My PC suffered a hard drive failure (yes it's been a lovely week)!... Since few weeks ago while ActiveRain server was down and acting wired, my computer started acting out; slowing down, crushing the window, displaying all errors messages... Even after ActiveRain announced that they fixed the nasty bugs they encountered my computer was not the same.
I went and Goggled the keywords: "blogger social network hacked" ... "blogger social network infected" ETC
To my total surprise I found thousands of information about latest waves of attacks on social network blogging from hacking... hard to believe that Google Blogger among other many popular social network blogs had been under attack.
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According to BBC News, Blogger has been hacked.
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Google’s Blogger site is being used by malicious hackers... Google's blogger.com is being hijacked to spread malware through fake blogs.
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MySpace and YouTube have all been used to host or redirect to malware. Last October, MySpace was used as the lure for phishing, while earlier in the year its users were infected with adware from the site.
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WordPress
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And many more... To many to mention here!
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After latest computer crash I decided to run a virus test (Norton Antivirus) only to find out that Yes! I got infected with MalwareCrush, Trojan. This bugger is really nasty. First it infects every .exe file on the computer, then it goes into email and sends itself to every one of your contacts, and then downloads a Trojan from a remote server that allows to take over your computer-and that's not all.
It is network aware so it will also search out any other computers sharing the network and infect them too.
In the light of ActiveRain announcement of Outside Blogs I am only concerned about the security of my personal computer and my private information's... Yes! Google's blogger.com did it ... but it is struggling with hakes and bugs in their servers.
Is ActiveRain prepared to secure their servers and our individuals accounts from being hacked?
Here is how it works: ( A tale of two posts: The vortex and the virus ) Similar to a nuclear chain reaction that continuously sparks additional activity further and further out, a post captures the attention of others and inspires them to comment, not on the original blog but on their own blogs. In other words, the original post ‘infects’ a few other bloggers, whose posts ‘infect’ even more people, who in turn ‘infect’ even more, and so on. Commenting and hyperlinking is occurring in a variety of different places, many far removed from the original post. In its totality, a rich, complex dialogue is occurring. It’s just difficult to figure out where.
Once I got my computer severely disabled (took a week to restore it) and got the taste of what it takes to repair - fix - the bugs it is hard to decide. Am I ready to take the plunge into ActiveRain Outside Blogs ? As exciting as it sounds needs to be looked into.
Note: I am using my computer only for ActiveRain blogging and checking emails ... as I have my editing and photo programs installed for web graphics and websites designing software's.
For all other Internet needs I use my laptop... In my mind the laptop should be more vulnerable to cyber attacks as I am using it for researching, cruising the Internet, accessing other social networking blogs...etc. More dangerous stuff!
I like to hear your thought... Any advice?
I went to a fellow REALTOR's website the other day and low and behold there was a virus on the site. Fortunately my virus protection caught it!
I hadn't thought about problems through AR. Does antivirs programs work against these attacks? My harddrive crashed in January but not malware but it costs a lot money and time to get back up and running
Arina, thanks for letting us know about viruses through blogs. Between our own PC antivirus software and whatever security measures Active Rain puts in place, that is our first line of defense. If you have connections to everything, MySpace, Google's blogger.com, others you just increase your odds. Keep us posted if you learn more. I know the pain of hard disk crashes. What an annoyance.
When one considers it, the entire internet is a hackable social network. I like to play it safe as possible by doing this: I have two different anti-virus and two different anti-spam programs running. I also use a firewall. I make sure that both update often. I know... this may seem like overkill- and it does bring a slight performance hit- but that's nothing compared to having the system taxing malware running. With regard to the outside blog that ActiveRain offers- I don't know that it's much different than having ActiveRain and Localism services- this is simply one more location on their network.
I just don't understand why these crazy people do what they do. Do they find some kind of strange enjoyment from hacking? But let someone hack their computer and mess them up, and I bet they become enraged.
My e-mail was infected last week. I dumped Norton because it failed to catch anything. I saw the warning and told norton to either quarantine or kill. It did not. I'm through with Norton after 13 years. I had about 90 virus infected files in Eudora. I installed Norman software and a firewall.
I had over 3000 uninvited mails in my system. Took me 5 hours to clean everything out on Thursday.
This reminds me of my preferred remedy for the mortgage mess - perp walks.
Ariana
Sad this is all happinging. I ghave not head from you but have orayed ever day for you.
Tom BRaatz
Arina, I wish I had advice, thankfully my computer has been fine but I have so many "protections" on it and maybe that helps it.
Yikes. I am just hoping that my husband's overly phobic safeguards (or so I had thought) are going to save me! I think we are pretty secure here! I hope! Now that you mention it, I had some spam on my wordpress blog. hmmmm scary
Arina - First things first....nice new picture!!! When I set up the AR outside Blog last week something strange happened to my computer. It appeared to have crashed and I thought it was a major virus. I scanned and had to reboot sevral times and finally did a system restore back to a few days before the day I played with the outside blog. All is normal again - I hope! AND, my outside blog set-up was successful.
That is a bummer and thanks for the heads up. I have an external hard drive to save everything, and I run a linux firewall and other security. I know it takes time to get it all back up and running. I like the animated art on your blog!
Dana, To tell you the truth this days I don't know which security protection software are the best... and only the best ones keeps you safe on today's cyber attacks.
Jeff, That is a question none here on AR will answer, But I am sure that as long as all other Social network blogs got hit out there is no different.
The best and safest antivirus program out there are a long list.. But I don't know for sure. I use Norton Antivirus.
Gary, It was perplexing to me because I have a computer that I am using only for designing my websites, ActiveRain blog and all the other web designing needs. It is loaded with professional softwares and never use it to access the Internet unless I upload my websites... Only ActiveRain has a aserver that I cannot control.
I use an other one, my laptop, for searching and go to other social networks, emails... etc
Chuck I don't have that many anti-virus and anti-spam programs... but I do have the Firewall and anti virus, spam... moreover this computer it's been used only for web designing (my websites and all that...) and access Internet when I upload my pages to the web server... Only ActiveRain has a server that I cannot control. And that raised my question!!!
Gregory, It is a good question... I ask myself the same thing.k
Lenn , Wow, to give up Norton program after 13 years... and I thought it was one of the best!
Tom, Thank you very much for the king thoughts, I am hanging there... Are you still thinkung to relocate?
Carole, Thank you for comment here... I've been quite busy and stressed out over the computer crash. I am OK now... It is important to check every day your anti virus programs and clean your computer from unnecessary files.
Cristal, Wordpress blog is well known to have experience of cyber attacks. Check with their updated files. They provide updates and keep you informed on how to avoid problems
Michael, Well bad things happens from time to time... I'll be OK.
Sharon That a very good idea! A little bid hard to do all the back off but nevertheless saves your life. Thanks for the tip.
Arina - I recently wrote a post on my suggestions on how to protect your PC from that very type of occurrence titled "Consequences of a Highly Active Profile". I hope you find the information useful.
Best wishes!
Arina
After reading your post I am curious on how your computer was infected. In most cases the following list is how most computers get infected.
- Opening a infected email attachment
- Visiting a site that downloads virus
- Running infected software
- Having a open wireless network, that allows your neighbor to infect your computers
Do you have a wireless network for your computers? If you do I would check to make sure they are secure if not this was a likely source.
I run McAfee software on my pc's to protect them and at least once a month it finds some virus in an email. My advise is to make sure you run virus protection at all times and screen every email and attachment. Secure your wirless network if you have one.
Good luck on getting your computer healthy again.
Here's one thing I forgot to mention. It's good to make sure the browser is updated. Hackers like to exploit "leaks" in browsers (internet explorer, firefox, safari, and the rest) and a new report at CNET shows that 40% of us are using old versions. That makes 637 million opportunities for hackers. That's how one of my computers bit the dust. I now make sure to allow for auto-updating and always install new versions as soon as they become available. The new version of Firefox is my browser of choice now. Yeesh... I feel the pain Arina- it sounds like you have some good helpers to get you back in the game... but the lost hours are certainly no fun.