NSFW What is it about adult sites that the computer techies warn us about?

No, porn sies are loaded with malware, automatic downloads, tracking cookies and spyware.

@XOIIO cookies* but what he said.

OK that part I understand, but why? @XOIIO. That’s what I’ve been told and it was left at that. I know so little about computers that I don’t even know what I don’t know. So what’s the deal with the dirty viruses. Does anybody gain anything from buggering up hard drives? Is that the right thing, hard drives?

Isn’t it the malicious viruses that they love to infect you with? Like computer AIDS for promiscuous on line activity?

I just don’t see the point. I mean like there needs to be a reason such as money being at the bottom of it. I understand that tracking cookies enable similar products or interests to be better directed to your inbox to help you buy things, thus creating a sale, a transaction of above board goods and services, but why fuck up someone’s machine also? And is it only porn sites that cause problems? I haven’t yet heard of any danger to be had by any other than porn sites.

@woodcutter They either try to get your personal info like bank cards, or just to inconvenience you. Porn sites are the worst because millions of people who don’t know better use them, and put credit card info into the. It’s just for the sake of being malicious, what do you not get about that?

@XOIIO It’s the malicious part. There has to be a money incentive, sorry that is the quasi capitalist thinking part of me here. True, scamming to steal one’s identity thus their money but why the computer wrecking on top of that? If they kill your machine how do they expect to rip you off later?

It’s like that scene in “Pirates of the Caribbean” when Jack Sparrow says: “But why the rum?”

@woodcutter No, there doesnt have to be an incentive. It’s for fun.

There are plenty of legit porn portals that are computer safe. It’s the popunder ads that lure people into redirects, browser hijackers and data miners. Like any area of the internet, surf wisely and you won’t have a problem.

Is it a universal belief that porn watchers are evil, evil beings who deserve to have their computers buggered up? And do the porn sites do this intentionally, or are they also invaded and are victims as well? I don’t mean to seem thick or anything it just makes no sense to me.

@woodcutter Names woman, give me names!

did you mean to direct that at me @woodcutter?

@Blueroses yeah, you said legit porn sites and I thought that was funny. I thought all of them were suspect and should be avoided.

So why porn and not other sites? I could get it if there is a lot of expense to keeping a site safe and the internet porn sites consider it too much to spend therefor cutting into profits?

@XOIIO I don’t even get how those destructive practices could be fun. Do the people responsible really ever find out when they’ve done somebody’s computer in? Or is it just the knowing they got a few people possibly.
I can see how a person who is really knowledgeable about the internet can avoid stepping on land mines but apparently the problems are so camouflaged it gets a lot of people?

It might have to do with people wanting to download it? (Illegal) download sites are also risk areas.

And of course, visitors of porn websites are very susceptible to social engineering, i.e. easily persuaded to click/download/run something just to see that scene that satisfies their fetisj.

It isn’t just porn, though those generate a lot of traffic. The only times my computer got royally f**ked it was through Limewire and Failbook.

@XOIIO Ok You’re saying that too much of their blood supply is crammed into their junk they become careless?

@Blueroses What kind of sites are those two? I’m not going to look them up.

LImewire was a peer-to-peer file sharing site. Failbook mocks Facebook. That one gave me the biggest pain in the ass browser hijacker and phony virus alert malware.

@woodcutter exactly

@XOIIO That is just wrong

Gadzooks, any high traffic site is in danger of having some nasty files attached to it. The legit sites usually have better hosting service with better IT tools to keep stuff like that off. Many porn sites are cobbled together with minimal effort, to maximize gain. Their hosting and Web servers may not be as robust against being hijacked or piggybacked by unintended nasty files. Think about it, if you wanted to get your message to many people, porn sites are an easy way to do it. Porn is a billion dollar industry so a lot of people are loging on. If you are going to be a robber you are going to go where the money is, like a bank over the garage sale.

@woodcutter Yeah, but theres nothing you can do about it, so why give a f*ck

So my part B here is, Are there specific kinds of computers that are more impervious to these attacks than others? or some that are most easily trashed?

You can stay pretty safe with any system. I go into all sorts of dark corners of the web running Chrome (incognito windows), Avast and AdBlock and haven’t had a single security issue in over 2 years.

@woodcutter Well you really want your porn pretty badly, don’t you?

@XOIIO What makes you think that? I’m interested in why porn and why the destructive means. Isn’t it possible for hackers and scammers to do what they do without it? It seams to me it’s just extra effort, is all.

@woodcutter It saves effort actually.

@Blueroses Thanks for that advise. I never would have known. I know it may seem odd that anybody in this day and age is clueless about the inner workings of the web. No body is born knowing anything. So if you grow up during the age of the web it will be second nature easily. Easier if your schooling and work involved computers there will be no memory of any time when there were no computers. There are still people around that never needed them to do life at all and got by fine.

@woodcutter Some sites are built specifically to be virus websites and use porn as a bait, so that’s normally what makes others legit. But any legit site can be taken down temporarily; my father once got one logging into his health insurance website.

Macs and Linux are safer, though not through any better security system, but rather obscurity; there just aren’t enough people with those operating systems (Mac is a computer and an OS, Linux just an OS) for it to be worth hackers time creating viruses for them. However, as more people get Macs, there are more and more viruses for them.

Some legit (I think, others might know better) porn sites are redtube, youporn, tube8, xtube, pornhub. Stay away from anything that makes you install a special codec in order to watch thier video. And know how to reinstall your OS; that way, if you do get something, it really just takes a Sunday afternoon to get your computer back instead of being a big deal.

As for why people create viruses, I really have no idea. I get why the Pentagon would create a virus and target Al Queda with it, and why Al Queda would do the same, but what drives everyday programmers to create viruses that will simply inconvenience random people they’ve never met (and presumably have nothing against), I just have no idea.

@Aethelflaed Well you certainly seem to know about these things and if you say these ankle biters are doing it for no apparent reason I will just have to take it as that, that there will always be people doing crappy things to others even in cyberspace just because they can. I was thinking there may have been some who were careless one time and got busted and was interviewed to find out why they do it, what drives them. Or is it just plain old immaturity at work?

@woodcutter It’s a good question, and one I don’t have the answer to.

@woodcutter In any large group of people, you are going to have nihilists, assholes, and other malcontents. The internet has billions of people on it. With that information, do you still find it hard to believe that there are not at least thousands of people who would cause random destruction for no reason other than, “Fuck you, that’s why!”?

@Aethelflaed Many viruses are actually signed. Not the sort of signature that needs to be examined like a fingerprint, but rather a line in the code that says “I wrote this!”. For a virus to do lots of damage, it usually requires a bit of programming skill; a degree of 1337-ness bordering on |_||33|2—|33+ .
If you can write a virus that spreads like wildfire and does lots of damage, you have just proven that you have (or are) a bigger dick than all of the other n00bs that dare call themselves haxx0rz.
Can you understand how ego might be a factor here? As for why people decide to stroke their ego destructively, that is a good question, and I think it plays into power, but I think I’ve gone far enough.

@jerv I think it’s the amount of time it takes to write a virus vs many other forms of destruction that really puzzles me. If you want to destroy things for shits and giggles, why is your first instinct to spend an entire afternoon writing a virus instead of grabbing the nearest spray can and defacing your neighbor’s garage in 3 minutes?

@Aethelflaed I suppose going outside and physically breaking something is a little more than these no muscle tone eggheads are up for. Much easier to get away with it hiding inside their mothers house and wait for someone to talk about on the news? Are there any anti hacker, hackers who can bust these guys at their own games?

@Aethelflaed A can of spray paint will mark one spot. A virus can travel the world. Why tag one place when you can tag billions?

@woodcutter Yes. In fact, Kevin Mitnick is one; he turned “white hat”.

Suppose they bust one of these people. What kind of punishment by law can they expect to get? I would think it should be a felony with restitution to make good on all those computer crashes. If they kill a million machines that might cost 300 bucks each to salvage…whoa that is going to be a bitch.

@woodcutter 1) Hard to prove damages, especially as there are so many things that can cause such damage including owner incompetence.
2) If it costs $300 to fix then the person paying is also the type to pay $27/gallon for gas.
3) The Mitnick case kind of made it bitch as he was held without being charged for three years. Amnesty International stepped in. There is still some debate over whetehr his sentence violated the Eighth Amendment.
5) Paybacks is a bitch. If the person busted is part of a group, or if the way their case is handled pisses such a group off…

But the effort and expense it takes to even try to catch one often isn’t worth it unless they hacked banks or military installations, so they don’t get busted very often. When they do, it is a felony, but restitution… well, how much damage can you prove and how much does it really cost to fix? I repair my systems and those of some of my friends for free using easily available free software, so the answer to the latter should be $0.00.

@jerv Couldn’t the tech who looks at the messed up machine be able to figure out what it was that buggered it up? Especially if he sees several other machines come to him with the same deal? if someone has the skills to get a computer back up is one thing but really, how many people can do it? It’s like how many can fix their own roof or lawn mower?

@woodcutter it’s a virus, you can’t track it back. I’m jot sure why you can’t grasp this concept

@woodcutter My experience is that it’s rare to get a virus. Most systems I’ve seen were either clean or infected with enough malware to make diagnosis difficult at best. As for how many people can do it, it’s far easier than carpentry or small engine repair. Then again, avoiding infection is even easier…

@woodcutter The tech can identify what is buggering the PC but not where it originated. Once they start spreading, the trail scatters. Think of it like you catch the flu from your sick friend. Your friend wasn’t the source of the disease, only a vector and not really to blame for your getting ill too.

@XOIIO I asked this question because I don’t know much about computers. Why is it soooo hard for you to get that? Get off this question if it’s twisting you up too much. Do you get some kind of kick looking down your nose at people who ask questions about stuff you were obviously born knowing about? It’s my question and if I want to know more about stuff I’m unfamiliar with I’m going to ask….problem?

@woodcutter It doesn’t matter if you don’t know much about computers, its an extremely simple thing, people do shit just to be assholes to other people, but you are looking for some deeper meaning when there isnt one. It’s not about getting kicks, its the plain and simple fact that what you are seeing is all there is to it.

@XOIIO Yes that point you are making was made a few posts back…and I did read it.
Am I buggin you?.....I don’t mean to bug ya.

Can’t we all just get along?

@jerv trying…trying real hard.