Interview w/ expert needed for reseach paper.

[shadowphoenix]

The topic is "Malware and its Affects on Business." I'f you wouldn't mind helping out, I have some questions below. For legitamacy purposes, all I'll need is your name and a contact email to prove to the prof that this isn't made up.
If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. Most people I've talked to so far have either wanted money (because they consider it tech help,) or they don't want to deal with me because I'm not from a magazine, just a technical writing class.

The questions are:
1. What do you see as the current trend in Malware development?
2. What do you believe to be some of the biggest weaknesses in modern security software?
3. Which type of softwares do you believe are most targeted?
4. Which of the malware types do you see as being the most destructive/harmful ?
5. Which type is the most elusive to find and hardest to remove?
6. Do you think most companies keep up to date or do they lack in some part?
7. Any words of wisdom to preventing or removing?

Any other knowledge you'd like to share would also be greatly appreciated. Please PM them to me so that way if you provide contact info, it will be kept private. Also, I just need an "OK" if you wouldn't mind being quoted. Incase anyone wants to know, this is for a technical writing class which is part of my Cisco certification at S.C.C.C in New York. (http://www.sunysuffolk.edu)

Thanks for your time.

[5|*42]

1. Not sure exactly, but they seem to be targeting MS more.
2. User errors. If you keep it updated and have half a clue what the internet is like, you'll be fine.
3. Operating Systems and browsers, specifically XP (and Vista soon), and IE, although the number of attacks on FF is increasing alot since it's initial pre release.
4. Trojans/worms, they can be a bitch to get ride of. A lot of the time they can't be removed by one program, you need individual instructions depending on the infection.
5. Rootkit trojans?
6. Big businesses do, but small ones don't, esp when it comes to securing wireless networks. I bet most small businesses don't even know what WEP is.
7. Common sense and a firewall.

I'm by no means an expert, but I've have seen my fair share of viruses etc. Depending on the formality of the paper, you may want to see if you can contact a large corporation just to get a feel for what precautions they take, or you could even ask the web admins at your school.

The email adress I use is [email protected]

[Tool]

Reading Spaz's answer leaves me to believe I'm at risk... =( Even though for my town of about 8,000 I'm probably the best computer user and probably have the best computer in my town as well as the most secure, I still should probably take some advice from Spaz.

Spaz, you kick ass...

[DaCougarMech]

The questions are:
1. What do you see as the current trend in Malware development?
2. What do you believe to be some of the biggest weaknesses in modern security software?
3. Which type of softwares do you believe are most targeted?
4. Which of the malware types do you see as being the most destructive/harmful ?
5. Which type is the most elusive to find and hardest to remove?
6. Do you think most companies keep up to date or do they lack in some part?
7. Any words of wisdom to preventing or removing?

1. malware is definately going up. more and more people are becoming adept at writing programs and with that comes a rise in the number of kids who can cause mischief with undesireable programs
   
2. cant comment
   
3. i think adware is by far the most prevalent and will hijack your browser so i think the browser is the most targeted
   
4. i think that trojans and viruses are the most destructive/harmful. they can steal important documents from your computer concerning your financial history or credit cards. some like the blaster virus a few years back can cause an automatic shutdown of your computer, costing business billions of dollars in lost productivity
   
5. i know that the malware known as CoolWebSearch is one of the hardest programs to remove. most cleaning programs dont work against it. it actually had to have it's own program created to specifically remove it
   
6. companies want to save all the money they can keep their hands on. by not spending money now to keep their computers safe, they are compromising their finances and potentially compromising information
   
7. dont surf the web randomly or use google too often. even google can search up virus-ridden sites. only visit sites that you know are safe and get a recommendation before loggin in

[email protected]

[5|*42]

I bet if you have a good AV (with a active background scanner) and a decent firewall, you'll be fine tool. cool(1): The only trojans/viruses I've ever gotten were entirely my fault, due to trying to certain programs to bypass certain parts of certain other programs...but we won't go into that anymore. Just use FF, don't click on anything in a popup, and you'll almost definitely be fine.

[shadowphoenix]

Hey, thanks for your answers guys. I was almost sure I'd get no response or even probobly flamed for this.

I'm by no means an expert, but I've have seen my fair share of viruses etc. Depending on the formality of the paper, you may want to see if you can contact a large corporation just to get a feel for what precautions they take, or you could even ask the web admins at your school.

Prof told us the person couldn't be family, or anyone at our work or school. She treats the class like the rest of us don't have jobs or other classes meanwhile most of the students work 35+ hours a week and at taking atleast 1 other class.

[Tool]

I just don't have a firewall and my upstairs computer that my parents use has little to no anti-virus software so I'm pretty damn sure my dad (who is a dumbass) goes to porn sites all the time and I know he likes to download random shit that "means he wins" such and such items... He's kind of... A dumbass... Like I said already... Which firewall would you suggest I... Pirate?

[DaCougarMech]

i didnt think anyone could be fooled by those "you are a winner" banners

[5|*42]

uote=dacougarmech]i didnt think anyone could be fooled by those "you are a winner" banners[/quote] I bet a looser could be

As for firewall, Zone Alarm is good, although I think I might take up a highish amount of system resources. Sygate was the best, but they got bought by Norton, and being the asinine company they are, they decided to discontinue it. However, if you look around I'm sure you can still find a dl for it, which would work fine.

this should work, lemme know if it doesn't.

[DaCougarMech]

i bet that mcafee and norton hire people to write viruses so that they can have business

[5|*42]

They don't need to hire people to get viruses made. There's enough crazy teens in Europe to do that for them :p

[DaCougarMech]

europe eh?
*arms nuke*

[shadowphoenix]

europe eh?
*arms nuke*

lol. goddamn frenchies. j/p

as for hiring, no need. there are enough greedy/desctructive people lookin to make a quick easy buck by stealing ur identity. its not so hard to hack some companies as people would think. I knew some highschooler who made it into a Nasa database. FBI was all over him within 2 hours of him logging in. He's on probi now, they watch all his traffic lol.

As for firewall and antivirus I use the computer assosiates one because it came free (poor college kid) with optonline. seems to work fine, keeps almost everything out. I have 3 firewalls in place though, 1 in the router, 1 that came w/ windows and then the computer associates one.

"You are a winner" banners......ive never known anyone to fall for them but i have seen people fall for the "Your computer has been infected with spyware. Press the button below to disinfect"

[5|*42]

Yea, I've seen a shockingly large number of people fall for the windows messanger pop-ups telling you your system is infected. I've even seen a few people go as far as to buy the 'scanner' that the popup said they needed...