Curse

LifeInfusion · Sep 29, 2006, 10:03 PM // 22:03

Back a few months ago they had a study. Not only do rootkits not appear in task manager they also deeply infect the system's operating system. They should warn about them in the main screen.

Quote:

The term "rootkit" (also written as "root kit") originally referred to a set of recompiled Unix tools such as "ps", "netstat", "w" and "passwd" that would carefully hide any trace of the intruder that those commands would normally display, thus allowing the intruders to maintain "root" on the system without the system administrator even seeing them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkits

Quote:

unless you take extraordinary measures, you can't see them.
Your operating system will not show them to you.

http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-009.htm

Just a heads up

Removal:
http://beta.pcworld.com/article/id,1...1/article.html

Tarun · Sep 30, 2006, 04:33 AM // 04:33

GRC is a crap site, Steve Gibson's whole site in general is a joke. His only worthwhile application is Spinrite. There are more than enough programs out as freeware to remove rootkits. They've been well known long before the "Sony Rootkit".

Mushroom · Sep 30, 2006, 03:10 PM // 15:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tarun

GRC is a crap site, Steve Gibson's whole site in general is a joke. His only worthwhile application is Spinrite. There are more than enough programs out as freeware to remove rootkits. They've been well known long before the "Sony Rootkit".

SpinRite is a pretty awesome program. I have used it since 1989, and have repaired many an MFM/RLL drive with it. However, that was back in the days when a 20 MB hard drive was $200.

I have used his newer versions to repair other drives since then, but have largely abandoned it in the last few years. We are at the point now with sizes increasing and prices dropping, where repairing a 40 GB drive simply makes no sense.

Steve may be a heck of a tech, but I agree that his site is not of much use. The hardcore technicians like me have long since moved on, and we are already aware of the issue.

The problem is that the common users simply do not understand (or do not want to understand) the dangers of virus, spyware, and malware. They hide behind ignorance, and do not even bother to keep up on the latest threats unless it makes the front page of the news (like Sony did). For people like that, I simply smile, then take their money when I have to do a wipe and reload to remove the 300+ virus and 14,000+ spyware on their system.

And even though I put antivirus and antispyware on every system and hand them a pamphlet I made out explaining how to avoid and prevent them, I am sure I will see 75% within the year, with the same problem all over again.

Quonith · Sep 30, 2006, 05:24 PM // 17:24

people are stupid when it comes to computers... one customer a while back springs to mind. I removed 537 viruses and 36000ish spyware... how the computer was still running is beond me.

at the shop where i used to work about 80-90% of the computers that came in were virus and spyware removal.

l)l2UNl( · Oct 14, 2006, 05:30 AM // 05:30

lol thats pretty sad...
why viruses exist is beyond me... i mean whats the point in them? if you use adware for advertisement you are pretty stupid to think anyone would actually pay attention