[Gllug] Trojans and social engineering

[general_email at technicalbloke.com]

On 13/08/10 09:38, Christopher Hunter wrote:
> On Fri, 2010-08-13 at 04:06 +0100, general_email at technicalbloke.com
> wrote:
>    
>> On 11/08/10 16:39, - Tethys wrote:
>>      
>>> When most Linux boxen are being used as single user machines, what's
>>> the difference between the two? What solace is there in losing all
>>> your personal data, but knowing that /bin/ls hasn't been replaced
>>> with a malware version?
>>>
>>> Tet
>>>        
>    
>> Well said, that point doesn't get made often enough!
>>
>> I couldn't give a toss about my system files remaining uninfected if the
>> privacy and security of the 4TB of data under my user account is
>> imperilled :/
>>
>> Roger.
>>      
> I entirely agree, but this just demonstrates the requirement for regular
> backups!
>    


Well I backup all my critical stuff but it's just not practical (in cost 
terms) to backup the several terrabytes of music, video and ISO files I 
have. As somebody pointed out earlier a bad guy is unlikely to 
deliberately wipe that although I have heard tale of some nasty 
ransomware that encrypts everything and holds it hostage until you pay 
to decrypt it!

No, the main problem is the privacy aspect... My terrabytes of media are 
probably safe, it's the few dozens of kilobytes of passwords and 
credentials and my clients sensitive data that worries me - this is one 
of the main reasons I moved to linux in the first place. I keep as much 
as I can locked up in truecrypt volumes but that's little use if I have 
them mounted when I get compromised and some apps (I'm looking at you 
filezilla) insist on keeping quite juicy data in plaintext still :/

Roger.
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