What Could Possibly Be Worse Than A Virus?
By Robert Siciliano, ID Theft Expert and Security Consultant to Intelius.com
Anti-virus protection, critical security patches and a secure wireless connection have always been essential processes on my networks.
My main concern has always been to protect my bank account by keeping the bad guy out.
In my presentations, I’ve always stressed the importance of making sure your wireless connection is secured, to prevent skeevy sex offender neighbors or wackos parked in front of your business from surfing for child porn and downloading it to your PC.
Once a predator uses your Internet connection to go to into the bowels of the web, your Internet Protocol address, which is connected to your ISP billing address, is now considered one that is owned by a criminal.
If law enforcement happens to be chatting with that person, who’s using your Internet connection to trade lurid child porn, then someone may eventually knock on your door at 3 AM with a battering ram.
And in another freakish and relatively new twist, hackers can use a virus to crack your network and gain remote control access, and then store child porn on your hard drive.
An AP investigation found plenty of people who have been victimized in this way.
Maybe their PCs were being used as a virtual server, or maybe they were being framed by someone with a vendetta against them, but either way, they had child pornography planted on their computers.
Once that porn is discovered by a friend, family member, or computer technician, the victim is arrested.
This is the kind of “breach” that can cost you thousands in legal fees, your marriage, relationships, your job, and your standing in society.
In one case, a virus changed the default home page on a man’s PC, and his seven year old daughter discovered it.
The guy was arrested and eventually lost custody of his daughter. And you think you’ve got problems?
When you click a link in an email or a pop up advertisement in your browser, you may inadvertently download one of these viruses, which can then visit child pornography websites and download files onto your hard drive.
It also important to point out that most criminal investigators will say that “a virus put the child porn on my PC” is a bunch of hooey and a common defense used by the presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Simply don’t give anyone a chance to doubt by doing the following:
- Dont be a scumbag child pornographer. Where there’s smoke there’s usually fire.
- Make sure your anti virus up to date and set to run automatically.
- Update your web browser to the latest version. An out of date web browser is often riddled with holes worms can crawl through.
- Update your operating systems critical security patches automatically
- Lock down your wireless internet connection with the WPA security protocol
- Invest in Intelius Identity Theft Protection. While not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, you can effectively manage your personal identifying information by knowing what’s buzzing out there in regards to YOU. (Disclosures)
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Robert Siciliano is an expert on personal security and identity theft as the CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com. An American television news correspondent, security analyst, and author of “The Safety Minute: How to take control of your personal security and prevent fraud”. Featured on the The Today Show, CBS Early Show, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CNBC, Inside Edition, EXTRA, Tyra Banks, Stern, and in USA Today, Forbes, Tech Republic, SC, CSO, Search Security, Tech News World, EWeek, SecurityInfoWatch, NY Times, Boston Globe, LA Times, Wash Post, Chicago Tribune, AP, UPI, Reuters, and Entrepreneur.
The Publisher gives permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author and to Information-Security-Resources.com
Filed under: Breach, D&O Liability, FEATURE ARTICLE, Financial, Insider Threat, Robert Siciliano, Sarbanes-Oxley, Uncategorized, due diligence, hackers, identity-theft, malware, national security, privacy
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2 Comments on What Could Possibly Be Worse Than A Virus?
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uberVU - social comments on
Sat, 14th Nov 2009 8:04 am
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Michael Bacon on
Sat, 14th Nov 2009 1:33 pm
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by gtiadvisors: Important read for everyone: What Could Possibly Be Worse Than A Virus? http://bit.ly/2bI0sQ via @anthonymfree…
If someone is using your PC as a virtual server, especially for paedophile material, it is likely that the files will be encrypted and may even be hidden.
But it’s not just your PC that could be used. Other devices on a home network increasingly contain storage media which could be subverted.
The same applies in corporate systems. I recall an instance where the network manager was puzzled by overnight usage figures. On investigation it turned out that a hard drive in a graphics printer was being used as a virutal server for adult pornography during the company’s silent hours.
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