Unidentified Virus: x86_wcf-system.io.log~.zip

ClamXav discovered the following unidentified virus on my Mac, which no other antivirus program I have used has claimed is a virus. I am not sure whether it is a false positive or evidence of something insidiary going on on my PC. It originated from my PC, where I did a search for all files containing the word "LOG" in them, and zipped them up to keep them as "evidence" in case something in there could later be used to track the hacker(s) I've mentioned before. I then transferred the .zip file to my Mac, where ClamXav said there was a virus contained in the zip file. The possibly infected file has the unweildy name of x86_wcf-system.io.log_b03f5f7f11d50a3a_6.0.6000.16386_none_da9913e6bac66516.zip~RF478b4d4.TMP. If anyone has any info about the above file let me know. I plan on submitting it to McAfee or some other antivirus software vendor for analysis. Any recommendations on who to submit the file to would be appreciated as well.

Update: Apparently the virus was a null virus. I have no clue really how this relates to me and the incredibly sophisticated hacking that went on with my PC. This looks like a BB gun when what I need to find is a bazooka.

Warez Scam of the Century

I got scammed on a warez site yesterday, and have only myself to blame.

Background: I recently decided to pay for all my software, after the hacking issues that plagued my PC made the concept of "nothing in life is free" take on new meaning. Not to mention the fact that software developers need to get paid too, and I have always considered stealing wrong -- only that morality didn't seem to cover digital media. Go figure. However, I've had a financial crisis of late, and really wanted to replace the truly awful SierraWatcher software for Mac OS X (it connects my laptop to the internet via my AT&T AirCard 875U) with something better, and AT&T (nee Cingular) doesn't support Macs, so their superior software is unavailable to me. My only option seems to be a program called launch2net, made by a finnish company I believe, and I tried a trial and it's way superior to SierraWatcher. Yet maybe it's the exchange rate, but it costs 75 euros, currently $106 USD, and I don't think you'll find anyone out there arguing that a modem dialing piece of software is worth that much. $25 maybe... but over $100? Give me a break. So I had a slip in my "no pirated software" philosophy and did a Google search for "launch2net warez" which resulted in a site with an incredible scam.The Scam: The site, dollarwarez.com, claims you can pay $1 to get access to the site by buying a 3-day trial membership to any of its porn affiliates, which costs only $1, natch. Make a successful purchase and return to dollarwarez and enter the code you're provided by the porn affiliate to get access. Only, the code doesn't work. The email address on the site for support doesn't work. You've just been screwed, and dollarwarez has made a big profit off you by the payment the porn affiliate will send them for signing up a new customer. What's worse, if you forget to cancel your three-day trial membership (and a high percentage of people probably do), then your credit card will be billed monthly every month until cancellation, which results in a perpetual payout for dollarwarez for operating a bogus site. Of course, you (or I, whatever) surfed there looking for free (illegal) software warez downloads, so who's going to call the BBB on them? It's a scam that works because the scammed party (in this case myself) basically "deserved" it. Still, they're scum. Be warned.

Guess I'll have to settle for using the sucky SierraWatcher for Mac OS X for the time being, until the guys who make launch2net learn how to price competitively.

U.S. Government Hacking

The identity of the hacker who targeted me is of course unknown; hence the reason for this blog. But the possibility that it could have been the U.S. government itself is truly disturbing. It's hard to believe we are living in an Orwellian police state in this country, but the evidence is all around us: the government's use of spyware or "fedware" that can bypass a computer's security software altogether; the Bush Administration's program of wiretapping without obtaining a warrant; the FBI's use of trojan horses to get information on would-be drug dealers and other criminals (not just terrorists); and the Patriot Act, which has let all the above occur unchecked. I thought the Patriot Act was supposed to help in finding and fighting terrorists, not in prosecuting America's own citizens without due process. I never really thought movies such as Enemy of the State and Minority Report were realistic. Certainly they were pessimistic views of the future. But it seems the future is here, and it's more V for Vendetta than even Alan Moore would have predicted when he based the idea on Thatcher-era England in the '80s.

All may not be lost, however. The Courts seem to be striking down the above provisions of the Patriot Act as unconstitutional with more regularity. Big Brother is here, but perhaps with enough light on this issue, he'll become a bit smaller.

MacBook Firmware Upgrade Annoyance

Mac annoyances pop up almost as frequently as with my PC. Today, for instance, I upgraded my MacBook's firmware to 1.1 using the downloaded "MacBook EFI Firmware Update" patch, available today from Apple. After reboot I was greeted with yet another opportunity to enter an old password. I changed the computer name from [name redacted to protect my identity] some time ago... yet there it appears on the screen. Of course entering old passwords doesn't work. Canceling the dialog box altogether seems to be a stopgap measure for now.Update [9/28/07]: The dialog box has stopped appearing altogether. That's one thing Macs seem to do a lot better than PCs: fix themselves. How they do so, beats the hell out of me. I guess I should just be grateful, albeit confused.

Figure Out Who Hacked Me... Win $1,000,000

Okay so that's stretching it, but you will at least win my undying admiration. Here's the puzzle: for a year and a half or more I was (and may currently still be) under constant relentless attack by unnamed hacker(s). Why? I have no clue... maybe it was a personal vendetta, maybe it was industrial sabotage, or maybe it was just sheer boredom. But the attacks were real, yet everyone around me thought I was losing it. People thought I was becoming Unabomber-paranoid, and almost everyone gently amused me but steered the conversation elsewhere should I ever bring it up in their presence (which was, like, constantly). I spent thousands of dollars on new computer equipment, every antivirus and anti-spyware application in existence (or so it seemed), new routers, a firewall.... yet these unseen menaces kept getting in my friggin' computer. Finally I heeded the advice of several people to "Go get a Mac". I thought things would be simple, that I'd finally be hacker-free.

The very first day I set up my Mac, it was hacked as well. Or so I claimed to everyone. I bitched out my friends who touted the almighty Mac as the holy grail to fix my problems. I'd spent $1800 on what -- a pretty MacBook just as or possibly even more susceptible to intentional hacking and malware. (Truth be told, however, I am now a Mac convert).

This begins the story, vague though this prologue is. Hopefully you guys out there will be able to help me figure out, Was I hacked... or just paranoid? I've kept many log files, screen captures, and a few notes in order to supplement my oh-so-fallible memory. I'll post my recollections, supplemented by these logs and screenprints, in no particular order, in the hope of raising awareness and, just maybe, catching the damn bastard that made my life hell for two years plus.