Heads Up

Surveillance Alert:

Got this from a trusted source and wanted to give you guys a heads up on the "cookie" thing.

"You guys take care up there, Larisa. Your outfit seems to have the lead .... so you may be a target. The WORD is that John DC over at (the place you guys know) is a target, too, and that a man has been calling people who've posted on that site, ID'ing himself as "John" and warning them not to post anymore! Interesting, huh?"

"The (site of John DC) ... insecure site - so turn up all anti-virus and security systems before going over there... glitchy site - warning screens going off constantly, cookie-requests popping repeatedly

"LavaSoft spycatcher turns up weird cookie... Couldn't ID it or its source... called (someone who would understand) and he couldn't ID it either, he said it appeared to be written in a crypto code. We checked my Norton log, and sure enough, it was written into my system at the time I was connected to (john dc blog)... sent off for analysis (solid reputation).... it is a RECURRING TRACKING COOKIE... deleted, rebooted, and it was still there. All attempts to remove it fail."

" you MUST delete, reinstall windows and just to be safe, set up an automatic scan on boot-up every morning"

Heads up kids, run scan for this cookie please ASAP. Delete and reboot, if still there, you have to reinstall Windows.

Welcoem to Mother Russia, lol.

Am notifying John DC, via remote email. L

On Edit... I set my browser to prompt and the cookies (which can't harm your PC... they're just for tracking) are from blogger.com, paypal, and some hit counter site.

Cookie1: s12.sitemeter.com Data only lists my external IP
Cookie2: Blogger.com lists external IP
Cookie3: Paypal.com lists external IP

This sounds just like the hoax emails I see all the time.

No offense to you but how reliable is your source?

Also... you can't just delete a cookie with Internet Explorer. It's cached in some file. Maybe now's the time for you to switch to FireFox?

I have been communicating with this person for a while... all he is saying is have the appropriate security measures up when you go:

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5

there must be a registry entry restarting it. Do you have a file name and does a scanner catch it.

Any updates as info develops would be greatly appreciated.

If I can locate the erroneous registry entry, I'll post removal instructions.

thanks

A moron when it comes to such things, which is why it is nice to have "friends"

He said that that software will identify it. We let John know to scan his server and setup some protection.

Will ask exact file name as I have already deleted the bloody thing, but did not write down what it was. In fact, I just deleted every cookie without documenting them. I remember that cookie being there, but do not remember the name. Will ask him to specify more detail and in English so I can understand it better. I was so busy making sure names were removed that I may have removed crap I had no clue about.

In the mean time, I got this from another friend of the former Bill years:

"Best way to fight this is to blog the hell out of any site that is posting crypto recurring tracking cookies.

The only solution is truth to power."

Okay, so which approach is the right one? Okay, going to find out what the cookie is called. In the meantime, block all cookies from said site and let John know if someone contacts you and pretends to be him.

know the software mentioned? i checked it out on ZDnet and it got high reatings and I downloaded it... can you see if it finds something on from either Raw and/or Amirblog that other spyware programs you have has not?

ad-aware will wipe it out. think it's lavasoft.com take the personal SE for free. I've been using it for two years. Gets right in the registry and cleans those pesky spies right out. Pay the, I think it's 19.99, and it'll run in the background like a virus scanner and catch this stuff in real time as they come in. Though it's not that necessary unless your putting together a nuclear deterrence or something of a very high security environment. I just use the free-be and run it manually every few days. Eats cookies and everything.

I think it is a poor idea for people to post "alerts" from anonymous sources regarding virus and Trojan warnings, particularly citing a particular blog site.

As a general rule, these "warnings" and "scares" are frowned upon or disallowed by most bulletin boards.

Presumably, people have taken responsible precautions and installed anti-spy ware and firewalls on their computers by now. This sort of virus and spy ware can be picked up all over the net and in emails.

It seems inappropriate to suddenly point to a certain site as being risky, particularly coming from an unnamed source.

Frankly, I find the post to be utterly irresponsible, gossip and fear mongering.

Sorry to disappoint you but that is sometimes how sources are referenced, anonymous. Reason? Logic.

This was sent to me about my publication and another publication, that we have collaborated with on stories, identifying us as targets. To assume I have no appropriate reason to post such a thing makes me wonder what is appropriate? All tin foil hats aside, your response is absolutely offensive and unacceptable to me. Your nerve at suggesting that I would engage in fear mongering is completely without backing given that I use my real name both as a blogger and as a journalist, unlike you, using a nickname. My intentions are quite obvious I think and since I know John, I would think that makes me a bit more reliable in discussing this problem. I use unnamed sources because why? Take a moment to ponder this very difficult question. Given that you are clearly unable to do so, then you might want to ask what my motivation is? Well I suggest you check into my motivation and then tell me what reason you can conjur for ill will? In fact, in just the most recent interview I did I mention DU primarily, but I mention Amerciablog as well... as my morning must visit sites.

This sounds a bit like another forum I remember quite well where all sorts of discussions are labeled quite quickly without knowing who the person is or what their motives are. Unlike you my dear "troublewinter," I use my real name as I have said for posting and for reporting. I have not covert motivation nor any intention of spreading gossip. I found this alarming and felt it deserved some attention.

question your motives, in the least.

I am pointing out that it is generally not acceptable to post these sort of scare alerts on message boards, particularly when the source is an email.

?? I don't know what your point is regarding my DU name. You post as lala_rawraw.

OK, so you got an cryptic email, citing a cryptic threat and cited an unnamed (but hinted at) blog. You make the ASSUMPTION that we accept that you speak for said blogger. You may "know John", but you should not expect that we accept that one person speaks for someone else.

I would have thought, that as a journalist, you'd have fleshed this out a bit, is all.

You have told people to uninstall and reinstall their Windows Operating System. I regard that as irresponsible. If it was just some poster, it would be less a concern to me, but you ARE known as a journalist, and I do not feel that you have checked your story responsibly. Do you feel confident instructing poeple to fuck with their computer operating systems? Have you checked this story with people who deal with OS?

True, i do not feel comfortable talking about computers, and I have stated as such over and over in various posts... so no big surprise there. I posted it and DU programmers emailed me with some ways to help see if this holds.

Also, I did not say this came from JOHN, I said this was a warning about Raw and Americablog via the email I had gotten. Notice that we are implicated as well in this cookie mess, no? John did verify some lunatic going around pretending to be him last week, so that is old with regard to the email.

That said, this is not "a story" this a post about an email. If it were a story, then don't you think I would have written it as a story and posted it as a story and on my own publication where my stories would be posted? This is a forum and the title of the thread is "heads up" about an email I had gotten.

I don't think we need to continue down this path. You have made your point, I have made mine. Again, this is not "news" it is a post about an email... make sense? Let's just drop this as it really is just bickering which is something I hate doing with people on my own side via the public venue. Thanks for the lovely conversation and assumptions.

a disagreement with my husband, I will just say, "Let ME have the last word, OK?"

"i do not feel comfortable talking about computers, and I have stated as such over and over in various posts"

I doubt that all people reading your original post in this thread have read and memorized all of your previous posts/disclaimers.

"Also, I did not say this came from JOHN, I said this was a warning about Raw and Americablog via the email I had gotten."

I did not say that you claimed "this came from JOHN". And you did NOT say "this was a warning about Raw and Americablog". You made no mention at all of who you are or who you are connected with, just a veiled inference to AmericaBlog by "(site of John DC)", "insecure site".

"RECURRING TRACKING COOKIE"... like this is something new or unique? Jaezuz... The reason I don't have to type in my password every time I visit DU is... (get ready!).. a cookie!

You posted a message from an anonymous emailer, "you MUST delete, reinstall windows". No, I am not a reporter or journalist, but have been on boards long enough to know that posting virus warnings received by email are not welcome as postings (particularly if they give advice to mess with your OS or registry).

You thanked me for my "assumptions". What assumptions? What I said was that you appear to expect US to make the assumption that you speak for another blogger.

All of that said, my favorite site is Raw Story.

not saying i have the last word, just really interested in going over and over and over the same route again. i will pas your kind comment on John B about Raw.

Does a spyware program like spyhunter or adaware catch it? If so, the spyware program should be able to isolate and/or delete it for you.

Tons of sites set these spyware cookies - used to track your web surfing activities for marketing purposes. If you run Windows, spyware is a necessitity. Some can do nasty things like self-install tool bars or other features, cause massive pop-ups, severely slow down the performance of your computer, and so forth. Nasty stuff but it's a fact of life today under Windows.

Thanks for the warning, best of luck to you getting the issue resolved

Know that John had already mentioned this person going around pretending to be him. I must have missed that post. Okay, so that is from last week, so that just leaves the cookie thing.

any time they tell you to delete and reinstall Windows I would be very very suspicious. DU techies will give you better info than me but this sounds like a classic hoax that you might find on snopes.com

who ran scans on both sites found nothing... gulp, it appears not only was I, but clearly so was the person I spoke with. we are all on crack it seems, lol. sorry for the panic... still confused about the whole thing.

Immediately a pop-up came on my screen saying my computer had been contaminated with spyware. I think every liberal site has been loaded with this crap. I have nothing to worry about so it really doesn't do me any harm unless it effects the way my computer runs. I don't like it but then again I don't like much about our government these days.