Comments on: The Conficker Worm: What Happens Next?

60 Minutes: Computer Worm Could Receive New Instructions On April 1

[mogul_racer]

OS11,
"please do research before you post incorrect information. it makes you look bad otherwise... thanks." --Now if you would only follow your own advice...

Macs aren't immune to viruses, but they are very rare. And yes, I'm speaking of actual viruses.

[OS11]

no, cs4466 you just pointed to a "vulnerability" with remote desktop, not an actual exploit... learn the difference.

and so far, after 8 years and 60 million macs on the internet 24/7/365 there hasn't been a single virus. yes, there has been a couple harmless worms and trojans, (6 total) but no viruses on macs.

cs4466, please do research before you post incorrect information. it makes you look bad otherwise... thanks.

[derkderkal12]

@cs4466

Well put. It's good to see that not everyone is so ignorant.

[derkderkal12]

In response to margallen, You're not suppose to have multiple Anti-Virus software, they tend to conflict with eachother and block each other. You need one or the other, so if your gonna go with widows live one care you need to uninstall (remove) McAfee. Thats why you are getting an error.

[cs4466]

For all the numskulls here that are bent on the idea that Mac is utouchable, unhackable, and immune to all viruses...well YOU ARE SADLY MISTAKEN. check out this areticle from June of last year (not even a year ago)

http://blog.trendmicro.com/backdoor-busts-the-mac-myth/

Aside form this, The first virus reported for Mac OSs was back in 1996. Also, a little FYI, The Mac OS has a builtin backdoor intentionally put there by developers....hmmmm, wonder while Ill never go Mac.
Posted by derkderkal12 at 2:14 PM : Mar 31, 2009


Of course there are viruses on the mac. Anyone who disputes that is simply demonstrating their vast ignorance.

Viruses and worms are almost always OS based. Meaning, what works on one OS will probably not work on a different brand of OS. There is a very simple reason that there are so many windows viruses compared to mac viruses - the single largest reason - relatively owns a mac. What are they, less than 8 percent or something of the total pc population?

If you're a criminal hacker writing a virus, would you write one that affects the most pc's right? Why spend your time and effort going after the 8 when youc an go after the 92%?

And that, my friends is the SIMPLEST reason. Microsloth had some security issues they should not have had - but they've corrected those. And for you mac fanatics - keep foaming bro - while the rest of us ignore ya.

[derkderkal12]

"I've worked in I.T. for years.. And you guys are incredibly missinformed. This is a hoax - yes, it's possible - but this, in general, is a hoax. There is no mainframe out there watching your every move - there is no secret orginization plotting against you. I'm sorry, it just doesn't work that way. If you are targeted, it's because you're stupid. Learn to operate your computer the correct way, safely. If you dont' give something a chance to run, it won't, plane and simple. It's just like operating heavy machinery, if you don't know how to use it, DON'T USE IT. That simple folks." - absolute86

Quite True!

[derkderkal12]

For all the numskulls here that are bent on the idea that Mac is utouchable, unhackable, and immune to all viruses...well YOU ARE SADLY MISTAKEN. check out this areticle from June of last year (not even a year ago)

http://blog.trendmicro.com/backdoor-busts-the-mac-myth/

Aside form this, The first virus reported for Mac OSs was back in 1996. Also, a little FYI, The Mac OS has a builtin backdoor intentionally put there by developers....hmmmm, wonder while Ill never go Mac.

[homespunlady]

So, is this one of the expected barrage of news play meant to scare the world into Internet 2 ?

It WAS an interesting experiment while it lasted.
The "wild west" style echoed the innovation and expansion that led to the "taming of the American West.

But now that it's commercially "profitable" without the need for "creative" scammers those that have a much larger agenda want it back.

Just like all the other media it's about to become a mindless commercial means to turn your brains into mush.

[houseeleven]

AT LEAST CBS HAS POSTED A CORRECTION...GOTTA GIVE 'EM THAT MUCH.

"60 Minutes made a mistake in using a photograph in our story called ?The Internet is Infected.? The picture was described in the story as a group of young Russian computer hackers which was inaccurate. The picture, provided to us by an internet security company, had appeared on a Russian hacker magazine website."

[nonbeliever7]

I just cannot believe that the program like 60 minutes has dropped its level this low. I am a finnish citizen, but to be honest I mostly laugh at this mistake. I do not see it as a problematic to our country, but I truly am now worried about your shows reliability!
I just do not believe you guys anymore. You have infact become exactly the same as people think about all of the America; you are ignorant and badly educated idiots!

[macotter]

One glaring omission to your alarming internet worm story was to mention that Macintosh computers running their current OS 10.5.6 Leopard operating system, which is based on the Berkeley Unix kernel, is totally free of viruses, worms, trojan horses, etc. For people truly scared to death about the 24,000 plus viruses still at large out there on the Windows operating systems, the simple answer is to get a new Mac. Why didn't you mention this? If on the other hand, if the Conficker Worm warned about on your program is capable of attacking the Mac operating system, it would be very important to mention that. Why didn't you? My initial reaction to your story was that advertising revenues must be so low at CBS that two new profit centers had been created: 1. Product placement of a product in a story that solves some big problem you have hyped up. My cynical suspicion is that Semantic must have paid you a lot of money to get such a lot of free scare propaganda broadcast by you and then featuring them, Symantec, as the heroes who can solve the problem. By extension, many of us are led to wonder how much Symantec pays hackers to devise new viruses and worms that create the fear that Symantec can then capitalize on by selling protective software. 2. Having worked in newspapers for years, my second suspicion is that the electronic media, including television, has suffered like newspapers have from the disintermediation of the internet for news and advertising, e.g. Craig's List, so that these afflicted media, newspapers and television, are using their remaining reach and influence to try and trash the threatening competitive media, in this case, the internet, and those bad, dangerous, thieving computer viruses and worms. Maybe next time you do a computer story you should have some real computer experts on like David Pogue of the New York Times or Walt Massoberg of the Wall Street Journal. If your reporting is to be seen as credible and balanced and for the public, not just your profit , then you need to tell the whole story using reporters and guests who are better informed and ask the right questions. Since you didn't answer the question, "Are Macs immune from this Conficker Worm as they are from all other viruses and worms?" then hopefully you can email me the answer directly or one of your other comment posters can do so. Thank you.

[shawoman1]

I knew there was a reason why I never watched CBS news. So biased and yet uninformed. Maybe you should have interviewed more then just the one idiot from one of the worst companies. Norton's software throws files all over the hard drive and is almost impossible to completely uninstall unless you have some knowledge of that. Again, the media putting the fear into people, and despite the question of if it's true or not, Symantec's sales will spike due to this report. Most people do not know any better, but CBS really should. I'm stunned. Shame on you CBS.

[Margallen]

The gentleman this am suggested Windows Live One Care as possible protection against this new virus. However, in trying to install it, it tells me I need to turn off and uninstall my McAfee Security (and other antivirus programs). See below (NOTE: this is a message FROM Live One Care which occurred DURING installation - I don't know what to do! This is the explanation for "why" to remove the programs:

Disable existing antivirus programs before you install Windows Live OneCare
If you use more than one brand of firewall (Software or hardware that helps screen out hackers, viruses, and worms that try to reach your computer over the Internet. Some firewalls also prevent unauthorized programs on your computer from making connections outside.) , antispyware, or antivirus programs at the same time, your computer may suffer from decreased performance, become unstable, or restart unexpectedly. Before you install Windows Live OneCare, you should disable or uninstall other security-related programs.

Note
Before you begin, print or write down these instructions. You will restart your computer during this procedure, so you'll need a copy of the steps to refer to. The steps may contain a link to another website, so you may want to return to this topic after you restart.

Disable firewall, antispyware, or antivirus programs
On the taskbar, in the notification area (The area on the taskbar to the right of the taskbar buttons. The notification area displays the time and can also contain shortcuts that provide quick access to programs.) , right-click the appropriate icon for the firewall, antispyware, or antivirus program, and then click Exit or Disable.

Note
For more information about disabling or turning off your firewall, antispyware, or antivirus program, see the program documentation.

Uninstall firewall, antispyware, or antivirus programs
In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type appwiz.cpl, and then press ENTER.

?or?

In Windows Vista, click Start, click in the Start Search box, type appwiz.cpl, and then press ENTER.

In the list of installed programs, uninstall any third-party Internet utilities, antivirus programs, or firewall programs.
Restart your computer.
Note
If you had another antivirus program installed, contact the manufacturer of the program or visit their website to see whether a clean-up tool is available to help you remove any remaining files after you uninstall the antivirus program.

Notes
Windows Defender is an antispyware program that has been integrated into OneCare. We recommend that you remove Windows Defender before you install Windows Live OneCare.
The Microsoft Windows firewall helps protect your computer after you remove previous antivirus or firewall programs until you install OneCare. To avoid firewall conflicts, OneCare disables the Windows XP firewall during installation.
If you use another antispyware program with OneCare, we recommend that you turn off real-time scanning in the other program. For more information, see the program documentation.
If your antivirus program is disabled or if you don't have one installed, don't download or open files from sources that you don't trust, visit websites that you don't trust, or open e-mail attachments.

[mikkoh]

Shame on you CBS

Why you use such a moron like Don Jackson from SecureWorks as your specialist? The "russian cyber gang" was infact a innocent finnish youngster group. They have nothing to do with cyber-criminals. At the moment Mr. Jackson is the real criminal.

Instead of cyber-criminals finnish education system has produced fhe founders of Nokia, Linux and FSecure (gives much better protection than Symantech products) firms not to mention the person who invented cellphone SMS we are all using daily.

Another thing is why US-banking system is so vulnrable to hackers. The main reason is that the whole system dates back to stoneages. Last moneychek we have seen in Finland about 40 years ago. Maybe you visit Finland and ask how safe is the finnish banking system against cybercrimes.

mikkoh
Tampere
Finland

[CoNfIcKeR]

danm man danm rusian people are so anoyin 10dali said a good thing about usin phone :) lol but its not the point remeber phone gets virus too so i dont know wich one u like more ure computer or ure phone i sugest that stay off ure computer for like a month or 2

[A-Finn2]

Well, I guess you should sometimes come to visit Finland.

We have been doing online banking for more than 15 years. Nearly every Finn pays his/her bill online. It has been *very* safe: we have seen very few phishing attempts, affecting less than 10 individuals. What is our secret? One time passwords and big, trustworthy banks. In Finland people trust their banks and their service. (OK , maybye our obscure language also helps a little).

And yes, those "hackers" were really bunch of local kids from an old photo. They have nothing to do with Russia nor hacking.

[10Dali]

The photo shown can be found in the Cybermafia e-zine, popular with Russian hackers. They steal identities to harm other people, so one should not expect a cyber gang to be completely honest. Cybermafia published the picture and claims it is Russian hackers (themselves) not the TV show.

The Russian handles are accurate. The information in the photo can be used to track the hackers in cyberspace. The gang does show other photos, have blogs, chat numbers, and post to Russian hacker boards using those names. And that is just what is found with a search engine.

[absolute86]

I've worked in I.T. for years.. And you guys are incredibly missinformed. This is a hoax - yes, it's possible - but this, in general, is a hoax. There is no mainframe out there watching your every move - there is no secret orginization plotting against you. I'm sorry, it just doesn't work that way. If you are targeted, it's because you're stupid. Learn to operate your computer the correct way, safely. If you dont' give something a chance to run, it won't, plane and simple. It's just like operating heavy machinery, if you don't know how to use it, DON'T USE IT. That simple folks.

Let me put it this way; if you parade around the internet clicking randomly (basically like having unprotected s** with the internet) you're going to get a digital disease. That's all there is to it. So, if you're one of those people - or you have kids and you don't know how to work a computer right (cause they will click every add that pops up) - don't buy crap on the internet, or check your account via computer. USE YOUR PHONE. That's what it's for. If someone's bugged your phone, then you've stepped on the wrong toes on your way to the american dream (5 cars, a big house, and collection agencies up your ***).

[CoNfIcKeR]

dude i know right does guys are not stupid "hacker" are not their is no way they know that national news know about it and they let something like that happen right know im workin 24/7 on this crap tryin to find a way to block it i made one i dont know if it work but it only block the keyboard part it only block it so they cnt keylogg it so i dont know if it work just try it.... NO GUARANTY THIS WORK but i have it so try it i cnt give u the link right now cuz im in school still tryin to fix it on my laptop so it might work u never know go google it :: the name is : " i hate keyloggers" google it u ill find it
hope this help
" IM NOT A BAD HACKER"

[CoNfIcKeR]

ima use my computer 24/7 nottin will happen if does kid are wat they say they are "hackers" they already know that everyone know about that virus and they not goin to let it go that easy no hacker is dum i never want to hack people for money i never did but i do not consider hackin as a way to still hackin program can be helpfull to other like the other my school computer strat acctin up who fix it me so i learn most of wat i know with hacker that doesnt mean that ima go out their and hack people money i know wat is it to lose money so .... i love doin stuff that not every one know and not everyone know about hackin again i said hackin doesnt mean bad hack can help sometime only its the way use it ....
the hackers wont do nottin one the april 1st and i said it again watch wat goin to happen