The Espionage

I have been talking a lot about philosophy and identity. I wanted to mix it up with this post. Let’s talk security. Let’s talk about internet security. Ohhh man. Here we go. I am going to call this post The Internet Security Monster. What is the Internet Security Monster? He is a mysterious creature.

I’ve heard that the Internet Security Monster does whatever he wants. And no one can do anything about it. That is what I have heard. I have encountered this monster more than most. I will try to define for you the skills of the Internet Security Monster. Please note. These are end user hazards. I am not including security breaches that occur on the back end of websites. That’s a different monster. That’s the Network Security Monster.

1. Deceptive.

The monster will show you websites pretending to be other websites. We call that phishing.  Monster phishes all day long.

2. Intelligent.

Monster uses spyware as his weapon of choice. Typed credentials are captured by spyware. The target web page is captured by spyware. Monster wins.

3. Stealth.

The monster tricks you into believing that anti-spyware will destroy him. Anti-spyware weakens the monster but it does not kill him. Anti-spyware definitely eliminates many threats. But it does nothing against hardware keyloggers or stronger keyloggers that run at the kernel level. It is also difficult for anti-spyware to detect spyware that it is not familiar with. Sometimes the monster is there but you can not see him.

4. All knowing.

Monster knows all. He knows you think that auto-completing all of your passwords saves you from spyware because you are not typing passwords. Spyware can capture your auto-completes. Monster 1. You 0.

5. If he doesn’t know he will guess.

Not all threats come from spyware. Your passwords must have some degree of complexity and length to save you from a brute force hack. Some say eight characters is safe. Some say ten. Monster says three digits. Don’t listen to the monster.

6. X-ray vision.

The monster can see through your house right to your computer screen, so it seems. Sophisticated spyware has screen capturing built in to the program. Pictures can be taken of your computer screen on a tight frequency if this kind of spyware is running (technically down to the second, but more practically once every 30 seconds or so). Some spyware can take screenshots when the mouse is clicked. Pictures are then sent off to a remote location. Scary.

7. Advantageous.

It is innocent, but it happens. You have a few friends over for poker night. You take out the trash. When you come back you are greeted to a screen full of those pictures of your girlfriend that no one was supposed to see. What a shame. Don’t auto-complete the credentials to your email. Bad move. Damn you monster!

8. Mobile.

We know. Your home computer is authenticated by a biometric face scan. Your firewall issues third degree burns, and you run anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-aircraft weapons. But when you use your friend’s computer, you may be high and dry. The monster can set traps on other people’s computers. Beware.

9. Sticky Fingers.

Damaged, lost, or stolen flash drives means that your collection of passwords could fall into the wrong hands. Monster hands. Hopefully you backed up the flash drive so that you can recover most of the passwords. It gets worse if the password that was protecting the flash drive is weak. In that case, the flash drive can be brute force hacked by the monster. Now your identity is stolen. Here is a box of tissues. You will need them.

10. Copycat.

Copy and paste can be monitored by spyware with clipboard monitoring built in. Monster knows you don’t care, but it’s still true.

In an upcoming blog I will show you how to stop this menace.

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Tags: Security, Spyshakers, spyware, web 2.0

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 8:53 am and is filed under Security, Spyshakers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.