Hack this bitchez!
So my aging (5-6 years old) home computer has always had trouble downloading its XP updates. I was sloppy about fixing it - I'd have to go clear out a directory (never could remember which one) and then hope the windows update would work. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't. Mistake #1: laziness.
I was sloppy about fixing it, but I figured it didn't matter anyway cause I had a bulletproof firewall router. No intrusion for you! Mistake #2: complacency.
Then I'm surfing Sunday night - nothing too sketchy, but a website I'd never been to before - and IE starts getting wonky on me. Random pop-ups. Crappy performance. Hmmm..must be a browser exploit. I go to Verizon (my new ISP - FIOS is teh roX0rz!) and run their security scan package. Nothing. My computer is shitting itself. Looks grim.
So today at work I burned a Knoppix CD and an Ubuntu CD. Got all my data off the home computer, isolated on a USB drive and virus scanned. Blew away the old hard drive, full repartition and reformat. Installed the latest ubuntu and full patch set. Firefox 3 with privoxy...creamy goodness. Internet works...printer works...got StarOffice so C can write letters, got GIMP so we can do photo manipulation, email is on gmail so who cares...back up and running with no data loss in less than 24 hours.
Not done yet: next step is military grade security, rootkit scanners, tha works.
And stay outta my yard! Damn script kiddies!
I was sloppy about fixing it, but I figured it didn't matter anyway cause I had a bulletproof firewall router. No intrusion for you! Mistake #2: complacency.
Then I'm surfing Sunday night - nothing too sketchy, but a website I'd never been to before - and IE starts getting wonky on me. Random pop-ups. Crappy performance. Hmmm..must be a browser exploit. I go to Verizon (my new ISP - FIOS is teh roX0rz!) and run their security scan package. Nothing. My computer is shitting itself. Looks grim.
So today at work I burned a Knoppix CD and an Ubuntu CD. Got all my data off the home computer, isolated on a USB drive and virus scanned. Blew away the old hard drive, full repartition and reformat. Installed the latest ubuntu and full patch set. Firefox 3 with privoxy...creamy goodness. Internet works...printer works...got StarOffice so C can write letters, got GIMP so we can do photo manipulation, email is on gmail so who cares...back up and running with no data loss in less than 24 hours.
Not done yet: next step is military grade security, rootkit scanners, tha works.
And stay outta my yard! Damn script kiddies!