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Virus Eats School District's Homework
theodp writes "Forget about 'snow days' — the kids in the Lake Washington School District could probably use a few 'virus days.' Laptops issued to each student in grades 6-12 were supposed to accelerate learning ('Schools that piloted the laptops found that students stayed engaged nad [sic] organized whiel [sic] boosting creativity,' according to the district's Success Stories), but GeekWire reports that a computer virus caused havoc for the district as it worked its way through the Windows 7 computers, disrupting class and costing the district money — five temporary IT staff members were hired to help contain the virus. Among the reasons cited for the school district's choice of PCs over Macs were the proximity to Microsoft HQ (Redmond is in the district), Microsoft's involvement in supporting local and national education, and last but not least, cost. In the past, the Lake Washington School District served as a Poster Child of sorts for Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group."
Looks like the school district leaned a valuable lesson ... oh wait!
There once was this thing, the "trustworty computing" pledge.
What happened to that?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
They learned their lesson!
*bad dum tss*
Among the reasons cited for the school district's choice of PCs over Mac's were (...) cost.
And yet Linux was never an option? Avoided Apple to reduce the cost and ended up hiring 5 people to contain the damage that came as a consequence of their choice... way to go!
Oh, so there are only two choices right ?
If the children would have access to something where somebody not part of a giant corporation has access to source code it's obviously a bad idea....
And of course they absolutelly need to be trained "to be ready for the industry", wich they will join in about 5 to 15 years...
So they get what the industry was supposed to adopt a couple of years ago... and will learn that there is only "one true way"....
Well it's just the usual morons making the usual moronic decisions....
Meanwhile I wonder how long it will take them to fix the typo in the lack of success story...
...and last but not least, cost.
Wait...Windows 7-Ready hardware, Windows 7 Licensing Costs AND 5 additional IT-employees and they choose Microsoft because "it costs less"?! I seriously need to get a job in the public sector, seems like they can jack off all day or something.
Never had a problem with Linux shitting itself on boot.
Not even sure what that is. POST failure? Driver crash on initialisation? Because the first isn't the OS and the latter I've seen in Windows as often as I've seen in Linux.
For your average MS troll, you've done really REALLY badly.
Just imagine how many new IT jobs this would create.
if you're going to be sic all over someone else's mistakes you'd best read, re-read, and re-read again your own posting. There is no aposorophe involved in pluralising a word.
You can't just put "[sic]" next to any random string of characters and expect the reader to understand. What the hell is "whiel boosting creativity" supposed to mean, anyway? Maybe I'm slow this morning, but it took me 5 minutes to see the "while". Brackets can help readers stay engaged [and] informed [while] improving understanding, but this time they failed us.
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
Among other things, TFA implies that this is because they were using 'PCs instead of Macs' [sic].
While it's true that OSX has way less malware than Windows, the main cause of malware infections is the users who click anything that's offered to them without thinking.
You can hide behind less popular operating systems, but the sad truth is that the average computer user simply can't handle the freedom of being able to do whatever they want, without messing things up.
So the solution is better tech education or--the cheaper way--locking things down. Both MS and Apple are doing it in their mobile OSs and they're starting to implement this in their desktop OSs as well.
Of course, the IT could also have locked Windows down with Group Policy and SRP, so that it would be pretty much impossible to install anything (unless reinstalling the OS).
Instead, they relied on some crappy antivirus (Sophos) and I wouldn't be surprised if the users were given admin rights as well.
I'm not a Microsoft fan at all (and they might have played dirty to get the school to use Windows), but the real story here is IT staff incompetence and the poor education of the average computer user.
They probably shipped them with the free carpware virus checker and some kid told his friends how to turn it off, in order to load the game crack for some game that had a virus on board.
It's not the platform at fault, but the schools poor project management and lack of computing skills employed.
I've seen this sort of thing many times.
Viruses are easy to take out of the system, but that doesn't stop the same behavior that puts the virus there in the first place.
Example: A friend of mine I end up fixing his laptop for viruses usually gets them because his kids are looking for TV shows and gets sent to sites that want them to download something. Boom, infected. Looking for a youtube/Disney/Hulu video downloading, boom! Infected.
I don't care too much because I get paid. And getting rid of the viruses/whatever is as easy as taking the harddrive out of the computer and hooking it to an already running computer (via usb-ide/sata adaptor), and run a few programs. Takes a few hours, or more depending on the size of the harddrive and how much space is taken up. But very, very easy to fix.
Be seeing you...
Why didn't they just use one of those education oriented Linux distro instead of windows? Not like they will need specific windows applications to do homeworks or classwork.
The virus ate my homework!
Hire COMPETENT IT staff to begin with? Honestly, what kind of amateur hour school is this? having to hire temp IT staff to deal with it, really? how about actually staffing your departments properly and with competent staff?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
They could have also chosen Linux laptops and hired 1 person to support the users and teach them about backups.
That would have be cheaper and if the new hire add some skills he could even taught programming using Python or PHP straight on the laptops.
Oh wait, that would actually worked on the direction of the students instead of the system...
...is not leaded by logic, but by "evil you know" decision chain. Therefore no matter how many homeworks Windows will eat, it will stay.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Its the best way to contain a virus.. They are going to do it anyway.
This could and should have been prevented by installing Linux - which is free - on all student and faculty/staff computers. With education costs soaring, going with the name brand (which is also less secure) is no longer an excuse.
I take it you don't believe in the existence of malware that can over-write the BIOS?
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
Graph
http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/50b62f7769bedd754700000a-522-476/student-tuition-earnings.jpg
Full article
http://www.businessinsider.com/growth-in-college-tuition-vs-growth-in-earnings-for-college-graduates-2012-11
because 10 years ago, you were saying "Linux has been around for a sufficiently long time and it still hasn't happened".
PS It has happened.
Just not where you live.
Just like that time I caught a cold from being around people, then I moved to Antarctica and stopped being around people. No more colds! Hah!
"...I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease." - Linus Torvalds
I ran for school board in my district (Georgia - frightful place educationally) so my takeaway from this was "Yeah. Didn't expect anything better once I saw the typos in the banner on their brag page.".
My kid brought home the school printed report card page. In big, bold print at the top was "Reprot Card". I seriously don't expect a large organization who cares so little about their professional appearance as to not proofread their public presentation material to make any wise choices about the really complicated stuff like technology.
From reading a quick description on how the virus works... This school seems to have no fucking clue what AD/GPO/LUA means. It sounds like the notebooks can either copy files to each other over the network or students can copy .exe's to the network servers. Fail 1. It also sounds like the students are running without least user authorization, aka, they can get admin access to their computers easy, or they already have it. Fail 2, maybe. It could have been a teacher who got it and was allowed to write stuff to places that was dangerous and because of poor AD layout allowed it to get everywhere. Fail 2 again, maybe. Of course maybe the teachers or students didn't start spreading it and some dipshit admin got it in the first place and managed to get it in a directory that the GPO launches a startup script. Major Fail 2 if this happened. Other then the last one, I still don't understand how it would have launched and ran unless the students could run as admin, this virus needs to write to the Windows directory. Honestly there are so many more possible fails here, I'll give up even trying to list them.
The district has 25,000 computers, if even 10% of them is infected with this, it's not very easy to fix just due to the size of the job. At worst taking 25,000 hard drives out of laptops is an insane job. Better to have a linux or maybe a PE cd of some sort that boots and auto tackles the infection. Or, really, backup all the kids non-exe files and nuke from orbit with a fresh install image.
Translating from media hype: someone did something foolish on a computer, then got a new virus which spread quickly, but it hasn't been the end of the world. In fact, it seems contained. Weird how it's the worst possible virus. Funny how this just happened to happen at this school right in the shadow of Redmond. I'd look at dissatisfied employees.
Or is this merely your method of saying nothing whilst appearing wise?
Or is it going to be as useless to them as you paint Linux as in training them for vocational computer use?
PS when did schools become apprenticeship courses for businesses so they can skip training staff?
Love the idiots who say "mac" was available. Yeah, dummy, they get viruses too. Same with the umbuntu offshoots.
You start with the laws. "Viruses" are a proof of concept. And be able to charge the offender, the spreader/creator/propogator of bad code. Programers, know this concept. Bad code, gigo, etc. bad code, like bad science, should go to "jail". You should be able to determine with a degree of certainity who started a "rogue/bad"program. You should be able to charge the "releaser/injector" of the program for the monitary damages incurred by their code intrusion, Just the way the italian courts have done with their bad science case this year.
PCs over Mac's
Speaking of educational failures, WHO THE FUCK PLURALIZES WORDS WITH A GODDAMN APOSTROPHE?
Seriously - if you're going to deliberately highlight syntax fuckups in the district's materials it *might* be helpful to proofread the submission carefully...
I heard that if you buy a Mac, Ballmer comes to your house and dances the Developer dance in your garden. If you install linux, he dances naked.
Please think of your neighbors, install Windows.
On a more serious note, this was a MS project, MS is not going to install linux... well except for when they need a reliable stable server platform to host a project.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Before we blame the IT staff, let me give this some perspective. (I have nine years experience as a teacher & tech director in a public K-12 US school.)
First, I'm reasonably confident in saying that, if proper Group Policy was implemented and user restrictions put in place, this never would have happened. Second, this is a HUGE school district with over 50 schools. They can certainly afford a public liaison (who was speaking on behalf of the district in the local broadcast), and I'm sure they have a large IT staff...I'm guessing in the neighborhood of 20-30 employees. Though public school districts would pay less than Microsoft right next door, given the sheer numbers there must be at least a few people on that staff that know how to accomplish this and as well of its value in preventing this sort of mess from happening.
With that in mind, here's what I've concluded: There is likely someone with leadership authority who told IT staff to let students manage their own laptops and have admin privileges. Given the size of the district, the directive either came from the district technology committee, or directly from the superintendent, school board, or both. All it would take is a number of parents to ignorantly complain to a "friend on the board" that "Johnny's laptop is broken - he can't install the programs he needs to do his homework" for the school board to direct the superintendent to "fix the issue." Likely this was a top-down order; I simply cannot imagine a tech staff that large to be that incompetent on their own.
What bothers me about this is how they're going about trying to fix the problem. If I had a worst-case mass-deployment of a virus at my school, I would just recall all the equipment, reimage everything, and redeploy a week later. I would issue a directive to all the staff that the equipment is down for one week to be cleaned, and make due without it. It's either one week of downtime or months of unreliability. If teachers would know that they have the option of either the problem being fixed in a week or the problem being "managed" over months, they would all take the week's downtime in a heartbeat.
One other question I have for those here: have you ever encountered a Windows virus that, as they claim, just "spreads on the network" without user initiation of the virus by clicking on an executable, script, or loading an infected webpage? I think the much more likely scenario is that this virus is being spread through usb flash disks, but I'm not sure whether that explanation was too technical for staff to understand.
I thought Linux was shitting itself on boot. Apparently you've dropped that (and you saying that indicates that either you know you're completely talking out of your arse or you're lying about using windows, linux, solaris, etc).
Linux doesn't require trust of the person sitting at the keyboard.
Put a CD in and it will mount it on Linux.
Put a CD in and it will run autorun.exe on Windows.
The windows itself is untrustworthy because Microsoft assumes that everyone using their system is an imbecille.
You are indication that they are not *always* incorrect on that score.
Android (yes, a Linux) shows us all that on smartphones.
* You Penguins really don't ever want to see "the year of Linux on the desktop", trust me, since what we're seeing on smartphones is only a "portent of things to come"!
(Well, that is IF Linux ever takes the most used/most marketshare on PC desktops, that is).
Linux isn't some "magical security panacea": It's hiding behind "security-by-obscurity" on the desktop.
What shows anyone this much? Well, again - See what happened on smartphones & ANDROID (linux)?
Linux also has about a 50/50 split with servers in the Fortune 100-500, & what's happening THERE, now that it's achieved a decent % of total use there?
2012:
New Linux Rootkit Emerges:
https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/new-linux-rootkit-emerges-112012
"A new Linux rootkit has emerged and researchers who have analyzed its code and operation say that the malware appears to be a custom-written tool designed to inject iframes into Web sites and drive traffic to malicious sites for drive-by download attacks. The rootkit is designed specifically for 64-bit Linux systems."
---
'FIRST ever' Linux, Mac OS X-only password sniffing virus spotted:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/29/linux_mac_trojan/
---
Medicaid hack update: 500,000 records and 280,000 SSNs stolen:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/medicaid-hack-update-500000-records-and-280000-ssns-stolen/11444
So, what's dts.utah.gov running everyone?
LINUX (and yes, it got HACKED) -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=dts.utah.gov
What's health.utah.gov running too??
YOU GUESSED IT: LINUX AGAIN -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=health.utah.gov
* Ah, yes - see the YEARS OF /. "BS" FUD is CRUMBLING AROUND THE PENGUINS EARS HERE & 2012's starting out just like 2011 did below!
===
2011:
KERNEL.ORG COMPROMISED - The Cracking of Kernel.org: (that's VERY bad - do you trust it now?)
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/31/2321232/Kernelorg-Compromised
---
Linux.com pwned in fresh round of cyber break-ins:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/12/more_linux_sites_down/
---
Mysql.com Hacked, Made To Serve Malware:
http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/09/26/2218238/mysqlcom-hacked-made-to-serve-malware
What's that site running? You guessed it - Linux -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=mysql.com
---
London Stock Exchange serving malware:
http://slashdot.org/submission/1484548/London-Stock-Exchange-Web-Site-Serving-Malware
(I mean hey - NOT ONLY DID LINUX FALL FLAT ON ITS FACE less than a few minutes into the job http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/02/19/0147232/London-Stock-Exchange-Price-Errors-Emerged-At-Linux-Launch, & crash not only ONCE, but TWICE there? You see "Linux 'fine security'" in motion @ the LSE too!)
---
DUQU ROOTKIT/BOTNET BEING SERVED FROM LI
Android (yes, a Linux) shows us all that on smartphones.
* You Penguins really don't ever want to see "the year of Linux on the desktop", trust me, since what we're seeing on smartphones is only a "portent of things to come"!
(Well, that is IF Linux ever takes the most used/most marketshare on PC desktops, that is).
Linux isn't some "magical security panacea": It's hiding behind "security-by-obscurity" on the desktop.
What shows anyone this much? Well, again - See what happened on smartphones & ANDROID (linux)?
Linux also has about a 50/50 split with servers in the Fortune 100-500, & what's happening THERE, now that it's achieved a decent % of total use there?
2012:
New Linux Rootkit Emerges:
https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/new-linux-rootkit-emerges-112012
"A new Linux rootkit has emerged and researchers who have analyzed its code and operation say that the malware appears to be a custom-written tool designed to inject iframes into Web sites and drive traffic to malicious sites for drive-by download attacks. The rootkit is designed specifically for 64-bit Linux systems."
---
'FIRST ever' Linux, Mac OS X-only password sniffing virus spotted:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/29/linux_mac_trojan/
---
Medicaid hack update: 500,000 records and 280,000 SSNs stolen:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/medicaid-hack-update-500000-records-and-280000-ssns-stolen/11444
So, what's dts.utah.gov running everyone?
LINUX (and yes, it got HACKED) -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=dts.utah.gov
What's health.utah.gov running too??
YOU GUESSED IT: LINUX AGAIN -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=health.utah.gov
* Ah, yes - see the YEARS OF /. "BS" FUD is CRUMBLING AROUND THE PENGUINS EARS HERE & 2012's starting out just like 2011 did below!
===
2011:
KERNEL.ORG COMPROMISED - The Cracking of Kernel.org: (that's VERY bad - do you trust it now?)
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/31/2321232/Kernelorg-Compromised
---
Linux.com pwned in fresh round of cyber break-ins:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/12/more_linux_sites_down/
---
Mysql.com Hacked, Made To Serve Malware:
http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/09/26/2218238/mysqlcom-hacked-made-to-serve-malware
What's that site running? You guessed it - Linux -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=mysql.com
---
London Stock Exchange serving malware:
http://slashdot.org/submission/1484548/London-Stock-Exchange-Web-Site-Serving-Malware
(I mean hey - NOT ONLY DID LINUX FALL FLAT ON ITS FACE less than a few minutes into the job http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/02/19/0147232/London-Stock-Exchange-Price-Errors-Emerged-At-Linux-Launch, & crash not only ONCE, but TWICE there? You see "Linux 'fine security'" in motion @ the LSE too!)
---
DUQU ROOTKIT/BOTNET BEING SERVED FROM LI
http://xkcd.com/327/
Of course this isn't entirely related unless you look at the principle of the matter. IT, where are your manners?
"low cost". Maintaining a MS OS is only "low cost" if you have someone who will do it for free- i.e. you're the family geek, keeping the wife and kid's computers working so they can enjoy compatibility with systems at school and work.
I subscribe to the "conspiracy theory" of MS OSes. They are deliberately unreliable and insecure in order to keep an army of IT people employed fixing them. The army continues to support and specify MS OSes because they know they'll have years of bugs, security problems, and random instability to look forward to from which to derive a pay check.
Android (yes, a Linux) shows us all that on smartphones.
* You Penguins really don't ever want to see "the year of Linux on the desktop", trust me, since what we're seeing on smartphones is only a "portent of things to come"!
(Well, that is IF Linux ever takes the most used/most marketshare on PC desktops, that is).
Linux isn't some "magical security panacea": It's hiding behind "security-by-obscurity" on the desktop.
What shows anyone this much? Well, again - See what happened on smartphones & ANDROID (linux)?
Linux also has about a 50/50 split with servers in the Fortune 100-500, & what's happening THERE, now that it's achieved a decent % of total use there?
2012:
New Linux Rootkit Emerges:
https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/new-linux-rootkit-emerges-112012
"A new Linux rootkit has emerged and researchers who have analyzed its code and operation say that the malware appears to be a custom-written tool designed to inject iframes into Web sites and drive traffic to malicious sites for drive-by download attacks. The rootkit is designed specifically for 64-bit Linux systems."
---
'FIRST ever' Linux, Mac OS X-only password sniffing virus spotted:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/29/linux_mac_trojan/
---
Medicaid hack update: 500,000 records and 280,000 SSNs stolen:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/medicaid-hack-update-500000-records-and-280000-ssns-stolen/11444
So, what's dts.utah.gov running everyone?
LINUX (and yes, it got HACKED) -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=dts.utah.gov
What's health.utah.gov running too??
YOU GUESSED IT: LINUX AGAIN -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=health.utah.gov
* Ah, yes - see the YEARS OF /. "BS" FUD is CRUMBLING AROUND THE PENGUINS EARS HERE & 2012's starting out just like 2011 did below!
===
2011:
KERNEL.ORG COMPROMISED - The Cracking of Kernel.org: (that's VERY bad - do you trust it now?)
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/31/2321232/Kernelorg-Compromised
---
Linux.com pwned in fresh round of cyber break-ins:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/12/more_linux_sites_down/
---
Mysql.com Hacked, Made To Serve Malware:
http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/09/26/2218238/mysqlcom-hacked-made-to-serve-malware
What's that site running? You guessed it - Linux -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=mysql.com
---
London Stock Exchange serving malware:
http://slashdot.org/submission/1484548/London-Stock-Exchange-Web-Site-Serving-Malware
(I mean hey - NOT ONLY DID LINUX FALL FLAT ON ITS FACE less than a few minutes into the job http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/02/19/0147232/London-Stock-Exchange-Price-Errors-Emerged-At-Linux-Launch, & crash not only ONCE, but TWICE there? You see "Linux 'fine security'" in motion @ the LSE too!)
---
DUQU ROOTKIT/BOTNET BEING SERVED FROM LI
LOL, you mean supporting the privatization of education.
laptops not desktops so you need a managed wifi system with more then 1 AP.
and even then the systems use NON school AP's as well.
Also virus can pass though email and web uploading of school work / over usb key as well.
Let's see there a virus so trun off the web site / email and have the kids use usb keys to trun in there work.
Locked doors are not immune to be bypassed, but an unlocked door with a sign on saying "This door is protected by fuck all" is a lot more prone to being bypassed than a locked one.
The problem is one of culture.
Windows assumes that the user is scared of their PC and completely clueless, therefore the computer will do things to "help" you. And that is done hidden from the user, hence a very profitable course for a virus to exploit.
Macs assume the user is completely clueless therefore the computer won't do much other than the proscribed elements. Safer but far less generically useful. And similarly for virus writers.
Linux assumes that if you do something specifically, you know what you're doing and it should happen, but ALSO that you are knowledgeable enough only if given the information. So it doesn't hide anything from you that may be scary. This is then abused by the MS fluffers as being too complex. But it also means your system tells you when it does something and you have to get involved in it. Not a productive line for viruses.
The geek kicks off on stories like these.
But a small word of caution: LWSD has a very good reputation
Lake Washington School District named to AP District Honor Roll
Among the more than 900 U.S. and international middle school students invited to the ceremony on the Johns Hopkins University campus, all earned exceptionally high scores that place them well within the top one-half of one percent academically of all same-grade students.
Past participants in the CTY Talent Search include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google cofounder Sergey Brin, and performer Lady Gaga.
Whiz Kid: Sammamish Middle-Schooler Kartik Iyer Honored for SAT Scores
lot's of windows only software mac is in the same place but there is a good deal of stuff that is on both mac and windows.
Wine is hit or miss and can be a lot of work / testing to set up.
Windows and Linux opens you to lot's of hardware vendors / lot's of choice. Apple is one vendor with limited choice and high prices.
Apple laptops start at $1000 (949.00 list price for schools bulk deals may be lower) but that only a 11 inch screen and 64GB disk space.
64GB is not that much when you add up OS+apps and a 11 inch screen is small (13 is good min size).
Ipads are limited in software and adding keyboards to each one just makes it harder on the school to keep track of what each kid has vs say 1 laptop and a real laptop let's kids use there own USB mouses / keyboards if they want to.
Ipads need Bluetooth keyboards not any USB keyboard / wireless keyboards with a non Bluetooth usb plug in.
For the record, any underfunded IT dept run by unskilled people can have a virus rampage regardless of the OS. There are mac and Linux viruses and just generally undesirable software and if the computers aren't configured properly, they will find it installed.
Your point is invalid.
some software needs admin rights to run and even with out admin rights virus can still mess up the users folders / use holes in the OS / apps to get around needed to be admin.
or at least use something like deep freeze.
I used to go to a school with deep freeze and the way the log on system was setup it was easy to get local admin by not logging on with a network logon and just hitting cancel.
1-2 full time IT guys needed temps to do the imaging setup.
I did that ones as a temp it was more then just do the imaging setup after that you needed to setup some software to say I'm at X school in the district, set the computer name and join the domain.
The district had 1 image for the full district.
if the students have to buy the laptops then they should be admins.
It bad to be forced to buy a laptop with no choice of the hardware but to forced to buy one and have it locked down so you can't run your own software??
B'aw... I had hoped this was an out of control bacterium culture with an appetite for paper :(
My DOS ate my homework.
Have gnu, will travel.
Moreoever, other than running on the plugin, the virus does nothing because the vasty majority only delete and procreate on windows systems because they are written able to infect only one type of system.
Technically vulnerable doesn't mean jack shit. You're practically much more vulnerable on Windows because it's unlocked and the chain and lock they draped over the top can be removed if you twiddle some bits of the fence it's attached to.
Thinking that you're saying something useful is merely proof that you've read something that you have shoehorned into "My Windows System Is As Secure".
I'm as safe walking through the streets of Manhattan as walking through the streets of Iraq, because I COULD get shot dead in either.
The fact that there's more shooting going on in Iraq is being ignored to the detriment of PRACTICAL safety.
Get up with fleas.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
some software needs admin rights to run
It's not very likely that the students would need exactly such a program. But I'm pretty sure you can make exceptions, so that a Standard user can run something with admin rights.
and even with out admin rights virus can still mess up the users folders / use holes in the OS / apps to get around needed to be admin.
Of course, that's why we have things like Software Restriction Policy and AppLocker. And half decent IT guy will know that.
As for holes, you'll never be 100% sure with anything, but you can come pretty close with the right approach.
You were the last compentent person to touch their system. The only one who knew how to make changes. They know they changed nothing. How could this problem exist, it requires a change to have been made?
Computer Voo Doo. It has to be the change you made 2 years ago that caused the virus today.
Ah, Voo Doo, I know thee well. Many of my customers have claimed I have practiced the art.
vi +
Or, really, backup all the kids non-exe files
And non-DOC files, non-PDF files, non-XLS files, non-.vbs files, non-zip/rar/7z files that could contain infected files, etc. No, it's too hard to enumerate all the potential sources of reinfection. You get infected, you lose your shit. Period. Don't like it? Learn not to get infected.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Phishers/Spammers FAVOR attacking LAMP: (Linux, Apache, mySQL, PHP)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/10/domains_lamped/
PERTINENT QUOTE/EXCERPT:
"Phishers compromise LAMP-based websites for days at a time and hit the same victims over and over again, according to an Anti-Phishing Working Group survey. Sites built on Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP are the favoured targets of phishing attackers"
---
AND WHAT IS THE MOST PREVALENT FORM OF ATTACK?
Well - I'll let OTHERS speak for me, "hot off the presses today" from Trend Micros' analysis:
PERTINENT QUOTE/EXCERPT:
"The vast majority (91 per cent) of targeted attacks begin with a spear phishing email, according to a new study by Trend Micro."
FROM -> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/29/spear_phishing/
APK
P.S.=> Now, WHAT was that YOU said? Ok, let's requote it:
"Apache vs. IIS Your point is invalid" - by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29, @09:25AM (#42129403)
No, I KNOW not, as do folks like Trend Micro... and, so do you! Your "freebie" webserver's also NOT following "DNT" (do not track) either:
http://apache.slashdot.org/story/12/09/08/0053235/apache-patch-to-override-ie-10s-do-not-track-setting
Lastly - I know WHY you reply to my posts as ac: You KNOW I'm TOO WELL-ARMED with verifiable & undeniable facts, and you don't want me "tossing it back in your face" when I make you "eat your words" (how do they taste now, for instance?)
... apk
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3281695&cid=42130567
APK
P.S.=> Always a pleasure making "penguins" have to "eat their words", flavored with "the bitter taste of SELF-DEFEAT" & their foot in their mouth, lmao...
... apk
This is just silly. The problem isn't that they didn't use Linux or MacOS, it's that nobody locked down these computers. They're the school's computers, so they can put whatever they want on them. No one should have rights to install software, and Security Essentials should be turned on, and kept up to date. Sloppy system administration. Pure and simple.
APK's upward modded. You're downward modded. Says it all.
in WIn8
I accidentally posted anonymously.
This is just silly. The problem isn't that they didn't use Linux or MacOS, it's that nobody locked down these computers. They're the school's computers, so they can put whatever they want on them. No one should have rights to install software, and Security Essentials should be turned on, and kept up to date. Sloppy system administration. Pure and simple.
Is that how you little penguins operate? Of course it is. PURE deceit &/or half-truths.
(It is TRULY, the "why" of WHY You fools will NEVER get ahead, & see "the year of Linux on the desktop"... period!)
Bottom-line - People won't listen to bullshit artists & 1/2 truths, & certainly NOT those using unjustifiable downmods vs. facts!
NOW - The funniest part is, you all seem to *think* people are stupid and can't see posts you bogusly downmod like mine has been (for merely citing verifiable facts & truths... ones "penguins" can't handle!).
Newsflash - many here browse below the default moderation threshold (which is purest bullshit since anyone can pull a downmod - in fact?
I'll let an OPEN "SORES" BIG NAME SPEAK FOR ME on that very account:
---
"It just takes one Ubuntu sympathizer or PR flack to minus-moderate any comment. Unfortunately, once PR agencies and so on started paying people to moderate online communities, and to have hundreds of accounts each, things changed." - by Bruce Perens (3872) on Friday July 30, @03:55PM (#33089192) Homepage Journal
SOURCE -> http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1738364&cid=33089192
---
Deceitful little bogus downmodding trolls are JUST like:
The Chinese Water Army:
http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=%22Chinese+Water+Army%22&btnG=Search&gbv=1&sei=tSchUJjPGYn36gGYtIDACQ
AND HBGary:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED:-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All
PERTINENT QUOTES/EXCERPTS:
"According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HBGary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online... And all of this is for the purposes of infiltration, data mining, and (here's the one that really worries me) ganging up on bloggers, commenters and otherwise "real" people to smear enemies and distort the truth... "
and
"They are talking about creating the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader... And another thing, this is just one little company of assholes. I can't believe there aren't others doing this already. From oil companies, political campaigns, PR firms, you name it. Public opinion means big bucks. And let's face it, what these guys are talking about is easy."
and
"To the extent that the propaganda technique known as "Bandwagon" is an effective form of persuasion, which it definitely is, the ability for a few people to infiltrate a blog or social media site and appear to be many people, all taking one position in a debate, all agreeing, for example, that so and so is not credible, or a crook, is an incredibly powerful weapon."
---
This takes the cake, as to how "PR Firms" pull crap, in "Confessions of a Shill" (pulling crap on anti-semitic stuff):
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread826545/pg1&addstar=1&on=13829871#pid13829871
Unbelievable... but, there it is, along with ALL THE OTHER PROOF just above!
---
(Forums sockpuppeting mu
Then why did you reply? At least get your story straight troll.
Correlation != Causation.
Get with it. This is a rookie mistake.
nt
students stayed engaged nad [sic] organized whiel [sic] boosting creativity
I almost had to throw a sickie for reading that.
They won't produce it. They're trolls. They operate on pure "FUD", nothing more...
* HOWEVER - this is why I come to /., to learn things I *may* not already be aware of... so, we'll see!
APK
P.S.=> I'd like to see it myself actually... ... apk
some software needs admin rights to run and even with out admin rights virus can still mess up the users folders / use holes in the OS / apps to get around needed to be admin.
You are correct and this is a problem, but it is not specific to Windows by any means.
So apparently you need to ask yourself that question: do you know what UAC is?
But he's modded up. Says it all.
I guess the idiotic little shitball doesn't know what he's supposed to be complaining about, does he.
My dog ate my homework....
This story jumped out at me because I graduated from an LWSD school back in '04.
One of my hacker / cracker / script kiddie friends nabbed an 0day version of Agobot from IRC, got itchy one day, and executed it at school. I remember clear as day sitting in chemistry, and the intercom sounded, "Teachers, please shut down all computers in your classroom."
The entire school's network was down for a week as the IT staff manually disinfected each computer. My friend was "expelled" into a head-start program at the local community college, while his parents paid a $5,000 fine for the disinfecting labor.
Funny to read a similar story 8 years later...
You can scam more money out of Windows users. Plus there are more of them.
And of the rest, the Linux users are broke to begin with and the Mac users gave all their money to Apple already.
Minix is what they should have gone with. It's aimed at being a teaching tool, and while at it, they can use NetBSD and a whole bunch of Linux apps on it as well
Will never happen as long as this type of thing continues to exist
Much harder to hack into the teachers paper gradebook and pen-entered grades, and paper written report cards....
We ought to look at the costs associate when this type of thing occurs on such a grand scale (and they're happening very frequently)
It's not enough to just say "well, whomever the IT Dir. is for the district is to blame" as well all know that even if the IT Dir. could force
security decisions, they don't make the final call.
Choosing M$ as your platform and OS of choice and then not keeping it updated/secured and locked down - it tantamount to mass suicide and a complete and utter waste of time/talent/resource and education (which is why it ought not be a part of education)
I am a high school science teacher in the Lake Washington School District. I usually stay away from education discussions here, because there are enough uninformed know-it-alls to make the discussions annoying (I mean a minority here, no disparagement of /. intended). People think that they know everything about education because they went to school at some time. Not necessarily true.
I don't have much time (grading calls) but I wanted to address a couple things I've seen in my perusal of the comments. 1. Someone said they issued laptops with no restrictions. Not true. It just isn't. There was a problem, and it's bad, but we actually aren't a bunch of idiots randomly passing out laptops. We USE them extensively for assignments, assessments, surveys/polls, research, and communication. There is security in place, although I don't know all aspects of it since my IT days are behind me. I do know that the web filters work wherever the laptops are used, and I know already of a few students who got busted for using proxies. It's going to happen, because a lot of our students are smart. I don't think it was a student who introduced the virus, but I can't state my reasons, so I don't expect anyone to believe me.
2. Incompetent IT. Not true, either. It was an error. A costly one, but I don't think this is an indication of utter incompetence. Hiring IT people isn't easy, because we can't pay what the private sector does.
Crap. I gotta run. Suffice to say, this has been a pain in the butt, and has made everything more difficult, but I know a lot of these IT people who are being trashed and they work their asses off and do a great job when we need them. This kind of problem is unprecedented here.
What I mean is, this had to be foreseeable. It's one thing for a school district in Georgia to have an issue, but in Microsoft's backyard? I don't know, the PR sting from this one is going to be quite awful - many on /. sure as hell won't let them forget it. Yeah, it's not Microsoft's responsibility to be the Lake Washington School District's IT department, but if I were at Microsoft and I were looking at our backyard, I would have played a much larger role in Lake Washington's deployment and care of these laptops.
Unless Microsoft steps up, it may be time for Lake Washington to go with Ubuntu - or find some money and dare I say it, go with OS X.
Even temps, that ain't chump change to a school district. These are the people who buy the lowest cost everything, they didn't spend the money cause someone sneezed.
even with mac os at $0 it's the hardware price / limited choice that makes windows be used.
the bigger picture is that the whole process emulates the 'real world' the decisions are first and foremost made by politics then if things don't work play hot potato with it
Here's a thought. TEACH THE KIDS TO ADMIN THEIR MACHINES. Virus removal is NOT rocket science. They're suppose to be learning right?
Locking down the computers ensures kids can't learn. How many kids are going to be able to buy their own machine to play around with, and justify it to their parents if they're given a locked down one? Where do you think the next gen of computer techs comes from?
The settings to examine & change are as follows in gpedit.msc &/or regedit.exe:
---
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account
OR
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v FilterAdministratorToken
(Set as ENABLED)
---
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode
OR
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin
(Set as PROMPT FOR CREDENTIALS)
---
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users
OR
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v ConsentPromptBehaviorUser
(Set as Automatically deny elevation requests)
---
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation
OR
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableInstallerDetection
(Set as ENABLED)
---
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\User Account Control: Only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations
OR
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableSecureUIAPaths
(Set as ENABLED)
---
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode
OR
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA
(Set as ENABLED)
---
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation
OR
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v PromptOnSecureDesktop
(Set as ENABLED)
---
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\User Account Control: Virtualize file and registry write failures to per-user locations
OR
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableVirtualization
(Set as ENABLED)
---
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\User Account Control: Allow UIAccess applications to prompt for elevation without using the secure desktop
OR
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableUIADesktopToggle
(Set DISABLED)
---
* There you go... you can do all of what you state, & more, easily enough, but instead by using NATIVE TOOLS already present in Windows itself in, gpedit.msc or regedit.exe!
APK
P.S.=> To even FURTHER enhance that, albeit @ the application level? You can use taskmgr.exe, & set UAC Virtualization ENABLED on ANY RUNNING APP too: Further sealing it off from infecting/infesting other running apps or the entire OS by every users' profile, by simply right clicking on running apps & changing their UAC virtualization level (this prevents ENTIRE OS & all users profiles from infestation, isolating it to 1 single user only (ala a test profile used to test possibly virus ridden programs, OR, to isolate problem programs like webbrowsers in the past & Adobe's JAVA products or javascript using tools (since those latter 2 are the PREVAILING largest infectors out there now, in JAVA &/or ADOBE apps))... apk
I'm envisaging one of those posters of some starving Ethiopian waif begging for edukashun dollarz. Is that the impression you get. Or ... could it be ... a school administrator so enamoured of the Ribbon interface on their Orifice2012 that they couldn't find the button for starting the spell checker?
[self ... checks spelling]
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
'Schools that piloted the laptops found that students stayed engaged nad [sic] organized whiel [sic] boosting creativity,'
Damn right if I was a school I'd claim virus on that one. (if it was indeed sic)