SCARY NEW AGE

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ok i have a friend at school who sat me down yesterday and started preaching to me about just how far some people have advanced technology wise.

his words to me are anything that has a power supply can be cracked into now.

is it really safe for anyone anymore

newbies to computers, such as myself, simply dont stand a chance if someone decides to get into our systems

some peace of mind someone???

Let's stop with three flame bait threads, okay?

ok.....sorry

For future reference, just wondering what a "three flame bait threads" is.

Anyway, as long as you have a fire wall and virus scan (for windows) your pretty safe, I mean the risk is defienetly there, and there are alot of things to factor in, but obviosly if you go with linux or something other then windows your odds are better because less people use them, and they arnt as targeted by theifs. Anyway, nothing is a hundred percent safe, if you are good enough you could hake into just about any computer system.
Okay, now I see how this could become a flame thread

I heard the crap about power supply hacking when I was in 7th grade (like 8 years ago), and again about 3 years ago. Both times, the only times I heard about it in my life, were from friends that also happened to be conspiracy theorist nutjobs. In other words, I've seen no science to back this up, and until I see peer reviewed science to back this up, there's no reason to believe it.

Follow roadracer's advice for internet security, and include a spyware sweeper like SpyBot S&D or AdAware or some s**t like that.

That one went screaming over my head as well and scream it did. Why goodness heck golly, if I didn't know better I'd say that was bait in and of itself.

.......................................................
jessimus

AVAST is a pretty decent free anti virus. Actually better then most that you have to pay for. Another couple of good ones out there as well., some like AVG. I like Avast because it is simple and has an excellent track record.
Also always use the custom button when updating Windows. It will show you far more updates for your system.
If and when you get better at and with computers you might like Linux for a safer system.
I also like CCleaner, keeps the system from getting bloated and gets rid of some of your back track-able info. And if you did download stuff you really didn't intend to, it will empty them out of your temp folder. Until you get use to it, if you do try the registry cleaner, back it up and it will prompt you to do so. I have never had a problem with it. The worst that has happened is I got one false positive and that was very fast, as in an hour or so, fixed.
And yes a fire wall. I use the stock windows, but have another hard wired in.

I have forgotten the link that will test to see how open your system is to prying eyes, some one will be a long that will know it, if you're really that nervous about it.

Last edited by postpaleo on 24 Feb 2009, 2:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

Like everyone else has said, don't sweat it. Just get free spyware and antivirus programs and, if something gets through those (which is most likely to happen if you peruse very suspicious sites), you can just take the computer in for repair. Of course, don't distribute much personal information over the web, either.

Don't let conspiracy theories and far-off risks limit your horizons.

Really... power supply hacking? What?

I interpreted that as more like "anything that is electronic can be hacked."

The power supply of a computer can not get a virus.
Those black cube plugs that charge things can not get a virus.

THIS... is nothing bad to worry about:
My brother "hacked a server power supply" that he recycled from the rubbish bin.
He found a junk server in a dumpster and removed the power supply,
and figured out how to make it power a 100 watt Car Radio in the House,
but first he needed to "hack it" to figure out how the server turned the power on.
(It wasn't easy because there was no switch, and many unknown wires.)

Power Supply hacking is an implausible concept used by conspiracy theorist to further their paranoid agenda of "the gov't always watching you", thereby still watching your computer even if you d/c the internet.

They used to call it "hardware hacking" before "hacking" became a dirty word. Don Lancaster was the "Hardware Hacker" for a long time, with a column in Radio-Electronics from the time that it was a small form magazine. I followed his work religiously from about 1972 to the mid-1990s and I still visit his website, www.tinaja.com

It's just converting hardware to uses that it wasn't originally intended for. It's like taking a solar-powered yard light and converting it to a battery charger.

The only power supplies that can be hacked are made by APC; and they can be hacked only if they are connected to a network through another device (I know because I've hacked APC's entire command set for their "Smart-UPS" series).

Those wall-warts (plug-in supplies) cannot be hacked, nor can anything else that plugs in only to the power mains.

A device needs to be connected to a computer or a network in order to be hacked.

Otherwise, the claim that "anything that has a power supply can be cracked into" is a lie.

Go to http://www.grc.com/ and then follow the links to "Shields Up!" (twice).

Then "Proceed" and look at "Common Ports", say.

There's lots to read, and not a lot to panic about.

thanks guys. ill be sure to tell my friend that maybe hes being a bit too paranoid. lol and shouldn't pass that on to me.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt92005.html http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt91997.html

OP made (at least) three pointless threads in short proximity to each other (a second was made while the first had 0 replies and was at the top of the forum). These posts all had poor grammar, were uninformed, and made false assumptions likely to cause, at best, some sarcastic retorts from those in the know.

If OP is as tech un-savy as they appear, then they should simply make a single thread with the intent to educate themselves. To spam like this takes advantage of the very tolerant mods here at WP.

im new here. still learning sorry. will keep that in mind from now on.

Hacking was never a dirty word, Just because media is hosted by n0obs that dont know the difference tween hack and crack doesnt mean I will bow down to their word jacking