I know some of you go onto Cancun Assist, and maybe you may have a way to contact a Moderator....seems when I go to log in, I get a virus message. Of course I shut down immediately. Looks like some of the posts are missing their wording now. Thought I'd bring this to someone's attention.
Yep, Scott's got a problem. I'm running a heavy duty protection tool (Symantec Endpoint Protection Corporate) and it lit up like a light and blocked access to CancunAssist. If it will help Scott, tell him it's what as known as a "Fake Redirect". UPDATE: And now, 10 minutes after I originally posted this, the forum is reachable with a warning, but the content is FUBAR. I guess Scott is re-indexing and I wish him all the best in getting his site up again.
I ran into the same, or similar problem when trying to access Jim in Cancun's site, several weeks ago: it was a no go as far as Symantec was concerned, red lights everywhere. For those not well versed in computers, what is the simple answer for why this happens to websites?
The simple answer to V's question is it is no different than people who break windows, scrawl graffiti on walls, or scratch your car. There are more sophisticated hacks which will take an innocent click to a page where things lurk to harm your computer, or steal information. These are known as redirects and this is what's happening on Scott's site. As of a few hours ago you could get to his site, but clicking many of the links to other areas of his site would result in your computer being redirected to a site that has nothing to do with CancunAssist, and everything to do with causing you mischief.
Mexican Tax Declarations Thanks, Mixz1, for that "to the point" and easily understood explanation. There are many things you can point to about the way the Mexican Tax Authority is run that indicate every attempt is being made to simplify the process, assist the taxpayer directly, and offer online solutions and tax filing options. However, in recent weeks I've become more and more uneasy with using their website in that there are a number of downloads they direct you to, and I've felt, at times, like I was being redirected in ways I couldn't be confident that I was still within the official, sat.gob.mx website. So, I've decided to remove the downloads, and do my online filings each month in their office, where they have a salon devoted to that purpose, and a staff to assist you, without the necessity of an appointment. ______________________ My latest "intrusion attempt detected", and automatically blocked by Symantec, was from 195.5.161.125; "actor" was C:/windows/explorer.exe; actor "PID" was 1844. They called it a, "Fake Antivirus Webpage Redirect". Any feedback, comment, Mixz1?
Well 195.5.161.125 is from the Republic of Moldova. Gotta love those Eastern European hackers. What is happening is bad code inserted into Scott's site is directing you to a page that will toss up very authentic looking virus warnings, offer to scan your computer to find the alleged virus, and if you agree, it will appear to scan your computer, throw up huge security warnings that are browser and operating system specific, so they look very real, and then offer to clean your computer for around 39 dollars. It's all bogus but very hard to eradicate, and even if you disconnect from the site, if you've clicked okay on anything, you will be bothered by these warnings to the point where your computer will be unusable. As to sat.gob.mx, it's very easy to tell if you're connection is secure and it's very difficult for a hacker to spoof a secure web site. Every browser, be it IE, FF or Chrome will display a symbol or a color when connected securely. As you click through the SAT site, as long as these symbols remain, you are secure. As to your wireless connection... that's a whole different post.
Thanks, Mixz1, I love that you can bring this all down to our level, and give us something we can sink our teeth into. That's kind of cool that you know where this is coming from. It amuses me (though getting hacked is not amusing) to think about all those ex eastern block and soviet computer geniuses battling it out in something resembling a giant game of "risk". I'm sure you read this, too, but supposedly the guy behind the "Chinese attacks" on Google, and some government websites, was the handiwork of a Ukrainian professor, working at a tech college in China, whose students were practicing what he'd taught them.... I say supposedly because I know that China's government directly employs something like 100,000 computer geeks just to monitor internet activity for anything subversive; and, their Army has an important interest in knowing how to wage cyber warfare/defense. It wouldn't surprise me if "our" side also battles on this field, as we used to with our nuclear submarines, each side challenging the other just to see how effective their systems of attack, and defense, truly were/are.
Strange... I happened to get a lot of red flashes yesterday morning, very scared. It was the first time. Like 20 viruses/trojans, but the report is ununderstandable. I thought I just clicked to a link sent by a friend called... something "marryanamerican"..... I thought it was because it is not sane at all to do that , even to get a visa quickly. KIS told me to turn the computer off, which I did. When I turned it on again, everything seemed normal, but I ran Ccleaner and changed my critical passwords.I sent a message to their forums, they replied "calm down, it is going to be ok" Oh yeah...
Hi, Jenleib, I'm glad you popped up here. Is Cancunscorpio a Russian speaker, child of Russian immigrants to Canada, or am I mistaken in this belief?
