Trespassing

[Rheorix]

This morning, I found my computer had crashed, but it would appear several error messages were waiting for me when I logged on.

"ha ha noob" was one of them.

After contacting my system administrator, it would appear that my computer was violated.  Not much was done, but there was a slight amount of damage.  Most of it, luckily, was backed up.

Being 25, my computer is the biggest investment I have.  I'm a writer, and I have three books in progress on this beast.  So, when something happens to my computer, I get to the bottom of it as fast as possible.

I called my ISP, got to love Comcast.  The boys and girls there informed me that the intrusion was logged, and that if I wish to proceed with matters I can for a fee.  They made it possible for me to download MAcafee protection free of charge, and with it protect my investment better.

With it, I found a trojan, an IPscanner, and something titled "Jorm".

Next week, I will be paying this fee.

The situation is this, my computer was used by someone other than me, and not by someone with permission too sitting on my couch.  This constitutes as trespassing.

"Criminal computer hacking is any act committed by a person with detailed knowledge of computers who uses this information to accomplish acts of terrorism, vandalism, credit and debt card fraud, identity theft, intellectual property theft, and other forms of computer-related crimes. Computer hacking always involves some type of infringement on the privacy of others or some type of damage to computer-based property. Computer hacking can be done for numerous reasons, including the commission of fraudulent acts intended to secure financial gain at the expense of businesses or consumers.

Computer hacking that is done for the purpose of committing financial fraud is a white collar crime that is taken very seriously in the United States. Federal law defines computer hacking as intentionally accessing a computer without authorization or exceeding authorization in order to access restricted information. Restricted information can include a myriad of things including: financial records of an individual or institution, personal information about an individual or organization, any government information or intelligence communication, and the like.

There are a number of "tools of the trade" that are repeatedly used to carry out computer hacking. A Trojan horse, for example, is a computer hacking tool that appears to be a legitimate program, when it is actually not. This may be a back door created by a hacker to access protected information later or may be a program designed to fool a user into downloading a virus or the like. A Sniffer is an application used in computer hacking to capture passwords in transit. Viruses and worms may also be used to commit computer hacking. The internet is one of the most common tools used to commit computer hacking.

There have been some famous computer hacking cases that have received widespread attention in the last decade. One of the most notable computer hacking schemes was carried out by David Smith who launched the Melissa Virus in March of 1999. This virus spread to approximately 1.2 million computers and caused $80 million in financial losses to businesses throughout the United States and Europe. Mr. Smith was convicted of criminal computer hacking and sentenced to forty years in prison. He was later released after 20 months of incarceration after agreeing to go undercover for the FBI.

There exists a perpetual arms race between criminal computer hackers and legitimate computer software engineers, businesses, and other organizations; both groups struggle to excel above the other technologically. Billions of dollars are spent annually to protect businesses from computer hacking. Both big business and the government acknowledge that computer hacking is a serious problem. In 2001 alone, 85 percent of companies reported security breeches in their systems and 94 percent reported system viruses."

Thankgully in Oregon, I can do something about it.

All quoted text taken from http://www.criminal-law-lawyer-source.com/terms/computer-hacking.html a criminal law website.

[Josh]

rofl

[Josh]

1 entry found for Mcafee

Mcafee   Audio pronunciation of "Mcafee" ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (mKfeE)
n.

   1.A computer program used in virus "detection" to provide users with a false sense of personal security
see also:
common sense

[Gen. Volkov]

Norton ain't much better. Unless you got the corparate edition.

[windhound]

nah.  except for the whole subsciption thing norton's firewall is fine
the best firewall of them all is, ofcourse, linux  = P
ZoneAlarm is supposed to be a good freebie

use adaware and spybot (www.download.com), + windows' cleaner (forget what its called) and ccleaner is good general cleaning if you're not already using them..

its never good to not have a firewall up..  it doesnt take a personal issue with somone for your computer to be attacked..  I occasionally get incoming stuff from russia, germany, even sweden once..  people love to exploit holes in windows..
*shrug*
oh, and get an external hdd or a flashdrive to backup your work on..  hdd crashes happen to us all and its not a good feeling to lose data..  hoping by chance your data was backed up may not be the best plan.. 

[Germania]

You are wasting your time with brining leagalities up.

Norton and McAfee aren't worth the money or even a free download.

If you want basic protection get Grisoft AVG, anything else will do the basically the same; face it, if it's new enough and you haven't updated, it's going to get through McAffee, Nortons and AVG.

Like Windhounds said, HD crashes happen to us all. No software will save you. Cheapest most flexible solution would be to buy a DVD burner, they go for around $50, and back up everything you have.


As for what Josh said, a lot of this can be avoided using simple common sense. Good enough to do without adware or avg, but it doesn't hurt to do an odd scan.

[Arguia Zsah]

I have Panda platinum. My knowledge of panda = cute little icon. ;-)

[Peace Alliance]

AVG, spybot, an external firewall and a few ad-removal programs is all the protection i need.

[Josh]

i have no anti virus programs
all firewalls are disabled on my router
and my bandwidth is insanely high so you'd need a couple servers to DoS me
and to my knowledge, all ad removal programs =
garbage.
popupblockers
garbage.
users who infect themselves
well
:)

[The Beatles]

What's that story in which each next person boasts how much more of something they have? Oh yeah, analogy-

I use Linux.

[Germania]

i have no anti virus programs
all firewalls are disabled on my router
and my bandwidth is insanely high so you'd need a couple servers to DoS me
and to my knowledge, all ad removal programs =
garbage.
popupblockers
garbage.
users who infect themselves
well
:)

$10 paypal bet I can make you go down.

[thenextone]

done

rules are:
no 3rd party servers

1 system vs 1 system

[Germania]

"and my bandwidth is insanely high so you'd need a couple servers to DoS me"

There are no rules.

[Peace Alliance]

hey josh... i have this abnormally large file i'd like you to download... its just y'know... a... picture of... the snow? yess, a .exe photo of the snow i took this morning. i'll just send it to ya?

heh

[thenextone]

"There are no rules."


and this would be me,
backing down