to work again.

Bben46

[skipps]

In response to post #8474396. #8474427, #8475005, #8475071 are all replies on the same post.

Do not treat the site like a service when it is not one...

[thatonedude21]

In response to post #8472887. #8473317, #8473437, #8474825, #8474982, #8475051, #8475186 are all replies on the same post.

I want to add to these posts as well. Considering I haven't had to EVER uninstall my operating system except for when I switched from XP to Windows 7 (obviously), it seems tragic to have had to do it twice. I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials since I switched to Windows 7, and it has never once gotten in my way.

It has, however, caught quite a good amount of things, many of which have come from Java. I'm sure you're quite aware of how many Java exploits there are out there, and a lot of them can install and execute without a beep. Flash, while not having as many loopholes, is still a route some viruses can take. Of course we know not to click random ads (which AdBlock happily prevents from popping up in the first place) and download random files, but simply by browsing the internet can we get infected.

Antiviruses aren't perfect, far from it, but there are some things that are beyond our control. Good websites can turn bad by being hacked, and there are times when the hacks aren't detected by the site owners. In such cases you just have to hope that your AV would catch something like that, but going to the site without it is an instant infection.

Also, I agree with everyone as far as feeling virus free goes. In comparison, someone who isn't tested for HIV/AIDS won't know they have it for years. Just cause they don't see symptoms doesn't mean they don't have it. And then let's say that they do test - to compare this, whenever you run MBAM. If you're infected, then you can attempt to clean, but some viruses literally destroy your data. Then what? You've gotta reinstall or live being infected, both of which are terrible solutions.

[Gambit77]

In response to post #8475192.

Yes you can tell the difference looking at logs. DDoS and DoS attacks usually use a method that leaves TCP handshakes in an open (incomplete) state, where as legitamite traffic would finish the TCP handshake. There isn't a ton you can do to defend against this attack. Most attackers doing this would be spoofing the source addresses of the ip packets, so making new entries to their firewall blocklist would likely just block random innocent people. You can just hope the attacker will get bored and quit. There isn't a whole lot of suspects that have anything to gain by attacking this site. The only group I can think of would be radical captalists that have money invested in the distribution of video games that take offense to our community based development and our communistic sharing ways. But at the same time, they also partially benefit from our community increasing the value of their commodities. Plus the capitalists are usually up to way worse things than this. As far as villianous acts go, DDoSing the Nexus would be kind of beneath them. My guess is it's someone doing a training exercise that chose the Nexus because it has a lot of traffic but doesn't have the kind of deep pockets to be able to buy police to look into the attack.

[Katra804]

In response to post #8475193.

Norton AV honestly sucks, but at least it's not as bad as McAfee AV. You'd be better off using AVG, Avast/Avant (can't remember which one it was - it's like AVG, but always free), or Kaspersky as your AV. As for removing the virus, you should be able to remove it by booting your computer into safemode and using Malware-Bytes anti-malware to scan and clean the system.

[Thasic]

Just wondering, I use Bitdefender, the pay copy. I use a good firewall. My system is on a router. I have a coupe of virus removal software packages I run regularly. I doubt I'm compromised but... how would I know? Is there some way to check if I am being used as a bot for someone else's attacks?

[SewerUrchin]

In response to post #8474396. #8474427, #8475005, #8475071, #8475200 are all replies on the same post.

What he said. As long as there are insecure, bored teenagers on summer break, this stuff will happen.