I need some information/advice

[so.cal.fan]

so.cal.fan is in the midst of a nasty small town political fight right now.
Some people have had their computers hacked.
I would suspect I would be a prime target for the next week.
Is there anyway I can tell this (hacking) is being attempted or has been done?
I'm on a cable ISP....using Windows XP.......I have their firewall on.
I have NOD anti virus software and Spy Sweeper.
Any information would be most appreciated.
Thanks

[Gibbon]

You must be sure NOD32 and spy sweeper are up to date. No assumptions such as my anti virus/spyware is on automatic update. Update manually then run a complete hard drive scan.

I can only presume you mean cable modem. I would turn OFF XP’s built in rudimentary firewall and download Comodo Firewall Pro. http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/download_firewall.html An exceptional free firewall monitoring both in-bound and out-bound connections. Also, Comodo does maintain an extensive log file which you may examine to see precisely what is happening with your connection.

What browser are you using? If Microsoft internet explore is your choice, I would strongly recommend disabling ActiveX, Java script and scripting of any kind. This will lock down invaders. http://surfthenetsafely.com/ieseczone5.htm

Most importantly, is you machine physically secure? If anyone but you has access to your computer than your data will be compromised.

[JustRalph]

here is a neat trick........works every time


pull the plug on your cable modem.......power it off.........fire it up only when you want to use it.

How about this one............ pull the network cable out of the back of your computer........works every time.....................


I am not being a smart ass here. I mean it. If you are really worried about it.........pull the plug or network cable.......if easily accessible.

[so.cal.fan]

Thanks, Ralph.
There are a couple of us who suspect this is being tried.
Lots of money involved in these little elections.....and we all know, when the money gets big....people get hurt.
Again, thanks, as usual for your keen tips.

DS :)

[tupper]

Why don't you and your friends run live CDs until the election is over.

I doubt that your opponents are capable of cracking a Linux live CD, and you will have a fully functional computer with lots of software.

[so.cal.fan]

Thanks, Gibbon and Tupper.
Sierra Madre is a small town.....10,000 people.
We are fighting a crooked city hall.
They are trying to tax us, after they have wasted millions of our tax dollars on over development schemes.
I'm running a campaign for the leading opposition candidate.
Nasty stuff.
It will be over next week, I can get back to my life, which is going down to Santa Anita!

[bigmack]

so cal,

It looks messy :eek:

There is a major error on the sample ballot recently sent to Sierra Madre voters. The error occurs on page ten of the ballot, in the Argument for Measure P. In the argument, which starts out accurately enough, the Utility Users Tax (Measure U) is twice misidentified as Measure P, and the Police Officers’ Association (POA) initiative, Measure P, is misidentified as Measure UA. The argument, which is “signed” by all five City Council members, informs voters that the POA has abandoned the initiative, which they had placed on the ballot after collecting the required signatures. The statement says that the officers had come to the conclusion that their initiative would have "resulted in cutting services the City provides that the Community has come to enjoy and expect." It states that the POA agreed to accept a more modest salary increase than their measure would have provided, and that the City would provide that increase only if it receives the necessary revenue to do so. Up to this point things are accurate. However, in its next two sentences, the argument misidentifies the two ballot measures, stating "Accordingly, the Police Officers Association respectfully asks that the Community vote YES to increase the Utility Users Tax (Measure P) and vote no on the POA initiative (Measure UA)." The Utility Users Tax is actually Measure U, and the POA initiative is actually Measure P. The next sentence incorrectly reads "A YES vote to allow an increase to the Utility Users Tax (Measure P) will provide our public safety employees (police, fire, and paramedics) the compensation necessary to keep our experienced and loyal public servants working in Sierra Madre." It should, however, identify the Utility Users Tax initiative as Measure U, not P. :lol:

Following the argument are the "signatures" of all five City Council members. However, since the measure was the Police Officers’ Association’s measure, presumably the argument was supposed to have been submitted by the Sierra Madre Police Officers Association, not the City Council.

City Clerk Response

On Friday, March 7th at 2:28pm, City Clerk Nancy Shollenburger issued a press release to this paper, acknowledging that the Argument For Measure P included mistakes, and apologizing for any inconvenience. The full text of the City Clerk’s press release is as follows: ATTENTION VOTERS: Several errors appear on Page 10 of the SAMPLE BALLOT and Voter Information Pamphlet recently mailed to all voters in the City of Sierra Madre for the April 8, 2008 General Municipal Election. The errors are in the ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF MEASURE P. Please disregard the entire ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF MEASURE P as printed. A corrected ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF MEASURE P will be mailed to you. If you have already voted and sent back your Vote-By-Mail ballot, and this correction change causes you to want to change your vote, you may call the office of the City Clerk and request a new ballot be sent to you. Call 626/355-7135 (City Hall) 626/355-3303 (My home office) or fax me at 626/355-1546. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Nancy Sue Shollenberger, City Clerk, City of Sierra Madre.

As City Clerk, Shollenberger is an elected official and is not required to consult with the City Manager or the City Attorney on issues such as this, and she chose not to. Neither the City Manager nor the City Attorney had received a copy of the press release before it was issued to the press, and the copy of the press release that currently appears on the City website is the copy that was e-mailed to the City Manager by a member of the press after the City Clerk’s office had faxed it to him.

As we prepared to go to print on Wednesday, the 19th, the latest word we had from City Hall was that the corrected sample ballot was expected to be mailed that same day.

How Replacement Ballots Would Function

I was a little confused by the idea of a replacement ballot, so I asked about how that would work.

According to City Attorney Sandra Levin, “The new term under the election code for "absentee ballots" is "Vote By Mail" or VBM ballots. Until 10 days before the election, all VBM ballots must remain in their sealed envelopes. These envelopes have the name and signature on the outside. Therefore, so long as the request is received at least 10 days prior to the election, the first ballot can be identified and destroyed (called "spoiled" in election parlance). Once the envelopes are opened, no substitute ballots can be issued. That is why in the correction that the clerk is issuing to all registered voters you will see a deadline of March 28 to make the request for a new ballot.”

No Explanation of How Error Occurred

The City Clerk has not responded to questions regarding how the errors occurred, stating that “I have been advised not to answer questions.” However, in the same communication, she stated that she would answer questions at the Kiwanis :lol:

[so.cal.fan]

LOL
This is just one of the minor issues here in Sierra Madre, Big Mack

[wilderness]

so.cal.fan is in the midst of a nasty small town political fight right now.
Some people have had their computers hacked.
I would suspect I would be a prime target for the next week.
Is there anyway I can tell this (hacking) is being attempted or has been done?
I'm on a cable ISP....using Windows XP.......I have their firewall on.
I have NOD anti virus software and Spy Sweeper.
Any information would be most appreciated.
Thanks

Why not simply purchase a router (with a built-in Firewall) for your cable modem and end all the nonsense?

[so.cal.fan]

How do I do that, Wilderness?

[wilderness]

How do I do that, Wilderness?

Hordes to read here.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22cable+modem%22+%2Brouter&btnG=Google+Search

Additionally you should note that some Cable and/or DSL systems require compability to specific brands.

As an aside, my own connection is a DSL.
Approximately 18-months ago, I purchased a DSL Modem/Router on eBay which was new although not the current model. $30 to the door.
Last week this modem went bad and the current model purchased from a local BestBuy was $95.

Most software firewalls are simply ineffective. They do monitor and restrict many items coming in, however hardly offer restrictions for what your system sends out (i. e., malwware, worms or virus' on your computer which may notify these folks that your actively online).

A router (i. e., hardware firewall) is the most effective solution.

[headhawg]

I think that wilderness, while good-intentioned here, might be being a bit naive. s.c.f, when u say that you are going to be "hacked" do u mean by some serious people (liked hired guns) or amateurs? If it's just the local high school kids you could get a router with a firewall and then double the protection by getting a software firewall (like the free one from Comodo or Zone Alarm) and installing that on your PC. The script kiddies will just be scanning for your open ports and then run a script to get in and do what mischief that can do and you should be fairly safe.

But, if the attackers are serious coders they will get in - they will bust through that cheap firewall like a paper mache wall. Home "routers" are NOT hardware firewalls. You would need a Cisco PIX, Checkpoint, or Barracuda firewall to use as a serious solution, not a $50 device you could pick up at Best Buy.

[wilderness]

I think that wilderness, while good-intentioned here, might be being a bit naive. s.c.f, when u say that you are going to be "hacked" do u mean by some serious people (liked hired guns) or amateurs? If it's just the local high school kids you could get a router with a firewall and then double the protection by getting a software firewall (like the free one from Comodo or Zone Alarm) and installing that on your PC. The script kiddies will just be scanning for your open ports and then run a script to get in and do what mischief that can do and you should be fairly safe.

But, if the attackers are serious coders they will get in - they will bust through that cheap firewall like a paper mache wall. Home "routers" are NOT hardware firewalls. You would need a Cisco PIX, Checkpoint, or Barracuda firewall to use as a serious solution, not a $50 device you could pick up at Best Buy.

headhag,
Although you may be "good-intentioned" yourself, explaining the very rare possibility of some hi-tech hacker to somebody that is unaware of ANY router capabilities at all, and is using an open aaccess modem which allows pings, traces and all other port access, simply confuses the matter for him.

As far as my own naiveness?

I've had an extranet in place for two websites for nearly ten years on the open internet which severly restricts visitor access (i. e., subscription without their knowlegde).

In addition, with thirteen years of very heavy internet activity and NEVER having used AV software, I've only contracted a mere two worms and a java malware. Two of the three were detected in minutes and the machines were taken off line until secured.

[headhawg]

I was just trying to be helpful; I do this for a living. Personally if s.c.f is that worried he should take JR's suggestion.

As far as your computer knowledge all I can tell is from what I read. Giving the impression that a home router is a good firewall is not very good advice. This is even more true when the person asking for help is not tech-savvy and appears very worried about an attack.

[DJofSD]

I would suspect I would be a prime target for the next week.
Is there anyway I can tell this (hacking) is being attempted or has been done?

What is your set up like? Cable modem or DSL? What are the brand and model.

Do you have a router between your computer and your broadband connection?

Depending on what you have in place, there could be logs on some of your devices that will allow you to track what is being attempted against you're connection.

Your broadband provider might be able to offer some additional assistance.

Besides taking your MODEM offline when your not using the internet, another approach is to try and obtain a new IP address that you are dynamically assigned. I am not referring to changing a fixed or assigned IP address like you would have if you were a business and/or running a site on the internet. I'm referring to the address that is dynamically assigned when you make your connection to your provider. Typically (at least in my experience) this hardly ever changes once you have you assigned to you. But, they can change. Whether or not you can "force" this from your end is what I am not sure about. Again, your provider should be able to answer this question -- but don't expect the people that answer the telephone to know that answer. You'll likely need to get to techie's in support to help.

Good luck.

[wilderness]

Cisco PIX (didn't even bother after looking at the other two).
Checkpoint, (bottom line ($240)
or Barracuda (bottom line $699)

[headhawg]

And your point is??

This is on the verge of becoming adversarial and that is not my intent. If so.cal.fan wants to take your advice so be it. It's free.

[tupper]

How do I do that, Wilderness?Sorry to repeat my earlier suggestion, but after reading more posts in this thread, it really seems that the easiest, cheapest and most secure solution is for you and your friends to run live CDs, until this thing blows over.

Live CDs are completely free to download, and I really doubt that your opponents can crack into them. Even if by some miracle they could crack your live CD, all their cracking efforts would be lost as soon as you reboot -- how can malicious code be written to a single-session, nonburnable CD-R?

In addition, most live CDs do not automatically mount (connect to) one's hard drives, so as long as you keep your drives unmounted they will remain safe. If you are really paranoid and you need to save data, you can quickly "mount/save/unmount," or, better yet, just save to a usb flash drive.

Some Linux live CDs are "multi-session", allowing one to save data back to the CD.

Worried that you can't handle a different OS? Here's a screenshot of what it might look like if you were working on a spreadsheet (and a calculator) with a Linux live CD:

http://www.elivecd.org/assets/galleries/69/office-3.jpg


Here's a what it might look like if you were playing music with the same live CD:

http://www.elivecd.org/assets/galleries/68/metalbart-1.jpg

By the way, you would never need to use a terminal (the transparent window over Angelina's face).

Want to browse the web? Here's the same Linux live CD running Firefox:

http://www.elivecd.org/assets/galleries/69/firefox-1.jpg

It really is easy and secure... and it's free!

[JustRalph]

The last page of this thread is why I didn't bring up a router..............


Dianne............feel free to PM me ............if you want to know more.

I took it that somebody was doing some serious hacking..........that is why I gave the answer I did.

It all depends on what is on your system. Hell guys, I only run a router on my system at home. It gets hit with all kinds of crap every day. But if I had something I really wanted protected.......... it wouldn't be online all the time. I don't think Socal has the plans for blowing up city hall on her system, but she is probably afraid of just being probed............

[so.cal.fan]

Thanks, Ralph.
Our little election is Tuesday.
There may be some trouble. I'll email you if there is.

[BillW]

headhawg:

Personally if s.c.f is that worried he should take JR's suggestion.



She :)

[headhawg]

She :)Yes, I realize that now after JR's post. My apologies to so.cal.fan.