Sunday, June 23, 2013

How to Check for Botnets

Botnets is a network of zombie computers.
A zombie computer is one which has been infected with Botnet type Malware that is able to control the computer and do the bidding of the Command centre.

This article aims to list the ways or tools to check if your computer has been infected and become part of a botnet.

Some articles on checking for botnet activity:
http://readwrite.com/2009/03/15/is_your_pc_part_of_a_botnet#awesm=~o9ydyMjFYimWMA
Is Your PC Bot-Infested? Here's How to Tell
     http://www.pcworld.com/article/170546/how_to_clean_bots.html
How to better protect your PC with botnet protection and avoid malware
     http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/pc-security/botnet.aspx


Some tools to identify botnet:
BotHunter http://www.bothunter.net/
SRI International  www.sri.com - the creator of BotHunter
RUBotted (Beta) - from Trend Micro,
Windows Live OneCare safety scanner - online virus scan

Checkpoint- the makers of ZoneAlarm - seem to have a product which may not have been released yet.
"The Check Point Anti-Bot Software Blade detects bot-infected machines, prevents bot damages by blocking bot C&C communications, and is continually updated from ThreatCloud™, the first collaborative network to fight cybercrime."

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Build Budget PC Less Than $300

June 2013

The date is important in regards to any quote. Recently I thought of upgrading an old PC used for some younger family members. The old PC was running an Athlon XP of early 2000s vintages. The PC itself has got a mixture of component.

The challenge is to build a PC for less that $300. As shown in the table below, this can be done. The prices are quoted from www.msy.com.au in Australian dollars. The actual components have prices listed in the Price column. The Alt column shows the prices of alternative PC components.

The key components that need upgrading are CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Hard Drive and Case. The cost limit is enough to include a CPU Fan. The main design is to have the budget Celeron CPU which has integrated ATI Radeon graphics. The motherboard is chosen to include some legacy PCI slots to use the existing wireless adapter card. The lack of grunt of the Celeron is made up by the whopping 8GB RAM. The old DVD writer can be reused. A modern PC Case would improve the image of this budget PC.

Alt Price Components Model Details Link
$62.00 Motherboard AsRock B75 Pro3-M 2PCI, USB3, UEFI, Socket 1155, SATA3 http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B75%20Pro3-M/?cat=Specifications
$60.00 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3V 1PCI, USB3, UEFI, Socket 1155, SATA3 http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4151#sp
$44.00 CPU Intel Celeron 1610 Ivy Bridge, 22nm, 2.6GHz, 55W, DualCore, 2MB L3, 64bit http://ark.intel.com/products/71072/
$67.00 RAM 8G Kit 1600 Patriot-S DDR3, 2-sticks
$69.00 Hard Drive WD Green EZRX 1TB 3.5" SATA internal
$20.00 CPU Fan Thermaltake Contact 16 2 copper pipes, 100W http://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00001805
$22.00 CPU Fan CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 EVO 3 copper pipes http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Detail/cooling/cpu-air-cooler/hyper-tx3-evo.html
$15.00 CPU Fan DeepCool Gammaxx200 2 copper pipes, 95W http://www.deepcool-us.com/Product/GAMMAXX200/
$43.00 Case and PSU Generic ATX
$0.00 Wireless Adapter Use existing PCI wireless adapter
$0.00 DVD RW Use existing
 Total   $  300.00