malware

MLMM Friday Faithfuls — Remote Control

Fandango8 Comments

For this week’s Mindlovemysery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls challenge, Jim Adams has suggested that we respond by writing about something attacking your computer, if you have ever experienced a Ransomware attack, or if your computer got infected by a Trojan, a Virus, Spyware, Malware, a Worm, Keyloggers, or if you think someone was phishing on your computer, or if you ever opened a suspicious email attachment and had problems after that, or you can go with anything else that you think would fit.

My short answer is “no.” There have been a few times when someone other than me has remotely taken over control of my laptop, but they were all sanctioned by me. Several instances occurred when I was still working and had an issue with my laptop and the techno-gurus at my company requested logging on remotely to my computer so that they could troubleshoot, identify, and fix the problem I was experiencing.

I also had the tech support folks at Dell ask for remote control of my laptop in order to fix an issue. Other than that…

Oh wait. Come to think of it, I have, in fact, had some serious remote control issues, but mostly it’s between me and my wife regarding who is in control of the TV remote control device.

Image generated using Microsoft Copilot.

FBI: Spam Killer

Fandango23 Comments

Okay, yes, I admit it. Sometimes I can be like a dog with a bone. I won’t let go. I’ve been this way with regard to the recent disappearing spam phenomenon. I’ve been going back and forth with the happiness engineers insisting that something has changed, that something is different. I’m tired of being told nothing has changed other than I’m getting less spam than I did before.

In my last contact with the HEs, I wrote…

In the middle of this month, suddenly my daily spam comments dropped from double digits to zero on most days. I know spam comes and goes and the daily fluctuations can be significant. But I never remember a time when I was consistently getting no spam comments day after day.

I’m not the only blogger who has had this happen. I may be the only one who has contacted WordPress about it, but based upon comments I’ve received to several of my posts on this matter as well as posts from some other bloggers that I’ve read, others have seen the same fall off from dozens of daily spam comments to zero.

I'd be delighted if suddenly all of the spammers who used to comment on my blog have, all at once, lost interest in me or saw the error of their ways and gave up the spammer life. But I doubt that’s the case.

Well, I finally received the definitive answer today.

I actually think the FBI may have helped you out here! https://www.fbi.gov/news/ stories/fbi-partners-dismantle-qakbot-infrastructure-in-multinational-cyber-takedown.

At the end of August they took down a large botnet that was being used for all sorts of malicious purposes. I would strongly suspect that this botnet was involved in posting large amounts of spam, and the spammers have not yet recovered from it.

So now we know. It’s not that any spam-related changes were implemented by WordPress or Akismet or Jetpack. No, it was the crack Federal Bureau of Investigation that disrupted and dismantled a malware and botnet farm, and that is the reason why we’re getting no more spam comments in our spam folders on WordPress.

And if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to Brooklyn that I’d like to sell you.

Invasion of Privacy

Fandango7 Comments

“Some son of a bitch bastard attempted to hack into my laptop last night,” Randy griped. “Fortunately, whoever tried it didn’t have a clue about how to actually pull it off.”

“Yeah,” Tess agreed. “Hacking into computers seems to be the trend these days. It’s an invasion of privacy. The hackers either try to steal your personal data, including your passwords, or they install malware on your computer and then charge a ransom to remove it.”

“I’m lucky that I am using a VPN with a robust firewall that prevented a breach,” Randy said.

“I read that a lot of people are making the transition from laptops to smartphones for most of the tasks that they used to rely on their computers for,” Tess said.

“Are you kidding?” Randy said. “Using a smartphone instead of a computer would be like trying to pull a boat behind a car with twine rather than with a trailer hitch.”

“Not so, Randy,” Tess said. “There is literally nothing using a laptop that I can’t do just as well or better on my smartphone, including blogging by the way.”

Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (hack), The Daily Spur (clue), Word of the Day Challenge (trend), Ragtag Daily Prompt (breach), MMA Storytime (transition), and Your Daily Word Prompt (twine).

#FOWC — Autonomous

Fandango11 Comments

img_1508“Did you hear that yet another person was killed by one of those self-driving cars?” Howard asked Ben, the guy in the adjoining cubicle. “I don’t understand why we need to have these robo-cars on the road. It’s dangerous.”

“Howard, we’re humans, and, as you know, we humans are flawed,” Ben said. “I recently saw a statistic that pointed out that human error is responsible for 94 percent of today’s car crashes. People are driving under the influence, texting, speeding, or dozing off.”

“But if these autonomous vehicles are so good and so safe, why are people being killed and injured by these robo-cars?” Howard asked.

“There have only been a few such incidents,” Ben noted.

“True,” Howard said. “But relatively speaking, there are so few self-driving cars on the road that the number of accidents they have been involved in is statistically significant.”

“You’re so twentieth century, Howard,” Ben said. “You have to be forward looking. Imagine climbing into your car and just pushing a button to go. You don’t have to drive at all. Your autonomous car handles everything. It remains constantly vigilant, seeing 360 degrees all around you, without distractions. What can be safer than that?”

“First of all, technology is fallible, as are the flawed, as you pointed out, humans who develop and deploy it,” Ben said. “And wasn’t your computer hacked a few months back, Ben? What if someone hacks into your car’s computer system and infects it with malware that disables its automated systems while you’re on the road?”

“I am positive that driving autonomous cars will be safer than driving in those operated by people,” Ben said.

“Well, you will no doubt be an early adopter,” Howard said. “But as for me, I’d rather put my faith — and possibly my life — in my own human hands than to cede control of my car to potentially flawed technology.”

Written for today’s One-Word Challenge from me! The word is “autonomous.”