Wednesday Morning: In The Morning After
Suffering from a ‘morning after’ here — not from the primary race results, but a bug I picked up from a banking website, of all places. (Not a national bank, a small in-state bank I will call very soon about their problem.) Until I get this bug hunted down and removed, I’m on low output.
There’s plenty to read anyhow, with Ed Walker’s latest post on totalitarianism, and a preliminary Michigan primary analysis from Marcy.
Use this as an open thread. I’ll update here once my entire anti-bug arsenal has been deployed.
The slow agonising end of Hillary’s political career has begun. Her momentum has run down, Sanders’ picks up all the time. Hillary’s problem, the one that makes her unelectable, is that she has no ‘ear’ for politics. She has no understanding of the way that people are thinking, of their moods, of the way that the wind is blowing. She is totally insensitive to popular opinion.
All her support is organised by bosses and ward heelers who are backing her only because they have been assured that she will win, be powerful and in a position to reward them. After Michigan these people-many of whom are ‘super-delegates’- will start waking up. Even today in New York, for example, it is likely that Hillary backers are reconsidering her options.
She is, after all, unelectable.
unless it jeopardizes your own machinery, how about posting here some of the contents of your antibug arsenal.
there are fewer more popular technical columns in newspapers and online mags than how the lowly peon can protect his or her personal computers – desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone from malware.
I’m curious to know how you know you picked it up from a particular website. Also, where does a tech guru take her own computer to get it fixed?
A new report from the Congressional Research Service considers legal aspects of encryption policy, reviews the existing case law and issues including the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and the scope of the All Writs Act. I’ll put it under my pillow tonight and see what seeps through into my brain.
.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44407.pdf
Credit union web site captured due to outdated version of Akeeba backup. http://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/02/breached-credit-union-comes-out-of-its-shell/
Of course with all those IC subcontractors running amuck, and hey we did it from some pirate island where there is no law, and anyone who blogs about it must be a sympathizer, who must be a fellow traveler, who must be a co conspirator, so it is all good. And anyone in MI-5 who snitches will end up zipped into a travel bag.
orionATL (9:57) — The problem dictates the solution, won’t go into specifics about this latest problem. However, I’ll share my basics for Win XP/7/8 machines (I don’t/won’t do Win10):
1) Keep on a thumbdrive, updated at least once a month:
— MacAfee Stinger
— Kaspersky TDSSKiller
— Spybot
— Clamwin
If my machine is buggy, I use them in this order from the thumbdrive. Not applicable to ransomware, which I’ve been fortunate not to experience. I keep these on a thumbdrive in case the bug has corrupted applications and data on the PC. If I’ve gotten a bug, it’s already gotten by Avast A/V.
2) After running those, I use Malwarebytes, Sophos, and occasionally Microsoft Safety Scanner, depending on the problem. The last one must be run from their site; their license is only good for 10 days at a time, and it’s not a full-blown A/V, just tackles some of the worst bugs targeting Win devices.
3) After running all the bug cleaners, I clean up the registry and defragment the harddrive. I use Wise Resistry Cleaner and Smart Defrag utilities.
4) If PC is still buggy, I’d consult the folks at BleepingComputer.com forums, or wipe the drive and reinstall Windows. Allow days for either of these as forums can be slow to reply, and reinstall with all patches can take 24-48 hours. If it’s been more than a couple years since Windows was installed, this might even be the fastest solution — but I’d still run an A/V first to get a bead on the bug’s identity.
Keep in mind no one A/V can kill more than 85% of bugs — probably far less. Always best to use 2-3 A/V packages on a rotating basis.
And I never, EVER use a Microsoft Browser.