Re: Internet Explorer stuck on page
 

don wrote:

> after a party my interent explorer is stuck on a porn site for its homepage
> and even after going to Advance tab and pressing Reset it is still
> stuck........... Can I use the winxp disk recovery mode to reinstall
> internet explorer and fix what I beleive to be malicious tampering on this
> pc due to people looking at porn during the party

If using Reset (and then exiting and reloading IE) didn't also reset the
home page then you either have malware on your host (a likely cause
considering someone probably downloaded and executed some crap from a porn
site) or you have security software that locks in the home page and is
unresetting it to the currently locked in value.

Run a full scan of an updated copy of whatever anti-virus software you use.
Use MalwareBytes. Try some of the online scanners from well-known anti-
virus vendors. As to unlocking the lockdown on your web browser by security
software, only you know what security software you have installed on your
host.

Um, so just HOW did these party goers get logged onto your host? You have a
security issue in how YOU configured your host. Did you actually give
everyone your login credentials? Why? Did you leave your host logged in so
anyone walking over to it can use it? Why aren't you using a screen saver
with its password protect option enabled? Why are you leaving you host
without locking it (by activating the screen saver) via Winkey+L (or a
button on your keyboard if it has some programmable keys)? If you
configured your host for auto-logon (so no one has to enter a password on
reboot to enter a password) then you are allowing anyone to use your
computer. If you're going to leave your host open for anyone to use then
why do you care about it's state? It's state will be defined by whomever
you allow to use it. Yeah, someone did something nasty to your host but
only because YOU whored out your host by not securing it as to just who can
use it. Yeah, they did something bad but only because you enabled it. You
don't lock the doors of your car when you leave it?

At your next party, don't get so wasted that you don't know what's happening
on your own premises.

Re: Internet Explorer stuck on page
 

VanguardLH wrote:
> don wrote:
>
>> after a party my interent explorer is stuck on a porn site

> Um, so just HOW did these party goers get logged onto your host?

> You don't lock the doors of your car when you leave it?

This is a good security topic.

The concept is one of 'exposing' access or 'potential' physical access
to one's computer - a problematic insecurity situation.

Recently in alt.computer.security a guy was asking about how to spy on
his wife's computer activities because he was suspicious of her online
behaviors.

In the past, I've setup a computer on a little home network exclusively
for the purposes of being used by a guest. 'Hosts' who live in a home
with only a single computer ethernetted to a cable modem and no wireless
network are often confronted by the situation where a guest wants/needs
to have some online access for something, which necessitates the
host/ess providing unattended access to the household computer which
isn't well secured because 99.99% of the time there is no (apparent)
need.

We should all configure our computers more securely, because we don't
actually know what kind of circumstances are going to lead to someone
physically accessing one or all of the computers in the house or
homeoffice.


--
Mike Easter