HAtom
I'd be thankful and give the best answer if you could provide me with detailed info on how can they do it and how to prevent it or a link to some website that could be useful. Thanks.
Answer
It's very unlikely you are going to get hacked with just that information. Hacking into computers is not that easy especially if all you've got an IP address. Your email address is nothing special and practically useless for hacking purposes.
If you've a firewall, even just the one in Windows, then that should be sufficient to stop most attacks. If you haven't already then password protect your Windows accounts. It offers an extra layer of protection. Also, don't use an administrator account unless you need to, use a normal user account for most things. That way, even if the user account is hacked into nothing much else can be done unless the administrator account is also hacked.
If you haven't already, get a router. The IP address that anyone can get then is the IP address of that, not the computers behind it.
If someone is really determined to get into your computer they will - even sites that employ security experts get hacked - but those are very unusual occurrences and make headlines when it happens - if it is ever reported at all.
There are tools around to help test your computer for intrusion vulnerability. One very good one is Shields Up by security people Gibson Research - http://www.grc.com/
What is software does is probe your computer. don't worry they aren't trying to get into your computer, what they are doing is testing the various ports to see what type of response they get.
I run a web server and those are particularly attractive to hackers and I get dozens of hacking attempts every day. Nearly all are by script kiddies who really have no idea what they are doing. some even still try to use buffer overflow techniques that were fixed years ago.
If you want to look at some of my old server logs to see some of the attempts made see about 3/4 down the page at http://brisray.com/comp/cwserver2.htm
It's very unlikely you are going to get hacked with just that information. Hacking into computers is not that easy especially if all you've got an IP address. Your email address is nothing special and practically useless for hacking purposes.
If you've a firewall, even just the one in Windows, then that should be sufficient to stop most attacks. If you haven't already then password protect your Windows accounts. It offers an extra layer of protection. Also, don't use an administrator account unless you need to, use a normal user account for most things. That way, even if the user account is hacked into nothing much else can be done unless the administrator account is also hacked.
If you haven't already, get a router. The IP address that anyone can get then is the IP address of that, not the computers behind it.
If someone is really determined to get into your computer they will - even sites that employ security experts get hacked - but those are very unusual occurrences and make headlines when it happens - if it is ever reported at all.
There are tools around to help test your computer for intrusion vulnerability. One very good one is Shields Up by security people Gibson Research - http://www.grc.com/
What is software does is probe your computer. don't worry they aren't trying to get into your computer, what they are doing is testing the various ports to see what type of response they get.
I run a web server and those are particularly attractive to hackers and I get dozens of hacking attempts every day. Nearly all are by script kiddies who really have no idea what they are doing. some even still try to use buffer overflow techniques that were fixed years ago.
If you want to look at some of my old server logs to see some of the attempts made see about 3/4 down the page at http://brisray.com/comp/cwserver2.htm
How can I prevent getting the computer virus "conficker" tomorrow?
John
I heard about that nasty bug that is coming out tomorrow. I have good security, and my computer is fully updated. But how do you get the virus? Is it from opening emails or surfing the web? If I turn my computer and unplug the internet all day will that stop it?
Answer
You will NOT "get" the virus on April 1. On April 1, the variant C of the Conficker virus becomes active.
What does that mean?
1. It only concerns you if you already got it, you will not get infected particularly on this day. Variants A and B are already active.
2. variant C is hard to get infected with (though it is the most dangerous). It gets to you when your Windows autorun feature detects an infected pen drive, stick drive or portable drive.
3. even if Conficker C gets active on April 1st, it doesn't necessarely mean it will do something. Also, Conficker won't delete your files, grab personal info. Conficker will connect your computer into a massive virtual supercomputer made from millions of infected computers, which is called a 'botnet'. These are usually used to do big stuff, like hack government passwords, etc, but having a botnet virus (like Storm, Conficker or Kraken) won't disrupt your normal computer activity.
As a normal user, you have nothing to fear. At worst you internet connection may become a bit slower. The danger is that the Conficker botnet is thought to be made of over 9 million computers, which, if used for Denial-of-Service attacks, could cutoff a big country like the US completely off Internet.
How to tell if you're infected? Conficker prevents you from accessing antivirus sites, like kaspersky.com, bitdefender.com or patch sites like microsoft.com, msdn.com. Also, Conficker disables Windows Update to prevent patch install (Microsoft offers patches against Conficker since the middle of the month, if you're ok now, chances are you've already patched so you're good) and also disables your utility antivirus as well as Windows Defender and deletes Restore Points (if you're using the Windows Restore service).
You will NOT "get" the virus on April 1. On April 1, the variant C of the Conficker virus becomes active.
What does that mean?
1. It only concerns you if you already got it, you will not get infected particularly on this day. Variants A and B are already active.
2. variant C is hard to get infected with (though it is the most dangerous). It gets to you when your Windows autorun feature detects an infected pen drive, stick drive or portable drive.
3. even if Conficker C gets active on April 1st, it doesn't necessarely mean it will do something. Also, Conficker won't delete your files, grab personal info. Conficker will connect your computer into a massive virtual supercomputer made from millions of infected computers, which is called a 'botnet'. These are usually used to do big stuff, like hack government passwords, etc, but having a botnet virus (like Storm, Conficker or Kraken) won't disrupt your normal computer activity.
As a normal user, you have nothing to fear. At worst you internet connection may become a bit slower. The danger is that the Conficker botnet is thought to be made of over 9 million computers, which, if used for Denial-of-Service attacks, could cutoff a big country like the US completely off Internet.
How to tell if you're infected? Conficker prevents you from accessing antivirus sites, like kaspersky.com, bitdefender.com or patch sites like microsoft.com, msdn.com. Also, Conficker disables Windows Update to prevent patch install (Microsoft offers patches against Conficker since the middle of the month, if you're ok now, chances are you've already patched so you're good) and also disables your utility antivirus as well as Windows Defender and deletes Restore Points (if you're using the Windows Restore service).
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