Posts by JCitizen 947 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jul 2012
Forgive me if I'm not a browser expert, but I do know that usually zombie files and LSOs are not removable by most anything even after closing the browser; and that is why so many people use CCleaner to get rid of those objects. I know of no other cleaner that does. If you do, please enlighten me!
Competition is good - NASA pays the way, but the entrepreneurs foot a good part of the development costs. It is going to be a lot cheaper to get to the moon the next time - in a comparative sense; especially for the tax payer. Modern dollars and inflation figured into the equation.
Is always the vehicle and systems - the science of going to the moon was always clear, especially the mathematics. The biggest accident was the largest learning event - don't use pure oxygen.
Even Space X is having problems with the emergency ejection system of the main capsule - in a LOT of ways, they are all starting from scratch. Too bad the Russians never had a big enough tested rocket to go to the moon, or we'd be better off using at least half of the available equipment as being tested and true Russian rockets. No doubt the Soyuz spacecraft is golden as a command vehicle.
So can LSO's and other file objects be deleted by "Bleach bit" like no other file cleaner I've EVER used can do? Just wondering? This is something I've proved over and over again using various scanners after a Trojan or any other malware object has previously be detected. After detection, I've run CCleaner and repeated various scans with various products, and never found the original script or batch file that caused the attempted infection in the first place.
If Avast's software is so ineffective, you have to ask yourself, why is it under attack? Yes I know Avast has become non sequitur after many years of success, but that is only because Microsoft operational security has become good enough that only a file cleaner need delete downloaded attack packages with ease. Now you better not have the UAC disabled, and the operating system not fully updated along with ALL applications. or opertated all the time as administrator online; But I've noticed again and again in my honeypot lab that past versions of CCleaner have proved they can remove anything that has not been able to execute - which is almost any thing that cannot take advantage of a zero day vulnerably installed on the machine.
So how bout it?
I've read in military and defense news sources since I was a kid - I can't remember how many times I read that Israeli access to US secrets has been baked in. Especially since that U.S.S Liberty spy ship incident where they shot up one of our surveillance ships in the Mediterranean during the six day war. They said it was an accident, but I think it was deliberate because Israel knew we were ratting out information to the Egyptians; or at the very least communicating on open frequencies without being coded to keep Israel's enemies from determining sensitive reports on Israeli battle activities. It is not the only incident to happen in the various short wars Israel has been involved in. The US can be a rotten partner at times, and turn on our allies if we think we can prevent escalations from occurring. LBJ was noted as saying he didn't care if all the USS Liberty crew drowned, he was not going to embarrass an ally.
Used to delete Avast's cookies so they couldn't spy, but of course they keep being re-applied. The information is already down wind even when deleting cookies. However even that is suspect now, because Avast's corporation bought out Piriform, the makers of CCleaner. Now I have to put up with popup advertising again, and probably now CCleaner spies on me.
Avast was supposedly good about ending that phone home feature as long as you bought the software - not sure about that, but it did end the pop up ads. I don't plan on buying CCleaner anytime soon, so you have to put up with that when using free software - I suppose it is only fair. Once Malwarebytes became an anti-virus, I had to ditch Avast - MBAM was the only AV/AM worth buying in my estimation, so now that is my only AV solution. The line between viruses and malware is so thin, it isn't worth the distinction anyway.
Reminds me of when my Mum joined the Planetary Society, and because of her donations, got her name inscribed on a space craft that went on a mission - I don't remember which. I will also always get that warm fuzzy feeling each time I find my Major Astro club card. We kids were enamored with all things space and science back then - too bad folks still don't do that; there would be more science graduates in this old world if there were!!
So we are supposed to let a suspect company build an entire hardware network, and believe they are not going to seed the chips with built in malicious intent? It is bad enough we have to install workarounds for Intel's hardware vulnerabilities, but letting obvious bad actors just come in and devil may care??
It was a few years ago, but my girl friend was visiting an Asian Pacific country to look at their chip design labs. She couldn't believe what she was seeing! She looked at one of the circuits that had piggy back chips acting as back doors to the CPU, and when she asked what she was seeing on the magnifier, they couldn't wait to escort her out of the lab!! This was more than a decade ago and they were so brash then, that they even put developer logos on each "modification", like they were bragging about their criminal expertise. Anybody who does business with these bad actors deserves to have their skivvies put over their face and go out in public to show just how clueless they are!!
Long ago I received a letter from a relative of a deceased person who was perplexed at phone calls he was sure his late mother could not have made on Sprint's land line service to a small town I used to live in. I called him and asked what Sprint said about the calls in question, and he said they bragged that "Sprint's computers never make a mistake - it is totally impossible"; So I told the man they were indeed my calls, and they were - I got extreme satisfaction telling Sprint their computers or some J-I-J-O mistake did make errors and that the calls were mine. They insisted on saying it was impossible. So I said, "Why would I claim these were my calls if it were not true? Don't you think I'd normally enjoy the fact that someone else paid for my 45 dollars worth of calls?" Sprint canceled the debt to the estate and didn't even bother billing me for their mistake even though I said I'd pay for it. They didn't care if they lost money as long as they didn't have to admit they made a mistake somewhere in the system. Needless to say I've never wanted to use Sprint from then on, and thank God we now have cell phones with competition so folks aren't forced to use despicable services just because a small town only has one phone company!!!
Why don't they save money and take over the old abandoned Super Collider (SSC) that was canceled in Texas? Maybe the huge left over magnets might even help. They already spent a Billion dollars starting the tunnel - I have no idea what was finished. It was supposed to be the largest collider in the world - even larger than the LHC.
Is trying to copy the success of "The Weather Bug", which has successfully slurped user data for years and got away with it despite being classified as malware by many AV and AM utilities. Who wouldn't be tempted after watching WeatherBug stomp all over people for years, and still the victims go "MORE MORE"!! Every since AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc , the root company has changed its name and been bought out, and acted like a changeling. No wonder TWC was so tempted!
The best defense is another drone. I've seen the demonstration already on video - the defending drone fires a net at the offending drone and it attaches a parachute which forces it to fall to the ground. Needless to say the airport operator would have to be skilled to pull it off; but I saw in happen on this video, so it is very possible.
https://youtu.be/jvdKNBSWPyU
I'm not convinced that any browser actually keeps the password safe from prying malware. If they would at least encrypt it, that would help, but I've never read that has been improved upon. Better to use a free password manager with a good reputation.
I seem to remember reading Federal statutes a long time ago, where by as long as "a tax stamp" is affixed to such "controlled substances" then you are okay. In fact every time a sentence was handed down from a court to a violator, the end of the sentence always mentioned "without a tax (proof of which)"
Even machine guns are legal with a tax stamp ( proof of payment). Now getting that tax stamp is very difficult of course, and without a state where it is legal, almost impossible to acquire.
I'm not a fan of Bloomberg, so don't get me wrong there; but I have a friend who actually saw some early examples of these chips while visiting a lab in Indonesia! My friend said they were so arrogant back then, that they even printed a logo on the back of the chips placed on the circuit boards. They were a little crude at the time, more like a piggy back chip. So I totally believe the report, and in fact, they would have to prove this report was wrong in my not so humble opinion.
I can see why the OEMs are squawking, because the recovery of hardware like that would destroy the company; I doubt they will ever admit it - and it would take a government investigation to bring out the truth, which I doubt will happen, because our spooks would like to take advantage of these back doors as well.
I've had clients that told me what was going on in Washington and other networks, and I was shocked to see they contracted our country away to the PRC wholesale! It took them more than 5 years before they finally started to admit their mistakes - but that is no excuse when you have whistle blowers making a huge noise and no one was listening back then! It is absolutely disgusting to me!!
At about 2003, when I first started logging this kind of thing; the PRC was so arrogant that they didn't bother doing fancy server bouncing like you describe. The sources of the attacks made sense too - usually military bases or industrial parks. After people woke up, they shifted the IP addresses to "Universities", then when that got public attention, they built a mysterious communication building that could only be described as a major "CIA" type communications center where the attacks were coming from. This didn't fool anybody, so they finally simply copied the same technique criminals use just as you describe. l have no doubt the PRC is still doing just what they've always been doing, and probably worse - but you are right, the original source is hard to determine ( but not impossible either). We are doing it to them and our friends too, so it is a bit disingenuous to cry loudly about it, but that doesn't mean we have to lie down and forget it either.
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