Evercookie, Koobface boonana worm Trojan, Firesheep and MORE! Oh My

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There are four ongoing scary security monsters threatening ALL the popular computer platforms this month. But that I mean they affect Mac, Linux and Windows. At the moment, there is nothing dire or critical about them. But each of them is nasty in their own way.

I've been holding off tackling each of them in order to gather day-by-day new information and to wait for 'the other shoe' to drop from each of them. I expect they're all going to be annoying aspects of our computer lives for quite some time to come. I'll be devoting an article to each of them individually. But first I want to introduce you to our gang of circus animals:

I) A round of applause for the Black Hat creation known as the EVERCOOKIE. Essentially, it is a collective set of methods for spying on your web browser behavior, able to renew itself despite actions you take to prevent it. Stopping this monster can be annoying and complicated. I'll discuss the currently known tricks.

II) Next up in circus ring number 2 is the latest in Java insecurity. As per usual, the utterly chaotic computer security community can't agree upon a name for the thing. Having reviewed the data, I am going with the name Intego are using: Koobface. Because of its various activities, it can be called a worm, a Trojan horse, a root kit, a back door AND a bot. Because its primary interface to the user (or 'LUSER' in this case) is as a Trojan horse, I am unofficially going to refer to it as Trojan.OSX.Koobface.A. Apparently a second version has just been discovered, which I will call Trojan.OSX.Koobface.B. Meanwhile, you are bound to see the exact same thing also called the 'Boonana' Trojan. (o_0)

III) In the third ring of our circus of naughtiness is Firesheep, the Black Hat extension for Firefox that simplifies the long standing ability to spy on and doppelganger anyone connected within the same unencrypted WiFi connection. It's not just for hackers any more! This one piece of software has sparked an Internet encryption revolution, or so I'd like to believe.



IV) But wait! That's not all! Get a load of the latest idiotic idea from The Corporate Oligarchy! They want government access to ALL things encrypted. Say goodbye to Internet privacy! George Orwell's '1984' Big Brother has arrived and you're going to want to kick him in the balls! Anti-privacy efforts have become that invasive and deviant. The control freaks are out to run our lives.
(>_<) ACK!

So hang onto your propeller beanies while, during the next few days, I cover each of these gnarly subjects relevant to the future of Macintosh computer security.

Oh fracking my!
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U2 can B Incognito On The InterWebs!

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I was just thinking of this today: InterWeb surveillance. Being not exactly friendly toward the "We Must Know ALL!" attitude of the US government and marketing morons, along with "The Customer Is CRIMINAL" attitude of the Corporate Oligarchy, I simply want to be left the frack alone to my personal privacy. No one ever has the right to 'watch' me. I don't deal with peeping pervs at my house, or over the InterTubes.

Therefore, I don't deal with Google collecting data on me wherever I go on the net. I've written about Tracking Cookies here on the blog and how to subvert them. But I get really tired of various websites still attempting to load Google Analytics.

Then I clicked over to Intego's Mac Security Blog this evening. (You'd think they'd pay me for all the PR I give them! ;-) To my synchronistic joy I found a great little article about a niffy kewl Safari extension that does ALL the Google blocking for me. It blocks FaceBook surveillance as well! And here it is:

INCOGNITO

Incognito is a Safari extension that prevents Google and Facebook from following you on the web.

It's a jungle out there
When browsing the web, you are continuously being tracked. Not only by the websites you are visiting, but also by major companies that embed their 'content' into other websites through ads and analytics.
As a result, companies like Google and Facebook have an almost complete picture of your online activity.

Your online counterspy
Incognito protects your privacy by blocking Google Adsense and Google Analytics on non-Google pages. In addition, it allows you to optionally block Facebook content on third-party websites as well as embedded YouTube movies outside of the YouTube website.

No ad-blocker
Although effectively blocking Google Adwords, Incognito is no dedicated ad-blocker. It simply prevents companies from gathering information outside of their own website.

It's FREE.

A similar tool for Firefox is Google Sharing.

The Firefox Addon for the GoogleSharing system. GoogleSharing ultimately aims to provide a level of anonymity that will prevent google from tracking your searches, movements, and what websites you visit.

It's also FREE.

BTW: I also use Safari AdBlocker. And Safari Cookies. I also frequently use software from The Tor Project (formerly The Onion Project), including Vidalia and Tor Button for Firefox, which provides excellent proxy anonymity on the TubeWebs.

IOW: I am the boss of my Internet browsing, not the government, not Google, not the Red Hacker Alliance, not hacker/crackers, not Apple, not Microsoft, not the Neo-Con-Jobs, not nobody, not no how but ME. It is in keeping with my Positive Anarchy point of view. I make all the honest, responsible choices I wish to with total disregard for the extraneous interests of others. Control freaks: Go have an aneurism over it. :-P

Speaking of which: Over at my MacSmarticles blog this coming month, I'm going to be providing lesson articles on how to setup and use Tor, via Vidalia and Tor Button for Firefox. Sorting out how to use tools is a huge PITA if you're not a computer geek. Therefore, I shall be translating the methods into human-speak for mere mortals. Because this is geek level technology, it's still a bit time consuming. But once you get the hang of the protocol and set it all up for the first time, it ain't no big deal.

You too can be 100% INCOGNITO on the Webnets!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MenInBlack
The Stranglers
© 1979

We're not here to destroy
We are here to employ

We have come to make you function
So we can eat at our functions

We are the meninblack ...

Information can destroy
So we'll treat you just like toys

Healthy livestock so we can eat
Human flesh is porky meat...

We are the meninblack...

We don't approve of artificial food
We grow you for our own good

First we gave you the wheel
Then we made you live to kill

So the best stock will survive
We eat you all alive

We are the meninblack ...
~~