We're back from an unanticipated break and discuss the Synchronet v3.16 release, the work being done for the next Synchronet version, source code revision control systems, the myth of open source software, Windows touchscreen computers, Malware infections, Windows security, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Smart TVs and more.
http://techdorks.net/episodes/techdorks-2015-08-25-ep6.mp3

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #78:
172 Synchronet Match Maker registrations were sold (@$69) between 1995 and 1996.
Norco, CA WX: 69.9øF, 82.0% humidity, 0 mph SE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

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þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Digital Man to TechDorks on Tue Aug 25 2015 03:55 am

We're back from an unanticipated break and discuss the Synchronet v3.16 release, the work being done for the next Synchronet version, source code revision control systems, the myth of open source software, Windows touchscreen computers, Malware infections, Windows security, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Smart TVs and more. http://techdorks.net/episodes/techdorks-2015-08-25-ep6.mp3

do you want some mirrors for this? i can mirror it on bbses.info for you guys and i'm sure a few others could provide mirrors. my eta is 47 mins.

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þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Mro to Digital Man on Tue Aug 25 2015 05:14 pm

do you want some mirrors for this? i can mirror it on bbses.info for you guys and i'm sure a few others could provide mirrors. my eta is 47 mins.

No, and especially not from someone who has twitlisted me.

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http://DuckDuckGo.com/ a better search engine that respects your privacy.
Mro is an idiot. Please ignore him, we keep hoping he'll go away.
þ Synchronet þ My Brand-New BBS (All the cool SysOps run STOCK!)

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Digital Man to TechDorks on Tue Aug 25 2015 03:55:53

We're back from an unanticipated break and discuss the Synchronet v3.16 release, the work being done for the next Synchronet version, source code revision control systems, the myth of open source software, Windows touchscreen computers, Malware infections, Windows security, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Smart TVs and more. http://techdorks.net/episodes/techdorks-2015-08-25-ep6.mp3

Interesting to hear your thoughts on malware, as well as the bit of Synchronet development history & version control systems you discussed in this episode. I've used both CVS and SVN, and I feel like SVN is an improvement over CVS. I think SVN works okay, but honestly I haven't looked a whole lot into newer systems such as Git. I read through a list of pros & cons for both SVN and Git a while ago, and it seems there are good reasons to choose either of them.

As far as malware goes, it seems to be a fairly common thing for someone to let one of their children or other young relative play on their computer, and they end up going to a bunch of game web sites that infects their computer with a bunch of malware. It seems strange to me that people get kicks out of putting malware on web sites that host kids' games..

Nightfox

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þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Sat Aug 29 2015 09:51 am

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Digital Man to TechDorks on Tue Aug 25 2015 03:55:53

We're back from an unanticipated break and discuss the Synchronet v3.16 release, the work being done for the next Synchronet version, source code revision control systems, the myth of open source software, Windows touchscreen computers, Malware infections, Windows security, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Smart TVs and more. http://techdorks.net/episodes/techdorks-2015-08-25-ep6.mp3

Interesting to hear your thoughts on malware, as well as the bit of Synchronet development history & version control systems you discussed in this episode. I've used both CVS and SVN, and I feel like SVN is an improvement over CVS. I think SVN works okay, but honestly I haven't looked a whole lot into newer systems such as Git. I read through a list of pros & cons for both SVN and Git a while ago, and it seems there are good reasons to choose either of them.

I looked more into Subversion (SVN) this past week and have found it's missing some features I use and would miss:
- tags (labels)
- per-file revision numbering

The per-repository revision (or what Perforce calls a "changelist" number) is good to have, but I/we use the per-file revision number in CVS a lot.

At this time, I have no motivation to switch from CVS to something else since I haven't really something better but also similar enough. I really like Perforce, but it's not free (in any sense).

As far as malware goes, it seems to be a fairly common thing for someone to let one of their children or other young relative play on their computer, and they end up going to a bunch of game web sites that infects their computer with a bunch of malware. It seems strange to me that people get kicks out of putting malware on web sites that host kids' games..

I think the malware authors are inspired by money, not kicks. Most malware leads to some (real or potential) financial gain by the evildoers. Whether it's redirecting your browser to some commercial site, displaying alternate ads in place of the normal ads embedded on web-sites, hijacking your search results or you home page, popping up ads, encrypting your data and holding the decryption key ransom, taking secret photos or videos with your webcam, spying on your traffic to intercept login credentials, credit card numbers, stealing your identity or whatever, all of these bad acts are for the purpose of making money.

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #45:
Synchronet External X/Y/ZMODEM protocol driver (SEXYZ) was introduced in 2005. Norco, CA WX: 89.7øF, 38.0% humidity, 8 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

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þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Aug 29 2015 18:34:47

I think the malware authors are inspired by money, not kicks. Most malware leads to some (real or potential) financial gain by the evildoers. Whether it's redirecting your browser to some commercial site, displaying alternate ads in place of the normal ads embedded on web-sites, hijacking your search results or you home page, popping up ads, encrypting your data and holding the decryption key ransom, taking secret photos or videos with your webcam, spying on your traffic to intercept login credentials, credit card numbers, stealing your identity or whatever, all of these bad acts are for the purpose of making money.

I suppose that's probably true. I hadn't thought about that before.

Nightfox

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þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Sat Aug 29 2015 09:48 pm

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Aug 29 2015 18:34:47

I think the malware authors are inspired by money, not kicks. Most malware leads to some (real or potential) financial gain by the evildoers. Whether it's redirecting your browser to some commercial site, displaying alternate ads in place of the normal ads embedded on web-sites, hijacking your search results or you home page, popping up ads, encrypting your data and holding the decryption key ransom, taking secret photos or videos with your webcam, spying on your traffic to intercept login credentials, credit card numbers, stealing your identity or whatever, all of these bad acts are for the purpose of making money.

I suppose that's probably true. I hadn't thought about that before.

I think the days of "script kiddies" have been over for quite a while. There's money to be made (I have only a vague idea how much) by creating and leasing the use of botnets, discoverying and selling vulnerabilities, steering eyeballs, collecting and selling contact information, credentials, and credit card/bank information. And then there's the targetted attacks against specific individuals, organizations, enterprises and governments. These are professionals doing something they're good at and getting compensated in some way or another. It's annoying and time consuming to deal with these attacks, but it's just the reality of today.

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #48:
Synchronet program was named 'sbbs' instead of 'sync' to avoid conflict w/Unix. Norco, CA WX: 78.7øF, 55.0% humidity, 2 mph SE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

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þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Sat Aug 29 2015 09:48 pm

ads, encrypting your data and holding the decryption key ransom,
taking secret photos or videos with your webcam, spying on your
traffic to intercept login credentials, credit card numbers, stealing your identity or whatever, all of these bad acts are for the purpose
of making money.

I suppose that's probably true. I hadn't thought about that before.

there's a video someone posted in here like a year ago. i think it was originally on google video and went over to youtube. it's a computer conference and this guy lays out the infrastructure of spammers and malware. he goes from the bottom to the middle men, to the top. he explains how much money each group makes and their motivations.
it's pretty detailed stuff. i tried looking for it but cant find it.

just know that they are organized and they would not be doing any of this stuff unless it profitted well. even spam that you ignore profits very well.

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þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sat Aug 29 2015 10:49 pm

and credit card/bank information. And then there's the targetted attacks against specific individuals, organizations, enterprises and governments. These are professionals doing something they're good at and getting compensated in some way or another. It's annoying and time consuming to
deal with these attacks, but it's just the reality of today.

there are police departments all over the usa that paid ransom to cybercriminals that locked their data and wanted money.

my company was hit with cryptolocker too but they just restored backups and locked it down.

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þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Digital Man to TechDorks on Tue Aug 25 2015 03:55 am

Just an update: we will return with more episodes of TechDorks soon. As eluded to in episode 6, we both had international trips planned from which we've both now returned. However, Stephen (Deuce) had to replace a hard drive that went bad just before he left for his trip and I have a new audio interface I'm playing with (a TASCAM US-366). We'll be back soon,

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #20:
The first commericial sale of Synchronet was to Las Vegas Playground BBS (1992).
Norco, CA WX: 70.6øF, 82.0% humidity, 1 mph SSE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

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þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Digital Man to TechDorks on Tue Sep 22 2015 01:42:50

Just an update: we will return with more episodes of TechDorks soon. As eluded to in episode 6, we both had international trips planned from which we've both now returned. However, Stephen (Deuce) had to replace a hard drive that went bad just before he left for his trip and I have a new audio interface I'm playing with (a TASCAM US-366). We'll be back soon,

I hope your trips went well. Looking forward to your next episode of TechDorks.

Nightfox

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þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Tue Sep 22 2015 07:56 am

Re: Episode 6: Malware Control Systems
By: Digital Man to TechDorks on Tue Sep 22 2015 01:42:50

Just an update: we will return with more episodes of TechDorks soon. As eluded to in episode 6, we both had international trips planned from which we've both now returned. However, Stephen (Deuce) had to replace a hard drive that went bad just before he left for his trip and I have a new audio interface I'm playing with (a TASCAM US-366). We'll be back soon,

I hope your trips went well. Looking forward to your next episode of TechDorks.

Thanks! We look forward to making the next episode. Hopefully soon. :-)

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #56:
Synchronet introduced Telnet, FTP, SMTP and POP3 support w/v3.00a-Win32 in 2000.
Norco, CA WX: 68.1øF, 86.0% humidity, 1 mph SSE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

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þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net