#Vault7 ‘Athena’: CIA’s anti-Windows malware

[Y_Participant 4591]

Anonymous wrote:

I installed Adobe Photo deluxe buisness edition that came with my first digital camera, trying to use windows editing software felt like a kindergarten romper room, f~~~ing childish! like Win8 (try to figure out how to get in the car with no door handles, no dash board, no ignition.

At this point Windows offers nothing new – so they go after females and kids. Nothing has changed really in the last 17 years and the code becomes more and more buggy.

[Anonymous 11]

Macs tend not to be targeted due to the lower market share. Sadly, Apple recently seems to be letting the MacIntosh platform lag in the hardware department versus Windows oriented hardware. Back in the PowerPC chip days, the Power Macs were exceptional.

However, if Mac users execute unknown programs as readily as Windows users do then we’ll have the same problems. Many Mac users think they are virus proof too which is bad. They are fundamentally more secure than Windows due to the BSD heritage of Darwin. However, running as a privileged account opens up more wiggle room for the bad guys. Apple issues many security updates too.

Yumbo, I do notice a lower than average infection rate among Norton users versus other AV vendors especially in places that do not have real security appliances like residential and many small businesses. Symantec has vastly improved Norton. Signature based anti-virus is on its death bed.

[SamsquanchParticipant 4226]

Thanks for the info brothers

[Y_Participant 4591]

Faust For Science wrote:

The hackers do not even have to worry about the computers connecting for the software install. All they have to do is infect their viruses at the source.

This is one of the THE big problems with WIN 10 and I’m glad you mentioned it. If the severs at Microsoft or on any mirror were compromised then all bets are off.

[Anonymous 42]

Anonymous wrote:

Norton users versus other AV vendors especially in places that do not have real security appliances like residential and many small businesses. Symantec has vastly improved Norton. Signature based anti-virus is on its death bed.

I’m running Norton, it’s hands off and they come in with little popups telling you what’s going on, like the resent attacks, within 24 hours I was notified they had it covered.

It sucks looking at a locked computer, blue screen, or it won’t boot again. I remember when I had to remove a few nasty worm viruses following directions someone made on the web, glad those days are gone! No more glitches and I’m running a 10yo box! (with a new HD, RAM, Fan, and I think a couple other things.

[GnosticParticipant 2491]

Faust For Science wrote:

Before anyone thinks of changing over to Windows 10, remember you cannot turn off auto-update in Windows 10.

One should watch the 2004 film I, Robot to understand the dangers of living auto-update on.

The hackers do not even have to worry about the computers connecting for the software install. All they have to do is infect their viruses at the source.

Tens of millions of zombie computers with a few keystrokes.

I believe you cannot turn off auto-update with many smartphones. I am not sure.

If MS and Apple are smart, they would turn off auto-update for their products before the large security hole is exploited.

For android smartphone you can trash the smartphone OS and install OS that gives more control and privacy like Cyanogenmod. Or its successor LineageOS for new phone.

If your new phone is not supported by these OS you can install Xprivacy so you can restrict which app is allow to do what in your phone.

There is no magic in MGTOW, just recognition of the truth and logical decision how to avoid dangers. The red pill is but the truth, it is no magical potion. Do not think in this modern world men have no longer have natural enemies, men are prey to women and government.

[Y_Participant 4591]

Anonymous wrote:

Yumbo, I do notice a lower than average infection rate among Norton users versus other AV vendors especially in places that do not have real security appliances like residential and many small businesses. Symantec has vastly improved Norton. Signature based anti-virus is on its death bed.

thank you bro – you’re the man.
And yes Symantec did a lot of good.
I believe that Norton have an excellent virus update and risk control centre that immediately sends out fixes in record time to any known threat. I have never been disappointed by them. The amount of work they do is staggering. I would not use anything else for Windows.

[Y_Participant 4591]

One last post bros

Just saw an interesting article about some very secure e-mail (Protonmail) and also android apps (Silent Circle’s software called “Silent Phone”), Check them out.

http://thesaker.is/keeping-communications-private-in-the-age-of-big-brother-a-practical-howto/

[Anonymous 14]

Anonymous wrote:

Life would be better without than with this government, I really mean that!

Joe here chiming in again to agree with MGTOWER that Anarchy looks to be a better idea than what we have now because at least there would no longer be a mandate that resources be fed to fund and centralize power and corruption.

[DaveVParticipant 450]

Faust For Science wrote:

Before anyone thinks of changing over to Windows 10, remember you cannot turn off auto-update in Windows 10.

My brother runs an IT consultancy setting up systems for clients, small and medium businesses. He gave me the same advice. Avoid Windows 10 like the plague. However he isn’t a fan of Macs either, as he sees them as expensive, limited in their functionality and difficult to network.

Having said that, there are few operating systems out there where you have much of a choice.

With the NSA exploits of windows, and all the bloatware it comes with, and annual licensing requirements of MS Office etc, I think MS have made a worse product since XP, though Win 7 wasn’t too bad. Still that’s what you get for outsourcing it all to India…..

D. G. I. Don't. Get. Involved. (Be happy, and stress not)

[Lost In OzParticipant 59]

Gnostic wrote:

For android smartphone you can trash the smartphone OS and install OS that gives more control and privacy like Cyanogenmod. Or its successor LineageOS for new phone.

After running cyanogen on the same phone for six years, I have finally had to update. I bought a new motorola yesterday. before I did so I made sure there was a version of lineage available for it. I run linux on my server pc and win7 on my desktop. I spend about 30% of my time on the desktop running a live linuxmint distro from a usb stick. I’m too lazy to do the change over but I see the time has come to properly install and finally can windows. there was no chance of me ever moving to win 8 or 10 which is why I started playing with linux.

for those who would like to try linux i recommend mint it looks a lot like windows and you can boot it off a usb memory stick without changing your current system.

GPS Navislut. Great just what I need, a computerised bitch telling me where to go..

[Y_Participant 4591]

Thanks LiO

I hope the guys here perhaps seek your advice on Linux Mint.

I have a very bad feeling this is just the beginning and these Vault 7 hacking tools are going to be the bane of Windows users for a long time.

[SandalsParticipant 4253]

Y_ wrote:

The best MS OS in my opinion was Win NT4 – hands down.

I seriously thought I was the only one in the world who thought this. No joke.

After that, I’d take Windows 3.1 back. Separate applications, and install drivers direct from the disk.

It’s amazing how people did not see where all this auto-install and update stuff was going. Name any society-advancing invention that has not been co-opted by government to control and kill people.

[SandalsParticipant 4253]

Anonymous wrote:

Joe here chiming in again to agree with MGTOWER that Anarchy looks to be a better idea than what we have now because at least there would no longer be a mandate that resources be fed to fund and centralize power and corruption.

There’s always going to be a gang in charge. Sucks, but that’s the truth. The next best thing after anarchy is a government (gang) of MGTOW.

[Y_Participant 4591]

Sandals wrote:

I seriously thought I was the only one in the world who thought this. No joke.

After that, I’d take Windows 3.1 back. Separate applications, and install drivers direct from the disk.

You are not alone – there are a lot of my peers who are still in systems admin who agree. The man who designed NT4 is a genius.

On Win 3.x – these were running on the MS DOS 6.x (did it upgrade to 7.x or was that DR DOS 7.x?) as the OS so I don’t know if that is possible anymore.

[Anonymous 1]

Anonymous wrote:

I installed Adobe Photo deluxe buisness edition that came with my first digital camera, trying to use windows editing software felt like a kindergarten romper room, f~~~ing childish! like Win8 (try to figure out how to get in the car with no door handles, no dash board, no ignition. Just childish avatars that lead you to other childish avatars that lead nowhere! Evey pathway you knew through the windows operating system was GONE! Just a big I phone built to hide and obscure all the nuts and bolts. Same with GIF animated programs, everything is a platform one size fits all with severely limited function just like kindergartner romper room. Include platform websites where the techs answer you with “I can see why someone would want that ability” then offer NO SOLUTION whereas the nut’n’bolt website where you have the platform building blocks so you can do waaaaaaaaay moooooorrrrreeeeeeee s~~~!

I’m not the biggest fan of Alex Jones but I’ll say one thing, I see a dumbdown push to cripple peoples ability on every platform on the internet and program sorry, I mean App that’s published.

They removed the f~~~ing “help tab” from the mind-f~~~ win-8 program. It went from an elaborate maze of brick pathways to every corner of the empire to an ENORMOUS PILE OF BROKEN BRICKS! WTF! It’s like they’re trying to eliminate text entirely and replace the written word with F~~~ING SILHOUETTES AND SYMBOLS! I find the whole f~~~ing direction of Microsoft and Windows going down the drain to degrade the internet experience down to making you a drooling, mumbling, babbling, f~~~ing mute!

Simple things, simple paths, convert to GIF, JPG, PNG, just a f~~~ing click or two away, not f~~~ing doing an internet search just to find the new s~~~ f~~~ing program doesn’t have the f~~~ing function! WTF! It’s INTENTIONAL TO CRIPPLE THE MASSES FROM FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION! STUPIDITY IS EASIER TO CONTROL! SO WHY NOT MAKE THEM THINK THEY’RE STUPID WHEN ACTUALLY THEY’RE FRUSTRATED WITH OUR REMOVING THE CONTROLS! <rant f~~~ing over>

Haha, that was my experience with Windows 8 too! I remember when it first came out. I was over at my Mom’s house. She says “Can you help me with this new computer?” I’m looking at it, WTF is this s~~~! After f~~~ing around for 20 minutes and not able to open Word, I just threw up my hands FUUUUCK Microsoft! I grew up with Windows and used to be really good at using it and fixing any issues that would pop up (98 and XP). Windows 8 took all that experience away from me and left me completely dumbfounded and beyond frustrated. Glad, I switched to Mac OS about 10 years ago, no comparison to the Windows s~~~ show.

[Anonymous 1]

Y_ wrote:

You are not alone – there are a lot of my peers who are still in systems admin who agree. The man who designed NT4 is a genius.

On Win 3.x – these were running on the MS DOS 6.x (did it upgrade to 7.x or was that DR DOS 7.x?) as the OS so I don’t know if that is possible anymore.

I grew up with Windows 95. It was my first experience with Windows. I have been saying this for years, but Windows seems to have gotten s~~~tier with each release since about 1996. Finally culminating in Windows 8, which was completely UNUSABLE for me. I couldn’t even open up Word anymore. I imagine Hell being an office where I am forced to do work on a Windows 8 machine all day!

[DaveVParticipant 450]

Sandals wrote:

Yumbo wrote:

The best MS OS in my opinion was Win NT4 – hands down.

I seriously thought I was the only one in the world who thought this. No joke

For work networked systems, the NT family (all the versions), had a long run and most companies I worked with were very reluctant to upgrade to Win 2000 (and quite rightly as well). IT departments seem to have this policy of wait 2-3 years after Windows released a new operating system until the bugs were ironed out. Most IT departments trialed upgrades on a simple standalone test network system, and only after rigorous testing over weeks would they release the upgrade/patch to the company.

The worst one Windows ever released was Vista…absolute and total cr*p, unsupported by most hardware manufacturers. After that my approach is wait at least 3-4 years after Windows releases any new operating system to see if it’s actually worth it…and aside from Win 7…everything they have produced has been …well cr*p

D. G. I. Don't. Get. Involved. (Be happy, and stress not)

[SolidParticipant 7520]

Did you guys really believe that those exploits are just “bugs” ?
I believe that the bug was planted, and it was intentional, someone was paid to plant those bugs there, so the government could exploit them.

If you have money, is easier that way.

You know, we can charge you 400mi on taxes this year, OR you can help us to fight terrorism. What did you say ? You want to help us ? Or did you like to see people exploding and dying ?

I imagine it happening just like that, with that cheap manipulation tricks.

Windows is a good operating system for games, soon as games start to be popular on other platforms, Windows will lose a good slice of the pie !

[ABParticipant 762]

“The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards – and even then I have my doubts.” – Gene Spafford

No-one's yet explained to me exactly what's so great // About slaving fifty years away on something that you hate // About meekly shuffling down the path of mediocrity // Well if that's your road then take it, but it's not the road for me.

[Author]

Posts