Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
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First Cold of the season…

Light virus 1

Grrrrr,

This is my first cold of the season, it hit me in four hours… Yeah, weird. I was feeling fine then Saturday evening, I ate dinner and within 3 – 4 hours I felt like I was being choked because my throat was swelling, shortly after coughing.

Now it’s a full blown sore throat, sniffles, fever, and occasional coughing.

Of course, Given what Sandy has done to the East Coast… I can’t complain too much.

I have an interview this morning. So I’m going to have to put on a happy face and make a good impression… Then I’ll come home and take copious amounts of drugs & go back to sleep.

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You try to get out… but they keep pulling you back in

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I’ve been trying to simplify my life.

Not having a job has actually gone a long way toward that simplification. I don’t have to buy gas too often (as opposed to every other day).

What’s ironic is that without realizing it I’ve become a network administrator / computer troubleshooter / general fixit man in my own house.

I have Wifi, here at the house (Who doesn’t these days?) within my computers range are three other WiFi networks all with enough signal strength to be useful. 

For years now I’ve been happy to provide WiFi to my next door neighbor. This is more a matter of public service since Verizon won’t install a DSL line to their house.

Recently, I was trying to do a little troubleshooting on the network and had a bit of a panic moment. 

There were a lot more devices connected to my network than I thought there should be.

I was sitting here counting the obvious devices like the computers. But that didn’t come close to the numbers I was seeing.  I mean I could count 3 computers but I had over 25 devices on the network. So it was a WTF moment.

Then I started really looking at the network and realized many of the connections were innocuous things like my smart phone, the DVRs, my BluRay players, the TV, the iPod, iPad, the godbrats devices, iPod, iPhone, etc.

Most of these devices were pretty static once I accounted for them. But a few came and went and I had no idea what they were or who they belonged to.

Here’s a list;

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The thing is, not all the devices are even turned on in this sample. 

There are other devices that come & go. I’ve identified everything and the spooky thing is that they’re all legitimate and authorized devices on my network. 

This brings up interesting points.

I’m now in a position to need network scanning and maintenance tools.

If I didn’t have my network set up the way I do, which Verizon HATES by the way, I’d not be able to have all the “Normal” devices in my house connected to the internet.

Verizon has, or had a limit. I think the last time I tried to configure my network the way Verizon wanted it… I could have 15 total devices online at any one time. Which means that someone in this list would get booted off the network.

I can understand Verizon having a limit on the number of devices they will allow to be connected directly to their network. What I can’t understand is that Verizon WANTS all the devices connected.

My suspicion is that some bright asshole in marketing fro Verizon was thinking that they could charge the customer per device. Needless to say, that’s not going to work when TVs, BluRay players, gaming consoles, and appliances all are being built to connect to the internet. There’s not enough IP addresses for that unless Verizon goes IPV6.

It’s amazing to me how many devices I’ve connected to my network without really considering the implications. I really didn’t think about how many devices are “Network Aware”. It’s also interesting to think that if the internet is down many of my devices will work in a limited fashion or not at all.

More amazing to me is that I’m doing network administration in my own house.

Many small businesses don’t have as many devices networked as I do.

So I guess all of us will become network administrators….

I wonder if thats a new business niche? Should I bill myself as a Home Network administrator? I wonder if I could get paid what a pool guy gets? With the right remote administration software,  I could actually handle things like software updates, and work at keeping systems running at peak efficiency. Hummmmm….

I think a little investigation is in order.

And yep… there it is…

I’m pulled back into the computer / technology world… I suppose if I could do the computer stuff on my own terms, it wouldn’t be bad. 

I do enjoy making systems and machines work better.

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OK What part of this don’t you understand?

I sent a link for free virus software to a person I knew had just purchased a bright shiny new Macbook.

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This person is transitioning from a run of PCs that they had nothing but trouble with.

I think I now know why they had difficulties with their PC.

Here’s the reply I got after sending the link.

Thanks!
I have been told that Macs don’t need antivirus software. Is that not true?

Sent from my iPhone

 Ok I’m thinking “The Antivirus software is FREE, I’ve been using it for years as a licensed user. I PAID for it… I explained this all when I sent you the link. Why is this even a question?“

I suppose that I was a little annoyed about it too.

Which led me to write the following…

I’m sure that some of my friends in the computer industry will take exception to portions of what I’ve written here  Guys, comment away! You know me, I’ll post your comments and I’ll correct any misrepresentations in the technical aspects of what follows. I’d ask you to bear in mind that I’m trying… and failing to keep my response as non-technical as I can.

All computers are susceptible to viruses.

Computer viruses do not spontaneously occur they are created specifically to cause mischief or damage.

A computer virus is no different than any other program running on any computing device.

Even the computer in your smart phone is susceptible.

The question is…

Has the computing system that you are using presented a viable target?

The PC operating systems, because of their completely OPEN nature (Early on there were no checks on any program the system executed) and the fact that they were cheap made PCs, easy targets.

Since the PCs were also fairly ubiquitous it made a lot more sense for the nefarious elements in our society to concentrate on them. After all if you’re seeking attention you want to make a big splash.

What bigger splash can you have than 50 million PC owners freaking out about a piece of software you wrote, getting into their computers and saying “Doomsday is here” all over their computer screens. Or if you’re trying to fleece money from people PCs still represent the biggest return on your investment of time.

It’s just a matter of numbers.

Back in the day, a Mac used a completely different CPU than most PCs on the market. That difference provided a measure of security because the PowerPc CPU used a different instruction set than an Intel CPU

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Now the very same Intel CPU runs Apple Computers and any Windows computer.

That translates to a potential vulnerability.

Thankfully, this vulnerability isn’t one that the average 14 to 20 year old hacker can easily exploit. There are very few people in that age range that have the requisite knowledge of machine code to create a program where they could command the CPU directly to do something untoward. It’s possible, but unlikely. (It’s likely that the Virus used to cripple Irans uranium refineries was a virus built in low level machine code. By the way, the virus in Iran attacked the controllers for machines running the centrifuges but did little damage to the PCs in the labs.)

You don’t need to be a government or have a cadre of high-level programmers writing machine code…

There are far easier ways to compromise the average computer. There are even “Tool-Kits” that can be downloaded from the internet for free that will assist a budding hacker in the creation of a virus.

This is possible because most modern devices include by default, or have provisions for running high level language interpreters

Java is the most ubiquitous. This language runs on PCs, Macs, smart phones, tablets, and I’ve even heard of some navigation systems using it.

This means that a Java application written by a bad person, could run on a Mac or PC, could have direct access to the data stored on either machine, and could at the option of the applications creator, transmit any information of interest to a remote computer or simply erase selected files with little trouble.

I’d bet that Barnes & Nobles card readers used Java or some other high-level language. Their card readers were infected and independently collected then forwarded customer names, card numbers and PIN numbers to an outside party. All made possible because someone realized that the software running in the card reader was independent of the computer the card reader was attached to.

As an aside, this is the kind of stuff that kept people like me up at night… that is before everything got off shored and businesses decided it was reasonable and appropriate to throw older computer workers in the dust bin… Now I think it’s just desserts, I’m waiting for the first lawsuits over this kind of data compromise. After all, there is the reasonable expectation that swiping your credit card INSIDE a store at a point of sale terminal is going to be secure…

Microsoft also includes in it’s applications a scripting language.

This means that any computer running Microsoft Office (Mac or PC) is potentially vulnerable to attack. That attack starts as simply as the user opening an infected Word Document.

To Microsofts credit, they have taken great strides toward preventing this kind of attack. However, the convenience features that the scripting language provides are balanced against the risk.

It’s possible to trick someone into executing a script that would simply erase their hard disk. It’s also surprisingly easy!

The reason that viruses proliferate is that a large percentage of the people in the world are always vulnerable to infection. Either because they’re going to websites that are compromised or they have no virus protection software.

This translates at minimum into some 14 year old getting national or world wide media attention because the virus they created freaked a bunch of people out.

OR

The darker side of the coin is this. Viruses are big business.

You know all that spam email you get? Often the address lists for those spam emails are generated from a PC that’s been infected with a virus.

Your address book is nothing more than a data file. It’s not terribly different from a Word or Excel document. The virus looks for the address book file, then opens a link to a server or website and transmits your address book to that remote site. It happens in 30 seconds or less and you never notice. The very same thing could happen to your Quicken files or your Money files or anything else of interest.

In the case of your address book  the remote sever packages up an email loaded with links to other bad websites and sends it to all your friends making it appear that you sent them this neat, funny joke or recommended a service. It’s profitable because if less than 1% of the people open that email, then they get infected, and their address books get sent to the bad guys.

If less than .025% of the people receiving that spam email actually provide financial information like a credit card # to purchase a bogus service then the bad guys are making a ton of money. (See Barnes & Noble…)

Even if no-one ever gives out their credit card #, the Bad guys still make money SELLING a list of current, valid email addresses to other bad guys or sometimes to legitimate companies seeking to market their products.

Which is how you end up on email marketing lists for stores that you’ve never shopped at in your life.

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Bottom line.

1) All computers are vulnerable to virus infections.

2) The myth that Macs are invulnerable to Viruses is exactly that… a Myth. (At one time… it was probably 90% true because Apple wasn’t that big a target, those days are past.)

3) Even if your computer isn’t capable of executing the virus, it can still propagate the virus via sharing of documents.

I could bring social responsibility into the discussion… But I won’t.

Virus protection is always a good idea. Free Virus protection is even better.

I’ve always thought of antivirus software like having a condom,

Better to be safe than sorry…

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Paraprosdokian Of the Week

A Friend sent me a list of these. I thought it would be fun to share them.

Paraprosdokians are phrases or sentences that lead us down the garden path to an unexpected ending.

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

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Here’s an exercise in spin for you… Be warned your head may hurt.

Before my Liberal friends form a lynch mob… I’m playing here… It’s a Joke… Well a half joke… 

In truth, I wrote this just to stir the pot. I think that anyone with little effort can spin anything any way they want.  This is my attempt at proving that “Facts” are just a matter of spin. I hope you enjoy it.

The banking collapse was in fact caused by Liberal Democrats, not Conservative Republicans.

Lets look at the facts.

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Many liberals believe that it’s wrong to deport illegal workers (This is a term that I use to mean inclusively any person who has entered this country illegally. )

That the term illegal workers has come to be synonymous with Illegal hispanic workers is a discussion for another time. I will say this… if a term has come to be redefined as descriptive of a situation, well perhaps you need to ask how that came to be…

Many liberals believe that housing must  be equal opportunity no matter what. (I also believe that housing should be equal opportunity, meaning that if you can afford a home or apartment you shouldn’t be denied access to that home or apartment based on race, color, creed, sexuality, or religion.)

Many liberals believe that  higher education is a right, not a privilege and as a result have enacted a multitude of affirmative action policies nationwide.

Many of those affirmative action laws, regulations, and policies have been expanded to apply to more than education and now apply in a variety of other aspects of our society including banking.

Having worked in the mortgage banking industry approximately 4 years before the collapse (I got out because I saw it coming) I got to see some things from the inside.

Remember No document loans?

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How about reverse amortization loans?

These “products”  were a direct result of mortgage lenders complying with affirmative action regulations. 

The mortgage bankers I worked for felt that they couldn’t deny a loan application because affirmative action regulations demanded a certain percentage of what was called “B & C” paper be accepted by a bank. Think of it like “Assigned risk in insurance.”

Essentially, these “B & C” designations were loans to people who were far more likely to default than the so called “A” paper loans.

Sadly the “A, B, & C” paper loans shook out along largely racial lines due to underlying aspects of our society. 

This meant that someone like myself (A paper) who was employed, had a mortgage, had never been late on a payment, was making more money than I ever had in my life, and who wanted to refinance my house at a lower percentage rate without taking any money out of it, and who provided documentation to all of the above…

Would be scrutinized to a maddening degree and even had to answer questions like “Why has your income increased?“

No Shit! The fact that I was making more money was actually a bone of contention between me and the underwriter. It pissed me off to the point that I told her I’d quit my job if that would make it easier on her then we could average my income over the past decade.

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The mortgage lender I was working for at the time did not hold my mortgage… but over lunch one day I asked WTF? of an underwriter I knew well.

His answer was that since I had a history and had provided all kinds of documentation, the underwriters had to do a full process where they, by banking regulations checked everything about the loan they were going to fund.

He went on to say that if I’d gone for a new house instead of a refi, and the loan had been a “Jumbo Loan” I could have gone with a no document loan and been approved within a week.

I still didn’t get it. 

My underwriter friend explained,  because of equal opportunity lending regulations and HUD rules, and half a dozen other regulations designed to prevent discrimination,  the no doc loans had become known as the Housekeeper loans and I’d have qualified easily for one of those.

He’d seen 800,000 loans approved for gardeners in Orange County. After the loan was approved, typically within 120 days the first payment was late.

Then another department in the company we worked for would start calling and asking for payments to be made including late fees.

The late fees were always paid first and the remainder of whatever payment we got was sent to the mortgage holder. This was called “servicing” a loan. It was / is a very profitable enterprise. This is especially true when only a partial payment gets sent to the mortgage holder because the cycle can repeat several times a month on the entire amount that is in arrears. The late fees keep stacking up and the profit for the loan servicer keeps increasing.

It was the interaction of protections for the poor, affirmative action,  the lack of proper identification requirements, the right to privacy about where you obtained your income, and other liberal progressive factors that created the no document loan in the first place.

The banking industry simply made all of these regulations profitable!

These loans were given  to people who sometimes didn’t understand what they were signing and at other times actually couldn’t write their own names.

Then the loan was packaged up as an investment portfolio that was mandated by law to have a specific % of A, B, & C paper loans. The completed portfolio was sold to a wall street firm.

Back to my original statement…

It was the liberal demands for equality in lending, and housing, their insistence on not deporting illegal workers, the bleeding heart progressive agenda, and complete lack of concern or perhaps the liberal demonization of profit and business, that is in fact responsible for the banking collapse.

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By forcing the banking industry to approve a percentage of questionable loans that the banking industry normally wouldn’t have approved, the liberals created the housing bubble. Simultaneously making it far more difficult for honest citizens to carry on with their lives and pursuit of the American Dream.

The evil banking industry was just following orders.