Virus sighted in file on Video Links

[pulleddown]

On the video thread, I noted some posts about a potential virus. Thought I would write a brief bit on security when surfing porn. This may require $200 - $340 up front plus about $8 - $15/ month and either patience or a powerful machine with lots of RAM.

1) Buy VMWare Workstation 8 for $200 or find a friend who can set up the virtual machine and then you can run it with free VMWare Player. Mac users can use Fusion but I do not believe it has the encryption function yet (Workstation just introduced this as of version 8 so it may appear in a future Fusion version.)
2) Install either Linux or Windows (or both). This is where the maybe $140 comes in to buy windows.
3) If in USA or other country where law enforcement cannot force you to give up passwords, encrypt the virtual machine using VMWare’s built in encryption. I tried running the VM from a BestCrypt disk and this brought my rather powerful workstation-class machine to a crawl. Use the VMWare one. (I don’t know if VMWare Player supports encryption)
4) Put your files you download in a TrueCrypt or BestCrypt folder. If not in USA, consider the hidden partition both of these products have. This will further protect your data from prying eyes. Here, TrueCrypt runs quite OK.
5) Run reasonably frequent VMWare Snapshots. Much more robust than Windows snapshots as they are stored outside of the running virtual machine and would therefore be impervious to virus attack.
6) Use a VPN service run out of a country that does not require they maintain logs such as the Seychelles. This also allows you to get to turbobit if you are in the USA.
This should protect well against viruses – at least you can go back to a prior version if the attack is successful. To get to your files, outside ****** would need to do one of the following:
1) Install a keylogger. This would require access to the computer without your knowing. Whole disk encryption provides some protection here.
2) Hold a gun to your head (physical or virtual) and demand the password. If you use a hidden partition, you have some degree of immunity here.
3) Catch you with the Virtual Machine powered on faster than you can hit the reset button. Makes it good to have a machine where the reset button is big (or install one that is).
4) Get a very good hacker to attack from online.

If anybody has formal training in computer security, please buff up this as I am only an advanced amateur.

I don’t check the board often as my security means it takes my 5 minutes just to get through the layers to sign on.

[smackMyNuts]

Security involves looking at the trade off between cost and safety. If you're not seriously and actively involved in illegal or grey-area activities, then I wouldn't worry about using a secure proxy or encrypting your virtual hard drive. Assuming that all of your network contact is through the virtual machine, then encrypting the virtual machine's disc only protects you in the event that someone actually seizes your machine or otherwise has unfettered access to it. And using a secure proxy only protects you for snooping by your ISP or someone with whom they are cooperating (law enforcement, for example). If you're doing a bunch of pirating stuff, that makes sense, but for most of us, that's not nearly as serious a threat as viruses and malicious software.

The only really problem that I see with this idea is the presumption that you'll be able to know when you've gotten a virus and revert to the previous snapshot. Malicious software has gotten intention sneakier as a whole. It used to be that viruses were written by teenagers who wanted to show off to their friends. They were about bragging rights, so the hackers wanted people who got infected to know that they were infected. Modern viruses are often written to collect computers for a botnet. The owner of the botnet doesn't want you to know that your computer is part of the botnet because if you do, you'll try to disinfect it. So instead of having flagrant symptoms of infection, they try to minimize the user-visible symptoms as much as possible.

As such, I would recommend pairing this with some form of virus and malware detection software that you run every now and again to see if you've picked up anything.

You could also usually get more bang for your buck by doing data back-ups in a secure way rather than VM snapshots because you could do data back-ups without incurring the overhead necessary to run in a virtual machine.

[Tomato]

Yes, why a VM and all that stuff?
I didn't have any problems with viruses yet, and the costs for that are 0,00€. I run Linux well configured and that's all.
Sometimes I use a proxy located in a different country, for example for blocked youtube videos. I also changed my DNS configuration to the uncensored opendns and foebud servers.

A few years ago I tested what happens if I run a Virus with wine. Wine crashed and the directory space assigned as C: had som cryptical filenames in it. :D

[skweezme]

Yes, why a VM and all that stuff?
I didn't have any problems with viruses yet, and the costs for that are 0,00€. I run Linux well configured and that's all.
Sometimes I use a proxy located in a different country, for example for blocked youtube videos. I also changed my DNS configuration to the uncensored opendns and foebud servers.

A few years ago I tested what happens if I run a Virus with wine. Wine crashed and the directory space assigned as C: had som cryptical filenames in it. :D

I had problems with cryptical filenames when my proxy had too much Wine as well. Seems to be a common problem. I've found a vomit bucket helps.