About Leaving Computer Unattended Or Logged On A Long Time

Is it true just leaving the computer by itself leaves itself open for attack, anyone have any logic for this, because I think it doesnt matter, its the same thing even if you were at your computer, theres no difference.
An extra question, what about people saying leaving a lot of tabs (I open A LOT of tabs) open like in firefox leaves one open to attack as well, even with antivirus etc. software running.
I run Windows Vista

 

That makes sense, though most viruses are brought in by some action like downloading a file and even then, it does not take effect until later. I have never had a virus that made itself blatantly known and gave me a chance to stop it, which coincides with what I'm talking about. Anyone heard of this myth, the tab myth too, that can say its bs so I can settle this dispute here at home? Appreciate your response ddp

 

if you cut your internet connection and leave your computer on it should be fine.when mine goes into sleep mode it cuts the internet connection off so i go out and leave mine on sleep mode all the time.then again the only logically reason i can think of for leaving your computer on when your not on it is downloading a large file.

edit:second reason your computer is tranferring something from usb or portable hdd to your computer.in which case cutting off your internet wont have any effect.

 

@ddp That I'm aware of, but I've never had that problem, my antiviral program works decently too. I've been using/downloading off the net since 11, now 24, never had that happen, and do not see sense making it an inconvenience on myself over misinformed information. Leaving the PC logged on and connected gives me more oppurtunity to instantly look up something that comes to mind on the fly instead of having to log in and out constantly, note I'm the kinda of person that writes something down to look it up later and still find the former method optimal. Appreciate the replies.

It seems there is no plausibility to the notion leaving it on/connected will leave you significantly more susceptible to malware/attack/etc., thats what I'm talking about.

On to the second part, the tabs as in Firefox. Where is this from, saying that leaving a bunch of tabs open at the same time also leaves you significantly more open to malware/attack/etc. Anyone have ideas on this one?

 

you were the one that asked the friggen question in the first place.why do that if you already had your mind made up?and yes,i agree with ddp on this one.

 

Yeah i have an idea the word Yahoo websearch comes to mind,what google! pffft,actually that's gonna be my new years resolution any answer to any topic i enter will now be "use websearch",so with that my work is done here

 

leaving your car on the street leaves it more open to be stolen,broken into,damaged.same as leaving a computer with a internet connection running unattended leaves it open to attack.if your watching your car and something happens you will notice,if your watching your computer and it starts doing weird stuff you know its infected.I leave music running on my computer usually when im on it.when songs start skipping for no reason i run scans and usually find something.

 

Find what? cookies

 

found cookies,trogens downloaders,trogens,java exploits,viruses,spyware.most the spyware i find is tracking cookies.seem to find stuff that shouldnt be on my computer everytime i run a scan.

 

can I have some cookies please? ..

I leave my pair of webservers running online and unattended for months on end.. my desktop I power off if I'm away for a couple of days.. otherwise it's on 24/7 as well.. but then again.. I use a SECURE BY DESIGN operating system, not mickey mouses' retarded cousin.

There is a fallacy here about how hackers work.. It's the USER who downloads the crap.. either from dodgy websites or by opening iffy email attachments.. that installs a nasty on the pc .. of course there are a few script kiddies out there who will pick your ip at random, but the real dangerous people are the ones who trap the unwary .. like the fake antivirus downloads and fake online scanner applications.. and of course the limewire deliberate trap files.. with a tempting title.. sitting on a machine which has already been expolited by one of the other methods..
Real blackhat hackers do what they do either to test/prove a concept to other blackhats.. or to make money.. they aren't interested in your desktop pc except maybe as part of a ddos attack or as a spam server.. and believe.. we don't have to directly hack in to set that up.. not when users are so damn stupid and trained to click "next" 5 times in a row without reading or thinking that they will do what we ask.. saving us all so much time and effort.. Once the user installs or runs our payload we are in.. usually the exploited box then shouts to it's control hacked server or joins it's botmasters irc and announces it's presence.. sits a while waiting for instructions.. and then if it gets them does as it's told, or follows it's other option, which may or may not be malicious.. Mine are usually set up to just delete themselves if they fail to find any instructions after 48 hours... but they don't have to be that nice.. I can easily script them do delete the registry on next shutdown or pretty much anything nasty I choose.... I prefer them to do their work with a minimum of fuss and nonsense and inconvenience to the user.. after all.. if they bring themselves to the attention of the user and cause them to investigate strange behaviour they aren't really effective in their mission.

todays bot count

win2000 - 166
xp - 13779
windows server 2003 - 9982
vista - 6696
win7 - 11208
others - 4 .. including a win95 box!!! must be a fileserver somewhere

hey Devildude.. grab a copy of clamwin or do they call it winclam these days (clamAV for windoze) and give that a run in safe mode.. impress your friends.. tease people.. look over walls.. shave your legs.. beat up poodles at whim.. impress your friends.. etc

should clear out all the crap for you.. came head and shoulders above the competition last year in trials.. otherwise give rising free antivirus a shot.. that seems very light and very capable.

 

i can get rid of the stuff already using the scanners ive got.the thing that annoys me is it sneaks on there in the first place.need a free reliable real time scanner.
somehow microsoft silver light sneaked on my computer the other day i didnt download it and i didnt install it.got rid of it anyway.(could that of been someones hack attempt?)

 

So true..lol..just ask anyone you've banned

 

I was talking to xbox guy .. not the most horny ddp .. hehehehehehe

as for bloody silverlight.. you have tried to run a media file on a website somewhere and the shit thing has just decided you must have this latest load of M$ proprietary crap.. and because you run M$ proprietary crap already it just installed itself..

time for a few people to go and read the FSF homepage and defective by design .. silverlight is just another attempt to force everybody to use the monopoly cartels junk .. no to proprietary media formats!!!

 

Unless i'm much mistaken there's only one person i know who types like that *mutley laugh*

 

I'm behind a router/switch with SPI turned on, and the only time i see any traffic aside from what i request is if i leave my torrent, or ftp port open when they aren't in use.
I like it when i see someone try to access admin on my ftp, and not get the 40 random character login password within the 3 attempts permitted.