My computer has been repeatedly hacked into the last few weeks. I am gone for a few hours and new windows are up, the resolution changed, state of the computer changed.
I don’t know how they are doing it through the Windows and router firewalls. I don’t have any VNC ports open. But the main thing is why do they bother?
If there was ever a breach of skeptic E-mails like the Climategate E-mails, there wouldn’t be anything interesting in it. E-mail exchanges between skeptics are nearly identical to our blog posts. We are just trying to end the corruption of science. All the juicy stuff is on the climate fraudsters side.
Any attempt to cut off climate realism discussion, even if only temporary, is a victory in the opinion of the miscreants.
If they’re gonna hack maybe we’ll get lucky they’ll look at our browsing histories and find links to scientific and engineering sites with proven data and formulas… and some of it may sink into their little Warmist brains. As Shakespeare opined in Merchant of Venice “Truth will out.”
I’ll throw one back at you from right here:
———–
“Arguing with leftists is like playing chess with a pigeon.
No matter how good you are at chess, the pigeon is going to knock over the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious.” – from RealSciene
Yes, nielszoo, “Truth will out!”
This video shows the danger of living @ 1 AU from a pulsar-centered star:
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/voodoo-at-ncdc/#comment-466605
Some very brave soul at Goddard risked their lucrative professional career to tell the public the truth!
Careful with those selfies! Nobody (with the possible exception of Appell) wants to see those. 😉
Sorry about that, just tidying up a bit.
Routine trojan stuff. Problem number one is using Windows. In your situation I suggest using a “live” version of Linux, or even more obscure while also being extremely secure, OpenSolaris inside an Oracle VirtualBox. Naturally that is exactly what I do if I am merely surfing the internet.
You can get a cryptolocker virus or remote-control “trojan” merely by displaying an advertisement on your screen. Blocking ad sites reduces but does not eliminate this problem.
The “live” versions of Linux simply means it boots into a completely new instance every time, it has absolutely no memory of anything, including any viruses that might have succeeded in infecting Linux. It’s a clean slate and perfect for times when you are just surfing the web or editing your WordPress site.
We used to do that back in the Novell days with a DOS floppy & a non-bootable installation of Netware on the HDD. A pen-drive linux install & a well-encrypted HDD wouldn’t entirely eliminate the problems, but it would mitigate a lot. Have two identical partitions on the HDD (or just an un-plugged-in second HDD), but leave one unmounted so you can compare if you get hacked & remove anything that you didn’t mean to put on there.
Novell Netware 3.11 was one of my first certifications. We had systems running for YEARS without ever being rebooted. Its permissioning system was (and still is) vastly superior to Windows NFTS. Its reliability and efficiency was, in its day, relatively unmatched by anything.
I used to use a FreeBSD desktop with Netware shares mounted via IPX/SPX. The configuration was a bit hairy, but once you got over that hump it worked like a charm.
Start using a 3rd party firewall: Zonealarm / expert mode / maximum security
and be safe again
Zonealarm is pretty good but assumes a certain level of ept on the part of its user. All you need to do is say “yes” when you should have said “no” to defeat it, or say “no” when you should say “yes” to defeat everything else (like proper updates).
And download and run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
If you want ot know what is running in your computer: try Hijackthis
So can see what is installed and running
Btw, I run a combination of Zonealarm en Avira Antivirus for years now, 100% secure sofar
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware I recommend.
Highly recommend Malwarebytes.
combofix gets to the root!!!!!!!
Avira is great. Add in PrivateFirewall7.0. It’s free.
I’ll agree on Malwarebytes. It isn’t antivirus but it *is* anti malware against stuff that several major antiviruses ignore.
“Hijack this” is one of the best tools for Windows users but it presumes rather a lot of ept on your part.
A problem for all such tools is they reside on the same computer that may be infected. With hypervisor capability in most modern computers, the virus can become the hypervisor in which case none of these programs can “see” the controller. Reinfection takes mere seconds after you’ve cleaned your computer.
That’s where independent booting can sometimes be helpful. Kaspersky Rescue Disk is Linux and it boots totally independent of the host disk and consequently can inspect and sometimes clean files that Windows cannot touch (such as the kernel).
I work level 3 in end-user support. The frontline techs use JRT, ADWcleaner, SpyBot, Malwarebytes, and CCleaner in combination. Only ever had one laptop come back still infected – it was a ‘zero-day’ to all of them. A sleazy Pakistani doctor looking up Russian brides FFS!
And Adblock Plus is now available for IE, as well as Mozilla and Chrome. Avoids possible vulnerability infections, and makes pages load faster.
While most likely only garden variety stuff, if someone were to break into the computer of annoying skeptic of the mainstream belief system it would be to find something that can be used for a personal attack. Something to discredit the skeptic personally and generally totally unrelated to the topic at hand.
“it would be to find something that can be used for a personal attack.”
Or just put something there.
But I agree most of this is adding systems to your DDOS farm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe_Flood_Network
This class of malware is called botnet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet
The worry is what they may download onto your computer. This is not something to be smug about. Dirty tricks may already be hiding on your drive, be very careful.
This may well be very good advice.
all they have to do is load some kiddie porn into a lightly secure place and then call the feds on you. BEWARE!
Steve, Try these links:
http://www.opensourceforu.com/2012/01/cyber-attacks-explained-network-sniffing/
How to detect:
http://www.hacking-tutorial.com/tips-and-trick/how-to-detect-someone-sniffing-your-network-in-a-simple-way/#sthash.yi4SQWxx.dpbs
Add http://www.eset.com/online. It runs from the internet. If it runs to completion, that is helpful in saying you have nothing or a stealth (ala Stuxnet) that has not been cataloged yet. More likely, it will hang – which means the trojan is trying to hide from it (they can from local AV software, but not from an online one).
If I was a hacker I would shut them down every day.
Maybe they are looking for evidence of all that big oil money.
ROTFLMAO…
That has to be the funniest rumor I have ever heard. After years of trying they still can not find who bankrolls the skeptics. That says more about the Warmists (and the fact they are bought) then it does about skeptics.
awww come on Gail, ‘everyone’ knows that it’s the Koch brothers! [*laughs behind hand*]
Doesn’t sound like they’re the source
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2014/12/the-non-crony-pledge.html
What I found interesting about the ClimateGate emails is that in all of the 1000s of emails released, not one contained any hint of supporting evidence that anthropogenic CO2 emissions were the temperature control knob of our climate or that the modest temperature recovery since the end of the Little Ice Age was alarming.
I keep trying to point out the Roman Warm Period, the Middle Ages Warm Period, and the Little Ice Age, all compared to today to the jamokes on the warmist side but to no avail. Inevitably they’ll rant that all that warm stuff was regional (when we now have evidence it was global) or that the warming rate is accelerating ‘alarmingly’. All poppycock of course.
The Hokey stick relies on one series of trees from one region of the planet,. If anything is “regional” it is the hokey stick and all it little offspring.
if all else fails, you can use dumb technology to protect your PC: unplug the cable from the router before you walk away…
if you aren’t physically connected to the internet, they can’t get in
that’s actually a great idea!
I’ve broken a couple ‘odd’ transfers that way. In the end it turned out to be Micro$oft updates, but you never know.
They may be looking for passwords so they can place an embarrassing post on your blog site or disrupt it.
You left a door opened somewhere.
The available log files should tell you what you need to know if they are still there.
You should take the hacking seriously and reinstall your machine from scratch.
Most firewalls allow outgoing connections, so what happens is you open an email with a virus attachment, or you visit the wrong websites and click on something that installs itself. Now that’s in your system it can open a connection back to the controller and it maintains an open connection by trickle traffic (what is knows as “keep alive” messages). Then the controller can go back up that open connection.
The newer firewalls have some defenses against this, generally known at UTM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_threat_management
Typically it is a subscription service, so you have to update your license every year, but more affordable than identity theft.
Sounds strikingly familiar as to what happened to Sheryl Atkisson when she was working on the Benghazi story.
They’re trying to send you a message, stop exposing our fraudulent behaviour.
… and this could be happening from the very highest levels of government. Were it not the year 2014 (and with all that has gone on) I wouldn’t be saying this …
My thoughts exactly, including the second part.
I would never have thought this ten years ago.
Why Bother?
Because the reputations of many high-ranking scientists, including Nobel Prize winners, and the entire post-WWII structure of public-supported science will be destroyed if the public learns their tax funds were spent to prevent from the public from knowing what a nuclear geo-chemist realized while standing in the ruins of Hiroshima in August 1945: The beginning of the World . . . was just like the ending of Hiroshima !
See the last paragraph on page 2 of the book by P. K. Kuroda: The Origin of the Chemical Elements and the Oklo Phenomenon (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1982, 165 pages)
http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Chemical-Elements-Oklo-Phenomenon/dp/3540116796
Here is a draft abstract for a paper I hope to present next year.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10640850/The_Begining_of_the_World.pdf
Comments, criticisms and corrections are welcome.
Mankind has been enslaved by those who successfully blocked public awareness of the actual source of energy that created the chemical elements, gave birth to the world, and sustained the origin and evolution of life.
They are not at fault. Enslavement of people has been a common theme in the history of mankind. E.g., the promise of Isaiah 40:5 will prove to be as true today as it was when written ~2,000 years ago.
Should the above abstract should be modified to make that the central theme?
The abstract has been changed. A link will be posted below.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10640850/The_FORCE.pdf
Obummer has made it! What nobody else ever did, he managed to do it. The official US national debt is over 18 trillion dollars now. Hurrah, http://www.usdebtclock.org/
And he is so modest about it. He didn’t even mention it, but he promised Change and Change has come. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fUmFBMVWNI
Honest accounting. 9 Trillion dollars was unpatriotic. Unsustainable. More transparancy was needed. He would provide that. And he did, He doubled the national debt.
None of those things mean you have been hacked. Maybe, but not definite by any means.
Could it be that someone actually enters your apartment? Probably not but you never know .,.
Switch off your router, computer, etc… when you go out. Put them on the same power bar to make that easy.
Get a new hard drive, reinstall everything, consider the current drive and any executable files toxic, change all passwords on all accounts including the alarm system for the apartment (if there is one).
drives are so darn cheap now that this is a great idea
My phone and computer are regularly hacked by the cocksucking NAZI’s of the Fourth Reich of the U.S. I watch the download arrow on Firefox pop up, they lock my computer up, block me from certain sites, etc. My phone, now that’s even better. They change the settings. Turn on my GPS, Bluetooth, turn the phone on and off and change the camera from the back to front! I usually show them my nasty shit in the bowl…It’s like a game! I love it.
Steven,
1. Download and run RogueKiller, which is an excellent tool for detecting the sort of problem I suspect you have:
http://www.adlice.com/softwares/roguekiller/
If you have questions about how to handle the results, post the scanlog on the adlice forum:
http://forum.adlice.com/
2. Download and run the free version of CCleaner, a surprisingly useful set of tools:
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download
3. Download and run CCEnhancer, which makes CCleaner *even more* effective:
https://singularlabs.com/software/ccenhancer/
4. Use the Firefox browser at all times, if only because Firefox allows you to add the single best security utility there is: the *noscript* add-on. Learn how to use noscript and you will stay as clean as a whistle after you’ve cleaned up your drives.
5. Install Zone Alarm’s free firewall and configure it correctly:
http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-pc-security-free-firewall.htm
6. If you want to get serious about sniffing out who may be after you (I highly doubt it’s personal; if it was, you wouldn’t know it was there), download and learn to use Wireshark:
https://www.wireshark.org/
Finally, it sounds as if you have some generic malware issue. Don’t assume you’ve been “hacked.” If you have any questions about the above, feel free to ask them here.
Stephen,
Simply amazing what you put up with! Keep up the fight.
The Little Dick is probably looking for some dirt to try and shut you up. Cheryl Attkisson comes to mind.
A popular scam going around right now involves someone, usually with an Indian accent, calling you to say your computer is infected with a virus. He will try to entice you into launching a legitimate remote control program such as GoTo Assist or WebEx so that he can operate your computer. He will show you your installed programs list or running services (services.msc), which looks technical. He will identify something as harmful (when in fact it is just a normal part of your system), call it a virus, and offer to remove it for a fee of around $300.
You can just say “no” or you can have a bit of fun with it, keep them on the line burning their minutes, especially if you have a cloned virtual system. You see, when you refuse to pay, he will start destroying your files before your eyes. But if it is a cloned virtual system you can sit back and enjoy the show.
Since these remote control programs can be configured to leave an “agent” on your computer, the operator can log onto your computer at any time because the agent maintains an open port through your firewall by phoning home regularly and frequently. Malwarebytes will ignore it and so will Antivirus because you gave it permission!
If its a real hack, not just virus activity, then its a huge endorsement of what you are saying. Someone is worried and wants to silence you.
Windows itself is the virus. Bet it’s got back doors built in for the U.S. 4th Reich. 3 choices:
1. Go back to an Atari cartridge machine
2. Upgrade to DOS, or
3. Use an Amiga with Bindows emulation software.
“Windows itself is the virus. “
Hehe – I have heard that.
You could try Detekt. An open source tool, Detekt was released in partnership with human rights group Amnesty International, German digital rights group Digitale Gesellschaft, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy International.
It’s a free tool that allows users to scan their Windows based computers for commercial surveillance malware that has been used to spy on journalists and activists by governments and their surveillance agencies.
You are a threat. If youre writing code for the NSA why not ask them why they are hacking you?
I switched to one of the new iMacs at the end of last year. Windows 8 on my wife’s machine constantly updates to attempt to close security issues, along with other software. She’s had two breaches in the last year. I’ve been happy with the switch since day one and have not been hacked. The big beautiful 27 inch screen is a plus, since I’m a photographer. I also use encryption on critical files, including the backup on my airport extreme.
Steven,
Don’t ignore it. This needs fixing. I’m a “computer guy” for a living and have worked in the security side for a long time. (Kept Apple from being hacked for 7 1/2 years when I was there).
At a minimum, you have a Trojan or a virus. At the max you are bag, tagged, and being exploited to attack others while everything on your machine is sucked down and cataloged and anyone with whom you exchange communications gets a ‘special something’ attached…
I agree completely with the folks who said to scan, clean and such your machine and all the files. I’d also suggest after that doing a complete re-install. Why do both? The first supplies diagnostic / reporting information you want. The second assures you are (most likely) clean. There are some hacks that modify the non-operating system parts of the disk, so for a simple re-install they are not cleaned. Some of the scan and clean programs catch and fix them.
In a full paranoid fix, you replace the whole machine and do not connect anything to the old one; but it is likely you don’t need to go that far.
For me, I have at least 2 machines going at any one time, and a couple of virtual machines on top of them. Learn to configure and use some virtual machine software. I’m fond of EMU, but Virtual Box is a bit easier to configure for some folks. Use the VM for visiting any internet sites you do not know are clean (which is most of them). Browse in one, post and write in another, and do email from a third. Separate the domains of activity and that avoids a web hack getting to your email.
I also have my files on external media. Mostly a USB hard disk for the main archive. I then have a few SD cards for the smaller parts / daily use. 2 of them are 64 GB, and a couple are 8 or 16 GB. Only the thing being used is mounted when I need it. Any infection that compromises a set of files only gets THAT small part, and even then it is only one copy ( each is duplicated to a different card every month or two and after assuring the original is clean). You can leave the SD card locked and read-only until you want to write it, assuring more protection. One of the SD cards in a EMU VM with Linux on it. That lets me use a special purpose VM anytime I want under Windows.
Sound like a lot of pain? Not really. Just start with one bit and add a small chunk each day. Pick up a couple of SD cards or USB dongles. Put some stuff on them and put it on the shelf. Get some virus / malware scanning software. Scan those copies. Scan the machine. Eventually build a VM on an external device (USB or SD) and play with it for browsing misc. stuff. Some time later start using it for more important things. Let the habits form over time. It isn’t hard
These behaviours have saved me for a half dozen hardware failures and a couple of malware attacks. Nothing like just being happy to ‘scrub and restore’ an infected machine and not care about losing the last couple of days junk mail…
Finally, my latest twist has been using a ChromeBox. While I’m not fond of how it shares all it knows with Google (and through them with at a minimum the NSA); it is a nice relatively secure place to post from and do blog operations. If it gets infested (that so far looks rare as it is Linux based AND locked down pretty good) I’m one button push away from a ‘restore to factory’ clean. For all of $179 I have a nice blogging appliance that is distinct from my personal computing world. (that world staying mostly offline most of the time, so ‘air gap’ secure…) It’s a cheap way to get a lot of protection for “everything else” by using it for the ‘mostly on line most of the time’ stuff. Just remember to put stuff you want to keep on a removable media ( USB / SD ) and not on the device and remember that the Google.Drive is shared to Google / NSA / whoever knows their back door.
If there is anything I can do to help, just let me know. E.M.Smith – Chiefio
I sincerely hope you are wrong, E.M. Smith, but I doubt it.
As noted above, the Climategate debate has evolved into a direct confrontation with those who enslaved mankind sixty-nine years ago by successfully prohibiting public knowledge of the source of energy that made the chemical elements, birthed the world, and sustained the origin and evolution of life – the source of energy that destroyed Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10640850/The_Begining_of_the_World.pdf
That extremely selfish and intelligent force is now capable of crushing all human critics, but incapable of protecting itself from destruction by a Higher Power that historically protected mankind from such tyrants.
PS: I didn’t know you worked at Apple, the computer supplier that delayed tyrannical control of public information.
Also …. the ShieldsUP test will tell you if there are any open or unsecured ports, or other vulnerabilities. … https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
Another thing …. some ISPs can change your access to “dynamic”, so that when you close down your computer and turn off your router, and then turn them back on you’ll get a different IP address. It’s a lot harder for the bad people to find you if your IP address changes every day!
Peter, thanks for this link! I ran the tests and my pc (W7, Zonealarm firewall) only failed the ping-test.
Ping Reply: RECEIVED (FAILED) — Your system REPLIED to our Ping (ICMP Echo) requests, making it visible on the Internet.
I already have found a way to correct this, via router settings: firewall settings >WAN ping blocking or similar
The other tests were positive. I’ll share some results:
“Your equipment at IP: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (hidden) Is now being queried:
THE EQUIPMENT AT THE TARGET IP ADDRESS DID NOT RESPOND TO OUR UPnP PROBES! (That’s good news!)”
“Your Internet port 139 does not appear to exist!
One or more ports on this system are operating in FULL STEALTH MODE!”
@ Steven:
Start using Zonealarm! It’s free!
That truly sucks…
The lunatic Warmist Gestapo sees their “cause” as the saving of mankind and are following Alinsky’s dicta:
“The ends justify the means… ANY MEANS” – Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals…
Take some pride in the old saying, “You only get flak when you’re hitting the target”
They do it because they can’t win on the issues or the science, they are cowards.
“I am gone for a few hours and new windows are up, the resolution changed, state of the computer changed.” Amateur hack for sure if that easy to notice. With your back ground easy to stop but a pain you need to.
I agree with your statement “Why bother”. Skeptics are not the one trying to hide anything, we want all evidence in the open. the alarmists are the one that want to delete their old emails to cover up their lies and misdirection.
You don’t pull any punches . You call a malfeasance a malfeasance. Blatant fraud…blatant fraud. It’s not surprising they want to close you down (or something). And somebody would love to get hold of, or find the source of, those old newspaper clippings you dig up, which completely annihilate any arguement they have. Signs of sabotage? Good stuff. Keep kicking them Steve., . ,
Mack, I agree with you.
The source of the old newspaper clippings are out there for anyone to find. What Tony does is take the time to find them. He normally links to the source. Example: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/23150667
Bottom line is Tony cares enough to spend the time and effort to fact check the alarmists claims. A true skeptic in the best form of the word. He also admits when he is wrong. I hope he keeps it up.
Steve I would not do anything. So far your site as far as I can gather, has always been running without fault. You are of course a PRIME candidate for attack by warmist sites as you are probably the one doing the most harm to their cause. I would seem that whatever you are doing is protecting you so far.
There is some truth in what you say,
Tyrants and bullies are cowards at heart.
It’s most likely a files malware attack that can replicate itself. I would go lookup Poweliks and how to check for and remove it. Most malware applications and anti-virus won’t find it because it doesn’t use a file but instead resides in memory. However, last month some new tools were released to find and remove the problem. Just remember to run them in safe-mode and DO NOT connect to the internet while removing them.
Quote: “…it doesn’t use a file but instead resides in memory.”
I guess that would be RAM memory. If so, restarting the computer should remove it.