Anti-virus protection, critical security patches, and a secure wireless connection have always been essential processes on my networks. My main concern has always been to protect my bank account by keeping the bad guy out.
In my presentations, I've always stressed the importance of making sure your wireless connection is secured to prevent skeevy sex offender neighbors or wackos parked in front of your business from surfing for child porn and downloading it to your PC.
Once a predator uses your Internet connection to go to into the bowels of the web, your Internet Protocol address, which is connected to your ISP billing address, is now considered one that is owned by a criminal. If law enforcement happens to be chatting with that a person who is using your Internet connection to trade lurid child porn, then someone may eventually knock on your door at 3 AM with a battering ram. And in another freakish and relatively new twist, hackers can use a virus to crack your network and gain remote control access, and then store child porn on your hard drive.
An AP investigation found plenty of people who have been victimized in this way. Maybe their PCs were being used as a virtual server, or maybe they were being framed by someone with a vendetta against them, but either way, they had child pornography planted on their computers. Once that porn is discovered by a friend, family member, or computer technician, the victim is arrested.
This is the kind of "breach" that can cost you thousands in legal fees, your marriage, relationships, your job, and your standing in society. In one case, a virus changed the default home page on a man's PC, and his seven year old daughter discovered it. The guy was arrested and eventually lost custody of his daughter. And you think you've got problems.
When you click a link in an email or a pop up advertisement in your browser, you may inadvertently download one of these viruses, which can then visit child pornography websites and download files onto your hard drive.
It also important to point out that most criminal investigators will say that "a virus put the child porn on my PC" is a bunch of hooey and a common defense used by the presumed innocent until proven guilty. Simply don't give anyone a chance to doubt by doing the following:
Dont be a scumbag child pornographer. Where there's smoke there's usually fire.
Make sure your anti virus up to date and set to run automatically.
Update your web browser to the latest version. An out of date web browser is often riddled with holes worms can crawl through.
Update your operating systems critical security patches automatically
Lock down your wireless internet connection with the WPA security protocol.
Invest in Intelius Identity Theft Protection. While not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, you can effectively manage your personal identifying information by knowing what's buzzing out there in regards to YOU. "Disclosures"
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker discussing viruses on Fox News.
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Robert Siciliano: Criminal Hackers, Carders, Dumps, and Identity Theft
Albert Gonzalez and his gang of criminal hackers were responsible for data breaches in retailers and payment processors, with some estimates saying they breached over 230 million records combined.
I remember some "hacker" talking about how he had gotten on some chick's computer and put a very nasty pornographic image on her desktop and she was very upset by this. She was too embarrassed to get anyone in her family to help her get rid of it, so she began to negotiate with this obnoxious young man. That's how fast you can lose your power.
Now if your security is compromised and you're an adult, they can put an image of a child who is underage on your computer and you can go to jail and be registered as a sex offender. Also, they could put a few songs on your computer and you could be fined 2 million dollars. It's like the opposite of winning the lottery and you will become very unpopular.
Therefore, choose not to be compromised. Don't use insecure software. Also, the prosecutors should learn the difference between real perverts and normal people. I'm just happy to be a technically-competent person who has no problems.
Being good and virtuous will not keep you safe. Your daughter downloads a couple dozen songs and you get fined two million dollars because people are crazy. Your teenage son or one of his friends could go to the wrong website, and from then on your computer has images that could land you in prison.
I can just imagine the way lots of people are getting paranoid way too late. We're all familiar with the way call cops like to oppress skate-boarders. Well, some of the investigators like have power over you for their own sick fun. In theory, they could be the one to put the offending image on your computer by sending you a bad link in an email, just like a corrupt cop who puts drugs in your car before searching it.
People should definitely be worried because those who accuse you can make money from putting you through the ringer, just like the "War on Drug Users" can help them take your car and home.
This could be fixed by changing these presumptions ---
1. The courts tend to treat traced-back IP addresses as belonging to individuals. They don't -- not only because of router security breaches but also because several people may legitmately share a router. Furthermore, it's not hard to spoof an IP address. Courts should not take IP addresses as proof of individual behavior.
2. Why are routers shipped with security turned off by default? Manufacturers could easily rectify this problem, but instead, consumers are put at risk simply because they lack technical aptitude.
Does the virus leave tracks? If so, and security experts know about them and can uncover them, isn't that proof of innocence? If so, why did the person in your article loose his daughter? And while I agree that it's common sense to be smart about keeping your computer secure, what happened to the presumption of innocence and due process?
You probably skipped a lot of that because you're writing on a technology page, rather than a law page, but they are important points that keep your article from sounding like anyone could be arrested, have their house confiscated and their kids sent to foster care if this virus gets on their computer along with the attendant child pr0.n That's a criminal act by someone else against the computer user. And while letting your computer's anti-virus software and other items get out of date is stupid, it's certainly NOT illegal.
Still, the fact is, being accused of child pornography is practically a death sentence. The accusation itself carries so much stigma, and garners so much exuberance from prosecutors, that you're one of the lucky ones if you get anything like a fair trial (or you're one of the wealthy ones who can afford an adequate lawyer). Even if you're totally innocent, proving it can cost you everything you have, and even after being vindicated, your reputation may never be fully restored. I encountered one case where a guy was tried FOUR TIMES by an overzealous prosecutor, based on the continually shifting testimony of a teenage girl who had been manipulated by her mother into leveling the accusation. That's the kind of thing that happens, and nobody's doing anything about it because as a group, pedophiles are below terrorists on everyone's sympathy list.
From a web server's perspective, it will all look like it is coming from one place, your wireless router. In theory, other subtle variations may leave a unique TCP "signature", but it have to do with timing, ISNs, and port selections (all of which may be masked by the router), and not MAC addresses.
Consider how many people run wireless networks without any encryption on their connection. Even in the place where I live now, there are people running wifi routers in their nearby homes with no password/encryption that I can connect to and browse the net with. So, say someone who wishes to pirate software or download any illegal sexual material discovers this. For novice users, there will likely be absolutely no trace on any machine that suggests it was anyone but the owner downloading illegal material. It basically comes down to a choice of credibility. When you add the stigma of, and the justified outright disgust people have towards, child pornography, the odds are not in favor of the accused in such a situation.
A non-reckless user should have little to worry about from viruses, particularly if they use a good firewall. But, when it comes to using WPA protection, I can't agree with this author more. It is particularly alarming how many people still run their routers open to the public. It's the same thing as leaving your door to your home unlocked.