A Robot Network Seeks To Enlist Your PC

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/technology/internet/21botnet.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Is it really that bad?

 

Yes it is. A friend of mine got his unpatched XP installation hosed before he could install firewall. He didn't even do any surfing, he was just trying to get Windows updates

This was years ago, and he was online w/o any hardware firewall/AV right after doing a Windows XP installation.

What comes to malware removing competition, that is old news

 

If connecting to "campus network", aren't they behind some sort of nat-type firewall similar to a router's? Or in this case, it's a direct modem-type connection with no router/nat firewall?

 

The whole unpatched system test seems stupid to me. Heres a computer with known vulnerabilities. Lets put it somewhere we know where these vulnerabilities are known to be exploited. Lets wait for it to be exploited and then marvel at how short that was.

 

I'd speculate that in this case when investigating cybercrime in form of malware, they would have some form of direct connection to the Web, w/o any firewalls/NATs ruining infection attempts.

 

That does seem likely - thanks lordpake.

I wished this type of articles reveal in more simple steps on how to avoid being owned (e.g. get a router, or modem with NAT, in this case). Instead of install install install "a variety of commercial malware detection programs". The firewall bit seemed obscured at the back.

 

I connected a computer running XP (pre-SP1) with no patches or firewall or router to the interent (via my ISP) a couple of months ago, and had the computer on all day without any problems.

Connecting directly to the internet (without an ISP) can be a much better way to get infected quickly (if you're looking for trouble), since many ISP's block some ports known to be used by worms, etc.

 

Ah yes i remember those good old days. If i remember correctly it was pre sp2 when good old windows xp shipped with a firewall yet microsoft had it switched off by default. Fantastic stuff!