DDoS season begins, sites a little bit unstable

[retakrew7]

In response to post #8469038. #8469792, #8470339, #8472433 are all replies on the same post.

I am also using Microsoft Security Essentials alongside with Spybot Search and Destroy, very handy tool, that immunizes your browsers by blocking common virus/malware/etc.-websites.

[jd1231]

I'm ignorant here, what is "DoS" or "DDoS" attacks/plague, and how does it affect us users? It sounds bad, is there anything we can do?

[jd1231]

In response to post #8469038. #8469792, #8470339, #8472433, #8472694 are all replies on the same post.

Please be VERY careful in limiting your security to just Microsofts tools. At one time, I had everything Microsoft security could offer, and I too thought I was safe.....then BAM!!!! I got nailed by "Mafia" malware. It corrupted EVERYTHING!!! I had to scrub everything and start from scratch. Four levels of Microsoft security didn't help at all.

[mkey82]

Hello.

 

I resent the implication that any person which doesn't use "AV" software is a part of the problem in botnet scenarios. Matter of fact is, scanning for viruses and other malware starts in your head.

 

I.E. if some site pops up a prompt to have you install some addon to be able to view content of the said site correctly and you click "OK, yes please, infect me" not even a higher end "AV" software can guarantee protection. I have seen loads of malware pass by ESET or Norton. I won't even mention what AVG or Avast can let through.

 

As you may or may not now, most (all) "AV" programs of today are just scanners looking for special sequences of bytes. They don't protect much, but they do get quite often in the way.

Not to mention occurrences where any given "AV" software can go rogue (as they quite often do) and you get a VERY hard time trying to stop/disable/uninstall it. During these attempts you usually lose control of the system, one that said software was supposed to protect.

 

I'm not saying "AV" software is completely useless, but blaming the average Joe to be the part of the problem simply because they aren't buying into the hype is simply unfair.

I have been free of such programs for 6 years now on two of my machines and got infected two times during that period. Once I was curious about some file, even though I just knew what was going to happen. The other time, I got stuck with that goddamn sality infector because I plugged in an unknown harddrive into my system without taking a closer look at it firstly.

Both scenarios ended in a fresh OS installs, just for a good measure. Mental note, backup your files.

 

All in all, a good read here and there and some common sense will help a LOT against your common malware. If you get prompted to install something you haven't asked for, ALT+F4 can do a lot for you. If strange people send you files titled "my_hot_sis.jpg.exe" over one of the gazillion social engineering sites you are NOT required to download said files and you're even less required to execute them.

 

When in doubt, you can always use virustotal.com or sandboxie, those can do wonders for your security. Also, a scan on monthly basis with MBAM will help keeping some fishy files at bay.

 

Other than that, I agree with pretty much everything else, these "guys" running botnets are pathetic, targeting sites just as these. I hope it makes them feel really good about themselves because everyone else has a very poor opinion about them.

Edited July 17, 2013 by mkey82

[Flyingtower]

In response to post #8472854.

A DoS attack is a "denial of service" attack meant to shut down a website. A DDoS is a "Distributed Denial of Service" attack involving many computers (most are usually oblivious unwitting participants who were hacked) all working together to shut down a website. That's it in a nutshell.

[sydney666]

In response to post #8472159.

Yes I agree here, I found Nexus to be painfully slow...

[sydney666]

Dark0ne,

 

You should really Google Nexus, Moderators and Piracy some time. I found a few pages online that pretty much ranted hate toward this site because of moderation and piracy issues.

 

A few people were banding together after being apparently "treated poorly" by moderators from this site because they had mentioned they had pirated games and were subsequently banned.

 

I really think the people who are hitting this site with these lag bots are just angry at your zero policy stance toward piracy and trolling.

 

Everyone gets upset or grumpy sometimes, and even I got a warning once - but there are some people out there that cannot accept they are wrong and will probably go out of their way to get revenge or personal satisfaction by lagging the Nexus and then reading about it.

 

Let's hope you can get the Nexus running fine again as I am tempted to finally play Skyrim for the first time and surfing the Nexus has been next to impossible for me lately, even with a premier account. I think trying to download a few dozen mods will probably make my life tedious. :P

 

Keep up the good work, the zero tolerance approach from the site is one of its best assets.

 

A great community and loyal members will back you 100%.

 

Cheers,

 

Tony

Edited July 17, 2013 by sydney666

[astrob0y]

Well spoken Dark0ne by making DDoS equal to childish behaviour :)

 

 

[Thingamajig]

In response to post #8472887.

The question that begs asking is: How did you know, in those 6 years of being Anti-Virus free, that you weren't infected?

You claim to not have a virus, because you lacked the very means of detecting one if such a thing had took root.

You're obviously rather versed in PC's, as am I and some of my friends make careers out of it - I can tell you that Anti-virus is a PC necessity. There's far more ways of obtaining a virus then simply just bad browsing habits.

This somewhat reminds me of the bold claims Apple would make about their OS's being "virus free". Anyone with an ounce of PC knowledge knows if it has software, it can get malicious code. Apple literally were just baiting the inevitable - one of the many reasons i dislike them and their overpriced products. They're just sheer arrogance. Edited July 17, 2013 by Thingamajig

[ArtMurder]

In response to post #8469038. #8469792, #8470339, #8472433, #8472694, #8472884 are all replies on the same post.

I use MSE as well, can personally tell you BOTH McAfee and AVG are awful! AVG went TOTALLY rogue on my mom's computer and I had to totally re-install the OS, you literally couldn't do ANYTHING. You couldn't even pull up a picture, or launch a browser, you couldn't even turn the computer off through the start menu, any button you pushed was simply ignored. I know it was AVG, because AVG tried to force itself to update to the full payed version without asking, and she stopped it, and it instantly locked down her entire computer.

McAfee came pre-installed on my computer, my motherboard had some AWFUL programs installed on it! =[ I was not able to play ANYTHING on my brand new extremely expensive gaming computer thanks to this, and it took me a while to figure out that it was causing the problem, because it never said ANYTHING, it just would instantly exit out any game I ran. I uninstalled McAfee in the process of uninstalling everything I could get my hands on, and it magically worked and has worked sense!

For the most part, avoiding viruses is common sense. ANY program that runs on my computer requires a double command prompt acceptance by me, this gets old fast, but has saved me more then just once or twice. I also disallow cookies, block all adds and pop-ups, and never visit sites I am not familiar, I also never plug strange things into my computer. She's my baby, I'll be damned if some computer geek who gets off on ruining people's day is going to get her sick! O<

Common sense is the best anti-virus in the world, and it's totally free!