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What a Hacked PC Can Be Used For
An anonymous reader points out that the Security Fix blog is running a feature looking at the different ways hacked/cracked computers can be abused by cyber scammers. "Computer users often dismiss Internet security best practices because they find them inconvenient, or because they think the rules don't apply to them. Many cling to the misguided belief that because they don't bank or shop online, that bad guys won't target them. The next time you hear this claim, please refer the misguided person to this blog post, which attempts to examine some of the more common — yet often overlooked — ways that cyber crooks can put your PC to criminal use."
I think it's a mixture of "they don't care" and "I didn't know". I don't use any sort of firewall/anti-virus on my home computer because I know what I'm doing. I don't download anything malicious since I always know who sent me anything. I don't go to sketchy websites and my router locks everything from the outside out. I don't recommend this unless you're an expert and you don't want to waste resources on virus scanning every file. Most people, if they keep up with updates and run virus scan regularly, most of these things aren't problems. I think this is kind of like swine flu: trying to create a massive panic when really the odds of it happening is small.
We don't live in Shouldland.
But you don't actually DO anything when you fix a computer. I mean, at least a mechanic takes parts out and puts them back in. You just click on things. That isn't real work!
The people smart enough to know that knowledge is worth something aren't the kinds of people who end up having to pay to get their computers fixed.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
And you obviously don't know much about home routers. Many of them come out of the box with the ability to spoof the MAC address that the ISP sees. I believe that was what was being referred to, not spoofing internal MACs.
dragée (n): a sugarcoated nut
(should be, anyway:)
you had me at #!