High School Hackers

When I was in my sophomore year in high school, a group of guys on the football team were angry because they weren't allowed to go on their senior trip due to their behavior problems in their classes. As retribution against this "injustice", they decided to hack the school's computer system and crash the server using a virus their buddy designed. This wreaked havoc in the school office because all data was lost - including grades and academic records. Luckily the majority of this was backed up in a district server or something like that, so most data was recoverable. All data for the most recent month had not been saved, so it had to be re-entered into the computer system after they got the computers working again. The administration complained about that one for years, but at least they had most of the data safely stored in another location.

Backing up your work

One week before graduation, my computer crashed and "lost" the completed draft of my thesis that I was working on at the time! Thankfully I had saved drafts as a went along under different file names and saved edited drafts that I had received back from friends. The damage at the end was about 5 pages that I had to re-write and all of the final editing. But I was able to turn it in on time and graduate!
Lesson Learned: Save drafts of all steps!

Facebook Virus Horror Story

I have my FB (facebook) set to send me updates when I get a message. Little did I know that there was a new virus being sent from this application feature.

It all started in early fall 2009 when I received a message from my sister-in-law regarding something silly I was in. I was on my home computer (and not a work thank goodness) when I opened the email. I clicked on the FB link, assuming it would take me to the message as it always does. Here is when the horror began...

Within minutes the virus sent itself out to everyone on my FB friends list. I saw what was happening but I had no way of stopping it. I tried to use my internet explorer and the entire program had crashed. I would open explorer and get a message telling me that I had a virus and need to download their protection software. I would try to then close the message box, only to receive more boxes pop up. Ultimately, I had to shut down the computer.

I called my computer guru Mr.B and he quickly came to my aid. I was in the middle of graduate school work and didn't have time to lose work. Mr. B worked his magic and found that this virus was designed to attack explorer. He tried to get rid of the virus by downloading a "patch" but every time he searched for the patch the virus "stepped" in and would cause the program to crash. As Mr. B worked on the virus he learned that the creators of this virus had designed it such that you could not delete the virus unless you PURCHASED the patch from them (which was smart thinking on their part - I guess). After about 4 hours, Mr. B was able to find a patch for the virus. The virus could not be deleted by it is in quarantined for now.

Today: My computer no longer uses internet explorer (it had to be removed) and it still needs to be reformatted (but that will have to wait until after I graduate). Currently I use Firefox and Navigator for internet work. If I use any search engine I have to copy the link and open a new browser in order to view the information. If I click on the link from the search engine the page will crash.

Lesson Learned: Trust your instinct, if something does not seem right it probably isn't! I never should have clicked on that email message!

Welcome!

You will use this blog throughout your master's program to communicate with your peers. Although only members can post to the blog, it is not a private site. Therefore, it is very important that you create a pseudonym for yourself and any teachers, schools or students you may reference in your postings. I look forward to reading and responding to your posts this semester!