[Art]

Thanks, SquareBear but when someone posts your email addy THEN your password, that tends to get one a bit rattled. Then they have one's attention so the rest of the email with their generalities and final IF this Then that (Pay or Lose you stuff), one starts to think...how real is this...after all, they have my email password and sent me an email from my account... GEESH!!

Odd how their email had most areas the same colored blocks of text then what he/she added was in a differently highlighted color. Likely uses that method to "personalize" their emails to their victims.

My A/V software never reported anything after several scans nor did my Malware software.

One main pain in the rear was that I had to change ALL of my contact that used (or that I used) with that compromised email address! That took a bit of time and aggravation and the loss of an email account. All's good in the neighborhood now... Except for that Prince who needs to get a huge sum of money out of his country and he said he'd pay me very nicely if I first send him some funds to help him get the ball rolling...

[ruebot]

It's considered good practice to change your password periodically and not to use the same one on different sites.

Here is a site where you can check if your email box is listed in the database of those compromised. It shows an old Yahoo box I lost the password to as pwned. I don't trust Yahoo not to read or scan it:

Have I been pwned?

You can also check for domains that have been compromised like forums, Avast Antivirus, Comcast, etc.

I would Not enter my password to see if it is in the database, there or anywhere else. If it wasn't before it will go into one if you do.

I used to reply to Nigerian Royalty as an FBI agent assigned to the Internet Fraud Dept. of the nearest office, along with the contact info of the office and give them some story or ask them to contact me there during business hours. Robert Muller was still head of the FBI then, sometime he responded.

Microsoft tech support calling to inform me my computer was infected with a virus the high point of my day. Not so much for them.

I would go full-blown hysterical on them, say I probably got it downloading porn and even got one person to google a site I came up with off the top of my head, visit it and asked what he saw. He said porn.

I laughingly said now you've probably got the same virus I do. He hung up.

[cymbod]

Since the dark ages of the internet the two basic actions remain true:

1. never download or click on unknown attachments.
2. back up everything to a storage medium that is not constantly connected to your system or the internet. 

Most of the tricks of parasites is social engineering to get a target to download something like a virus, and to convince the user to hand over sensitive information or money. 

I think an AGI that runs the security of a system can assist in a major way to counter-act the natural stupidity of human beings who fall for simple social engineering techniques of parasites.  It might be that a company has a great team of security specialists, but it only takes a teenager doing work experience being tricked into downloading something, then the entire company systems can be compromised. 

[Art]

Perhaps, but an AI overseeing a computer system would need to be taught all the nuances of human behavior including misdirection, bluffing and so forth. To teach a computer how to tell what is real and what is not might prove to be a difficult task to some degree.

How about an AI for a civil or criminal Judge? One's fate to be decided based on facts along and not swayed by appearance, emotional outbursts or positions of prominence (Do you know who I am? Who my father is? etc.). It will Not hate humans, just blindly judge them, right or wrong.

Oh, the AI is definitely to a neighborhood near us all, the question is, will it work?

[LOCKSUIT]

Avoid the Fool's Backup:
You have a external disconnected storage device as a backup solution, however every time you do your backup...you connect it to your computer and the internet and both are running. You need a THIRD backup device!

[Art]

Actually, I disconnect my main computer from the Internet connection when I do modifications or make backups of data that I know to be correct and clean of "bugs".

This past event was only the email servers of my ISP that got hacked and not my computer per se.

Several A/V and Malware scans from different vendors were made and all came back clean!

Yes, it pays to backup early, often and safely!

[ivan.moony]

I don't know for anyone else, but I think that operating systems are done just in a wrong way. I have some experience with Java and a bit more with web browsers (Javascript), and my thinking goes in ways I saw when researching those products. I actually think that when carefully approached, everything *can* be "sand boxed" (Java less, browsers more, imaginary future OS completely), so that malware couldn't be possible in general.

 I understand a bit of programming, and I cheer for another new "safe" OS. I think it's possible. Os can do only what it's programmed for, but legacy OS-es allow too much without caring from where the commands came from, and that is the essence of the problem. Careful design should be the solution, but maybe legacy software is something worth of trouble keeping things the way they are. Or maybe not.

Maybe the solution would be a web based OS that runs programs within browsers. Once there is enough apps for it, it might be the time to replace Windows, Linux, OS X or Android by the modern, safe OS native port that doesn't allow more than it is assigned for particular sandbox instance that hosts an application session.

[HS]

During middle school I had thousands of viruses on my laptop. I used to get as many viruses as possible so I could show off to my friends. I think I was vaguely hoping  all the viruses would interact in complex ways and gain sentience. Nothing ever happened, and I think it outlasted my moms laptop. I probably had nothing of value for hackers at the time.

[Art]

I read a while back from a very learned person with regard to programming and computer security, that if he were to design a nasty virus and wanted a way to "introduce" it to the masses, he would structure it to quietly slip into to everyone's computers as a Flash or Java update/upgrade and let it, self-extract.

Which is another reason why I chose not to use either of them. There is nothing in my system that needs them and I really don't want them. And so it is.

By now most logical choices indicate that in order to go and play in the online world, one must give up any expectation of privacy or security. The steps we take are nothing more than false attempts at security that only serve to make us feel good about what we're doing.
It's akin to trying to slay a dragon with a cardboard sword. A noble and valiant effort but quite useless in the end.

For the dragon has many heads and is known everywhere and in all lands.

[HS]

Yup. Antivirus programs are a much bigger nuissance than actual viruses. They are constantly bombarding you with monthly subscription plans and status reports. Uninstalling Avast is downright impossible. If you have significant wealth or nuclear codes, store the keys offline. Otherwise it seems like its not worth the trouble.

[Art]

Actually, the one I use isn't very invasive into my life at all. I pay a very reasonable subscription fee for a 2 year period and it covers 3 devices of my choosing. Of course, more devices can be added at a slightly increased cost. It quietly does automatic updates, scans when I choose the days and times (like when I'm away or sleeping). It keeps me informed of any malware trying to enter past the firewall, etc. or anything that might seem questionable or out of sorts.

It has done a most credible job for the past 15 years that I've had it and I wouldn't trade it for anything less. Free is worth the price of admission but there are some nice freeware programs to be had for contending with various malware and bugs of all types.

So, my A/V just works silently in the background keeping watch.

Our ISP's and email servers should have such protection!! 

[ruebot]

It keeps me informed of any malware trying to enter past the firewall, etc. or anything that might seem questionable or out of sorts.

If you surf the web with JavaScript enabled your firewall will not stop malware that is introduced via the browser and it is not necessary for you to click on anything. That is how things like script driven ads do drive-by downloads.

The NoScript browser extension claims to stop Meltdown and Spectre:

NoScript's unique whitelist based pre-emptive script blocking approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known, such as Meltdown or Spectre, and even not known yet!) with no loss of functionality...

https://noscript.net/

I never allow scripting globally and enable scripts individually as I go site by site or authorize in advance those I know to be safe for sites like youtube.

[Art]

Yep, I've gotten by for years now without intentionally using or activating Flash or Java.

They simply got to be a major pain in the rear and they constantly needed updating. The alleged problems they caused for so many people simply weren't worth any benefit they might have offered to me (real or otherwise).

There was a time many years ago when a group of us wondered if it wasn't like a rogue fireman setting fires so their department could look good putting them out...or a doctor poisoning a patient so that he/she could give them an antidote then become a "hero". An Anti-Virus company releasing their own viruses into the wild so that they would be the only ones to come up with a "fix".  You know...those wonderful self-serving sociopaths.

[squarebear]

... An Anti-Virus company releasing their own viruses into the wild so that they would be the only ones to come up with a "fix". 

I'm 100% sure this goes on. How do AV companies get a copy of, analyse and fix new viruses in a matter of hours unless they have some inside knowledge. hmmm 

[LOCKSUIT]

Ya sorta like my coders who I swear make so many bugs just so they can fix them. And make you feel sad they spent o so long, and hence waste your timeline and get a little tip for all that error correcting.