adware/spyware??

[das_n00b]

I vaguely remember seeing a story about a government spyware here on the escapist. does anyone remember that? am i just imagining it? because i tried searching for it, but came up with nothing.

also, if anyone out there has hear of this spyware, what would you recommend to scan for it? i'm about to run detekt on it, but if you know of anything else, i'll be willing to take the advice.



thanks in advance!

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

What, that stupid adware thing that opens a window, displays your visible ISP and its general location, demands you pay $300 dollars or else your computer will be reported-encrypted-wiped, then throws a fit when you try to close the tab and throws dialogue boxes in your face? I get those every blue moon on seemingly the most random sites, it's not just the Escapist. Just close out of that tab and you're safe, run a anti-virus scan if you feel like it.

Government spyware on the Escapist specifically is new to me, and I like to think I've been here too long for something like that to go unnoticed. There have been DDOS attacks that garnered some attention, like Lulzsec and Gamergate attacks, but never spyware. If you have any questions, go to The Tech Team, the people who maintain this site actively read that respond to it usually within a day.

For the record, I use MSE and Malwarebytes.

 

[DoPo]

I vaguely remember seeing a story about a government spyware here on the escapist. does anyone remember that? am i just imagining it? because i tried searching for it, but came up with nothing.

I think you mean this one
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138727-Amnesty-International-Detekt-Government-Malware

also, if anyone out there has hear of this spyware, what would you recommend to scan for it? i'm about to run detekt on it, but if you know of anything else, i'll be willing to take the advice.

Yes, the article does suggests Detekt, as well. I don't really know of anything else that targets (allegedly) government malware. You can always try the normal ones - Malwarebytes and the like but chances are that a government malware would be excluded from their search criteria. At least the biggest ones - for example, Microsoft Security Essentials, Norton and the like would be, I suppose. I am unaware of how reliable "normal" malware scanners would be but it's at least good practice to try them.

Depending on the level of the caution/paranoia[footnote]distinction between the two becomes blurry at some point[/footnote] you can try other measures as well:
- you can use Wireshark to sniff your own PC's traffic and check for any irregularities. Do note that in the interest of caution, you shouldn't use Wireshark from your PC as it could be cheated, instead use it from a different (preferably known safe) computer. I'd personally suggest getting a RaspberryPi or something as it is cheap and you can also easily task it with constantly monitoring the network, also it can be made into a firewall and/or other useful things.
- you can always switch to a *NIX operating system for a chance of increased privacy. Some are better than others in many different aspects but do beware that you're not guaranteed increased privacy as history shows [http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-tech&m=129236621626462&w=2] but, on the other hand, it's a better shot at privacy than proprietary OSes.
- have a look at PRISM Break [https://prism-break.org/en/] for other suggestions on privacy.
- in extreme cases, you can essentially throw away your hard drive and start from scratch, if you have strong suspicion of serious malware. Be that re-formatting (try and go for complete erasure) or literally scrapping it and getting a new one.

 

[das_n00b]

I vaguely remember seeing a story about a government spyware here on the escapist. does anyone remember that? am i just imagining it? because i tried searching for it, but came up with nothing.

I think you mean this one
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138727-Amnesty-International-Detekt-Government-Malware

also, if anyone out there has hear of this spyware, what would you recommend to scan for it? i'm about to run detekt on it, but if you know of anything else, i'll be willing to take the advice.

Yes, the article does suggests Detekt, as well. I don't really know of anything else that targets (allegedly) government malware. You can always try the normal ones - Malwarebytes and the like but chances are that a government malware would be excluded from their search criteria. At least the biggest ones - for example, Microsoft Security Essentials, Norton and the like would be, I suppose. I am unaware of how reliable "normal" malware scanners would be but it's at least good practice to try them.

Depending on the level of the caution/paranoia[footnote]distinction between the two becomes blurry at some point[/footnote] you can try other measures as well:
- you can use Wireshark to sniff your own PC's traffic and check for any irregularities. Do note that in the interest of caution, you shouldn't use Wireshark from your PC as it could be cheated, instead use it from a different (preferably known safe) computer. I'd personally suggest getting a RaspberryPi or something as it is cheap and you can also easily task it with constantly monitoring the network, also it can be made into a firewall and/or other useful things.
- you can always switch to a *NIX operating system for a chance of increased privacy. Some are better than others in many different aspects but do beware that you're not guaranteed increased privacy as history shows [http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-tech&m=129236621626462&w=2] but, on the other hand, it's a better shot at privacy than proprietary OSes.
- have a look at PRISM Break [https://prism-break.org/en/] for other suggestions on privacy.
- in extreme cases, you can essentially throw away your hard drive and start from scratch, if you have strong suspicion of serious malware. Be that re-formatting (try and go for complete erasure) or literally scrapping it and getting a new one.

thanks a bunch! that's exactly what i was looking for! also, that raspberrypi option sounds pretty darn good. i really appreciate the help.