rootkitshield-com
10-01-2006, 03:54 AM
A battle is taking place between attackers and defenders of computer systems. An attacker who manages to compromise a system seeks to carry out malicious activities on that system while remaining invisible to defenders. At the same time, defenders actively search for successful attackers by looking for signs of system compromise or malicious activities.
What is a rootkit?
"A rootkit is a set of software tools intended to conceal running processes, files or system data, thereby helping an intruder to maintain access to a system whilst avoiding detection". -Wikipedia
Here are just a few reasons you should be worried about rootkits
Installs Spyware
There’s legions of this stuff that will clog up your computer, make it slower, and cause unwanted files to be downloaded. You may start to notice popups more frequently. It is likely that you somehow installed what is called a Browser Helper Object (BHO). You should switch to the Firefox browser and download Windows Defender from Microsoft to clean your system of these BHO's any any other spyware you may have picked up.
Protect yourself from Spyware
Installs Viruses and Worms
By using rootkits to hide running processes they can discreetly download and run viruses or spread worms without the computer user knowing what's going on. Rootkits can setup their own hidden servers on your machine or even an entire OS that runs in the background without your knowledge.
Protect yourself from Viruses
Generates Click Fraud
By writing a few simple scripts a malicious hacker can have your computer goto a website and click on the ads generating revenue for the webmasters. Companies who sell 'traffic' may also use this to send artificial visitors to your site. Sure your hitcounter will go crazy, but the reason nobody is buying anything is because no real humans are seeing your webpage.
Read up on Click Fraud
Installs Adware / Popups
The rootkit’s creator can profit by installing various browser toolbars and other adware supported software on your computer. Some of these slimey companies pay out up to $5 per installation. Every so often a botnet owner can do a mass install to make some quick cash. They are not worried about getting caught because they are doing everything from someone elses IP address and using fake contact information they stole using a keylogger on another machine they have rooted.
Evil Botnets
Your computer will join a network with other infected computers, where the rootkit’s creator can command and control your PC to do whatever they desire. They may use it to proxy themselves so they can root additional computers and hide their real ip address or they can farm out your bandwidth and CPU time to invoke Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on websites..
Key loggers
These are installed to monitor your keystrokes. All of your passwords, credit card numbers and personal conversations are being stored and mailed off to the hacker. Even if the rootkit creator doesn’t use it, they wouldn’t think twice about making a quick buck selling it to someone who will use it. These logs can contain sensitive information you have typed out on your keyboard including social security numbers, credit cards, bank account numbers, and passwords. This is the heart of identity theft and can become a very serious problem if people can not protect themselves.
Pirated Downloads
The rootkit creators can use your computer to seed illegal internet downloads. By controlling a large number of computers they can easily spread the latest and greatest pirated content all over the world fairly quickly. Access to rooted computers becomes an invaluable tool for pirates to be able to anonymously spread the latest Hollywood movies, DRM-free music, software applications, and games.
Rootkits for Multiple Operating Systems
If you run Windows XP you are at the highest risk of getting infected by a rootkit. Although they exist for other operating systems, it is much more common for them to spread through Windows. Internet Explorer is probably the biggest reason rootkits have gotten as bad as they have so far. A system without the latest patches surfing on a shady internet site with IE is a recipe for disaster.
Also the reason rootkits are so bad in Wndows XP is because most computer users run their computers logged in as an Administrator. This means when a rootkit is run it has full access to every part of your system making it much easier to root.
If you use XP, and are not sure about what you are doing, just enable automatic updates, or ask the nearest computer tech to do it for you. You are doing a service to the internet and to yourself to ensure that you computer is safe from the latest exploits.
Self Updating / Self Forming Networks
It only takes a few lines of malicious code on a website to launch executables on an unpatched pc, and once the computer has been rooted, it has the ability to download other dangerous software to expand its feature set or to give the rootkit creator more control.
Open Source Community Efforts
Thanks to the free spirit of the internet, lots of rootkit authors have decided to share their source code with the rest of the world. McAfee estimates a 400% increase in rootkits between 2004 and 2005. Industry experts expect those numbers to climb to a 650% increase in rootkits from 2005 to 2006. The increased popularity of rootkits is partly due to the fact that the source code of many rootkits is now openly available on the Internet. It's relatively easy for an inexperienced coder to make small modifications to the open source code to make their own malicious program.. There is such a large variety of tools and accessories to choose from, and this stuff keeps evolving, getting new features, and becoming even trickier to catch thanks to the coding efforts of thousands of volunteers.
More Information about rootkits:
http://thumbs.webshotspro.com/url/http://www.rootkit.nl http://www.rootkit.nl (http://www.rootkit.nl)
http://thumbs.webshotspro.com/url/http://www.rootkitshield.com http://www.rootkitshield.com (http://www.rootkitshield.com)
http://thumbs.webshotspro.com/url/http://www.rootkit.com http://www.rootkit.com (http://www.rootkit.com)
What is a rootkit?
"A rootkit is a set of software tools intended to conceal running processes, files or system data, thereby helping an intruder to maintain access to a system whilst avoiding detection". -Wikipedia
Here are just a few reasons you should be worried about rootkits
Installs Spyware
There’s legions of this stuff that will clog up your computer, make it slower, and cause unwanted files to be downloaded. You may start to notice popups more frequently. It is likely that you somehow installed what is called a Browser Helper Object (BHO). You should switch to the Firefox browser and download Windows Defender from Microsoft to clean your system of these BHO's any any other spyware you may have picked up.
Protect yourself from Spyware
Installs Viruses and Worms
By using rootkits to hide running processes they can discreetly download and run viruses or spread worms without the computer user knowing what's going on. Rootkits can setup their own hidden servers on your machine or even an entire OS that runs in the background without your knowledge.
Protect yourself from Viruses
Generates Click Fraud
By writing a few simple scripts a malicious hacker can have your computer goto a website and click on the ads generating revenue for the webmasters. Companies who sell 'traffic' may also use this to send artificial visitors to your site. Sure your hitcounter will go crazy, but the reason nobody is buying anything is because no real humans are seeing your webpage.
Read up on Click Fraud
Installs Adware / Popups
The rootkit’s creator can profit by installing various browser toolbars and other adware supported software on your computer. Some of these slimey companies pay out up to $5 per installation. Every so often a botnet owner can do a mass install to make some quick cash. They are not worried about getting caught because they are doing everything from someone elses IP address and using fake contact information they stole using a keylogger on another machine they have rooted.
Evil Botnets
Your computer will join a network with other infected computers, where the rootkit’s creator can command and control your PC to do whatever they desire. They may use it to proxy themselves so they can root additional computers and hide their real ip address or they can farm out your bandwidth and CPU time to invoke Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on websites..
Key loggers
These are installed to monitor your keystrokes. All of your passwords, credit card numbers and personal conversations are being stored and mailed off to the hacker. Even if the rootkit creator doesn’t use it, they wouldn’t think twice about making a quick buck selling it to someone who will use it. These logs can contain sensitive information you have typed out on your keyboard including social security numbers, credit cards, bank account numbers, and passwords. This is the heart of identity theft and can become a very serious problem if people can not protect themselves.
Pirated Downloads
The rootkit creators can use your computer to seed illegal internet downloads. By controlling a large number of computers they can easily spread the latest and greatest pirated content all over the world fairly quickly. Access to rooted computers becomes an invaluable tool for pirates to be able to anonymously spread the latest Hollywood movies, DRM-free music, software applications, and games.
Rootkits for Multiple Operating Systems
If you run Windows XP you are at the highest risk of getting infected by a rootkit. Although they exist for other operating systems, it is much more common for them to spread through Windows. Internet Explorer is probably the biggest reason rootkits have gotten as bad as they have so far. A system without the latest patches surfing on a shady internet site with IE is a recipe for disaster.
Also the reason rootkits are so bad in Wndows XP is because most computer users run their computers logged in as an Administrator. This means when a rootkit is run it has full access to every part of your system making it much easier to root.
If you use XP, and are not sure about what you are doing, just enable automatic updates, or ask the nearest computer tech to do it for you. You are doing a service to the internet and to yourself to ensure that you computer is safe from the latest exploits.
Self Updating / Self Forming Networks
It only takes a few lines of malicious code on a website to launch executables on an unpatched pc, and once the computer has been rooted, it has the ability to download other dangerous software to expand its feature set or to give the rootkit creator more control.
Open Source Community Efforts
Thanks to the free spirit of the internet, lots of rootkit authors have decided to share their source code with the rest of the world. McAfee estimates a 400% increase in rootkits between 2004 and 2005. Industry experts expect those numbers to climb to a 650% increase in rootkits from 2005 to 2006. The increased popularity of rootkits is partly due to the fact that the source code of many rootkits is now openly available on the Internet. It's relatively easy for an inexperienced coder to make small modifications to the open source code to make their own malicious program.. There is such a large variety of tools and accessories to choose from, and this stuff keeps evolving, getting new features, and becoming even trickier to catch thanks to the coding efforts of thousands of volunteers.
More Information about rootkits:
http://thumbs.webshotspro.com/url/http://www.rootkit.nl http://www.rootkit.nl (http://www.rootkit.nl)
http://thumbs.webshotspro.com/url/http://www.rootkitshield.com http://www.rootkitshield.com (http://www.rootkitshield.com)
http://thumbs.webshotspro.com/url/http://www.rootkit.com http://www.rootkit.com (http://www.rootkit.com)