Recently, I was on youtube to download a video when a message popped up saying a virus was detected on my computer, ". Click here to remove it". I didn't fall for the scam, which would have downloaded a virus. I used my Anti-Virus software to double check. So far I am safe and secure. But, . . . I notice that the e-Jehovah's Witnesses site is flaged as "connection is not secure." Does this site not employee an attack resistant program?
Tsaphah, thank you for the question. I had sent your question to our brother in arms who guides us as a watcher in these matters! Many of you already know him... Here is his response; "Good afternoon and Christian greetings, brother! And here I thought *I* was security OCD, lol! I feel better knowing that at least one other person out there is MORE paranoid and defensive than I am. To answer your question, though, the forum does not use SSL, which is why it's getting "flagged" as "connection is not secure." SSL is a method that banking institutions and other sites use to open and maintain a private link between a site and the person browsing the site, to theoretically keep snoopers from being able to tap into the data link. You've probably seen the padlock icons on certain sites you've visited, which indicates that an SSL connection has been established. I'm 99.999998% certain that the Watchtower is not expending the money and manpower to try to hack into actual data streams of the brothers and sisters. And it's already been established that the governments DO have the ability to bypass SSL (since they required that they be the ones to establish how SSL was to be implemented." He further offers suggestions to add such security if desired, where additional financial obligations would apply, so I will discuss this with the other Admin and go from there. Whether it is a necessary step or not we will debate.
Thanks Joshuastone, It has nothing to do with paranoia. It does have to do with defense. The reason I brought it up is because I had visited a site to download a documentary. A message popped up that said a “suspected virus had downloaded to my computer. Another blocked area said, “Click here to remove it.” I wasn’t foolish enough to do that. If I had done so, it would have downloaded a virus. I immediately shut down the internet and ran my virus checked. It did not detect any virus. Since then, I have become aware of many sites that show they are not secure. Hopefully, we will not be subject to viruses. I’m not worried about the government snooping. It’s a given! That is what my military experience was about. But, that was a long time before personal computers and the internet. And, as history shows, it repeats itself. As Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
Hello everybody I'm the computer virus expert and security person for Statesboro GA. Watch out for those stupid Java pop-ups that try to get you to click on them. But I do want to share a experience about the j.w.org site. I downloaded the official app. For my Roku after doing so I had to buy a new Roku. I'm not blaming Jehovah's witnesses but if you use that site beware beware beware some malicious Jack donkey regularly inhabits the stream looking for computers belonging to Jehovah's witnesses that he can toast! My Roku firmware was anhilated! And I sent it in for a free replacement under warranty I plugged it in and went to j.w .org And within 5 minutes had another destroyed Roku! I promptly took it back to Walmart and got a full refund. I've since uninstalled j.w.org and will only attempt to use it with a Linux live computer that way I can benefit from the sites wealth of information and avoid the malicious people who can tap into the stream and feed malicious code.
Those kinds of messages are spammy ads. Yes, just ignore them. If you want a secure way of connection to any account you are registered to (provided they are compatible with it), you may use Google Authenticator, as I do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Authenticator But I'll add that (I'm sure you already know it) regardless how well your computer is protected, a hacker will always find a way in, all the more so as the weaker link of it all is us, the humans... (Yes, the PIN code of my smartphone is 0000 but you must anyway type it in the correct order to get in...).
I'm also using the JW app on my roku, but I've never experienced any problems with it. It's working great.
I thought this information may be of interest for everyone. This is especially true today with all the hacking and intrusive behavior of governments, etc. Pharming Pharming is a type of cyber attack that aims to collect confidential user information by redirecting a website's traffic to a different, bogus website that appears identical to the original site. By hacking into DNS servers—the “phone books” of the internet—and changing IP addresses, high-tech criminals can automatically redirect users to their phony sites. In recent years, pharming has become a major concern for e-commerce and online banking sites. How does pharming differ from phishing? http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Pharming
Having served in the USA military dealing with highly classified material, I am ever suspicious of the new and newer methods of spying. At one time it was “cookies” (what an appropriate name), but that is old school today. What bothers me most are the “bots”. Most times when I come to the site, there are constantly more “bots” than members or guests. I’m sure that most here are unaware what these “bots”, “robots” are doing. They are collecting every kind of data from the site. That data is being stored and analyzed in the “cloud”. “Cloud”, my eye!! It’s a huge-huge-huge bank of computers with programs to collect, analyze, and file information about everything you can/can’t think of. One such program will analyze a user’s “styles”, habits, comments, interests, psychological profile, etc. With this information and other programs it can identify and classify YOU. That information will be monitored and shared by different government agencies. Depending on WHO’s bot is collecting data, some information will be sold to businesses to advertise products on other sites you visit. So, be careful if you use any of the other social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you have used any program that analyzed your DNA for tracing family history, it's also in the government data base now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_bot "Don't worry about it darlin' we're not going to break the rules, we're just going to bend them a little bit." - Don Ready (Thanks for that one Wallflower )
Robots crawling on this site. Yandex (Likely Russian) Multiple times at the same time. Googlebot Quote from Google = (It's almost impossible to keep a web server secret by not publishing links to it. If you want to prevent Googlebot from crawling content on your site, you have a number of options, including using robots.txt to block access to files and directories on your server. Baidu (Japan) Multiple times at the same time.
I have been thinking lately, as the days go by. This thought about chance came to me, and I went back to what Solomon wrote: “I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.” ( Ecc 9:11 NASB ) Here is a situation which we are rapidly approaching. “Better to heed the calm words of the wise than the shouts of the one ruling among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but just one sinner can destroy much good.” ( Ecc 9:17-18 NASB ) Sound familiar? Then, I thought about the way people will either blame God or the Devil for their circumstance. They rarely think of “Chance”! Sometimes, that is all it is; chance, a roll of the dice, a turn of the cards, or as in ancient Israel; the urim [lights] and thummin [perfection]. “And you shall put the Urim and the Thummim into the breast pocket of judgment; and they shall be on the heart of Aaron in his going before the face of Jehovah. And Aaron shall bear the judgment of the sons of Israel on his heart before the face of Jehovah continually.” ( Ex 28:30 LITV ) Another thing that falls under chance is, nothing in this system (kosmos), (world) is secure. There is only security in the words of Jehovah and his son Jesus Christ. (Pr 3:5 ), (1 Th 5:1-10) I'm also thinking that I shouldn't take a chance that this site may end up like the San Francisco Muni system. http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Hacked-Muni-refused-73-000-ransom-demand-10641070.php
So, here's what I'm thinking. So long, its been good to know you. Tant de temps, c'est un bon fève de te connaître Tan largo, es buen frijol para conocerte So lange, es ist eine gute Bohne, Sie zu kennen Quamdiu suus 'bonus scire faba Τόσο καιρό, είναι καλό φασόλια να ξέρετε Woody Guthrie - So long it's been good to know you
OK Administrators, I’m signing off. I’ll check back occasionally to see how many robots are collecting data. It won’t be mine. Adios muchachos. Yandex, 65 robots from them scanning this site at this time. Their Russian! Feedback If you are experiencing a problem with Yandex.com or Yandex robots please don't hesitate to contact us. Please provide as much detail about the problem as possible to help us find the best solution. By allowing Yandex to index your website you can increase the number of users who will be able to find your content. BS!! Once your site has been indexed by Yandex, it will appear in relevant search results not only on yandex.com (with users all from over the world), but also in our national searches (tens of millions of users from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus will be able to find your site). You can help Yandex find and index your site more efficiently with Yandex.Webmaster service. It provides you with tools to manage indexing and improve position of your site's position in Yandex search results. Use Yandex.Webmaster to report any website changes, thereby ensuring that your site continues to appear in Yandex search results for relevant queries. Website administrators can also inform the Yandex search robot about their site using the Add URL form without having to register. We make every effort to index websites placing as little load on the server as we possibly can, and without reducing the performance of the site itself. However, if you are finding that your server load is higher than normal during this process, with a few simple commands you can control the behaviour of the Yandex indexing robot on your site and reduce the load on your server.
This new website we switched to allows anyone to see who's online. The previous website we used going back more then a decade also had this feature, but seeing who was online was restricted to Admins only, and I will say that nothing has changed, the traffic is exactly as it has been from before we took it over from Robert. We have however spoke to our host and there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary. If you don't want personal info on here you don't have to put it up, including your name. How long have we known each other Tsaphah, and I still don't even know your real name? The Admin account that controls emails has a password that is several dozen characters long, and I assure you security is just as important to us. We constantly search for information online that would indicate any breaches. Besides, what are we doing here that anyone would expend time and money to take interest in us? There is nothing on here to be concerned about, and I invite the government in, because they would no matter what processes we implement. You know they can get in if they want too, but again, we have nothing to hide. Are we to hide under a bush? Are we to hide even in the face of danger such as Peter when our lord was arrested? I have faith that our work here is of benefit to the kingdom of God, and his will, will prevail. Again, our host has assured me that not only are these robots normal, but they have been there from day one, having been seen by members or not, and I can assure you that before the "members online" was visible to normal members, it was available to Admins. I personally would spend much time searching each IP (for I alone have access to this information) and can ban them and search their locations. I know who's watching and from where. You are just as secure here (if not more so), then any website you visit on the internet. You would have to unplug your computers forever to escape the robots, and if someone wanted to find you, that would not stop them... This is the world we live in, and nothing to do with this website. Yandex is the fourth largest search engine in the world, and based in Russia. It was only a matter of time before they found our website. There was a spike in Yandex bots online, and then none... This is normal...
There are robots everywhere on the Web, even my antivirus (Trend Micro) scans the sites wherever I go, through bots, in order to check and forbid access to me in case the landing pages I get on may be indexed in their servers as spam, fraudulent sites (phishing, pharming, etc) and so on and this especially and more particularly in case children are in front of the screen.... If you know what I mean.... The bots used by Trend Micro come from Japan/Asia, if my memory serves me well. It's been bothering Josh and Tim for long because it causes unnecessary traffic on the forum server but I can't help it and at least, knowing that as an administrator, I use a full-fledged paid and thorough version of a famous antivirus is also a token of security for you all. Interestingly, if any of the members of this db or even lurkers use Kaspersky Lab, one of the best antivirus I've ever used in the past, their robots will be Russian.... what a surprise !!! Robots only collect the data that are public and I don't see where the problem is for bots to collect public data that you post for all to see. Besides, that's how search engines work and have been working since eons. They must roam over billions of web pages in order to look for and index keywords so users can find pages relevant to their queries. Bots can only see what's available in public view and can't get into the forum since signing in is possible only after a discussion with Josh via emails. Besides, what kinds of data about you are there on the forum that make you freak out so much if they ever happened to fall into the hands of the Russians ? Ever had a run-in with Putin a few years ago ? Are there a few bucks missing in your tax return to the Russian IRS ? Furthermore, apart from the technical aspect, your reaction to these bots depends on how you consider your presence on this forum, on spiritual grounds. You've been a much loved and respected member of our two forums for years and people have told us on numerous occasions through PMs how much they like your posts and your personality. Personally, I never told you anything about it since you forbid the use of PMs in order to get in touch with you and I've respected your will so far in that regard. You have very spiritually upbuilding and thoughtful comments and your presence here on the forum and your work for the sake of good that they have brought about must definitely have been seen and blessed by Jehovah. Please read : "But he said: “Do not be afraid! For there are more who are with us than those who are with them.” Then E·liʹsha began to pray and say: “O Jehovah, open his eyes, please, that he may see.” Immediately Jehovah opened the attendant’s eyes and he saw, and look! the mountainous region was full of horses and war chariots of fire all around E·liʹsha." - 2 Kings 6:16-17 If you think, as we do, that you have been all over the years a useful and desirable spiritual tool into Jehovah's hands, don't you think that Jehovah has the power to protect you from the threats, real or fictitious, you think that the bots may pose ?
These kinds of pop-up messages are wilfully erroneous in order to incite people to click on them and use their fears and ignorance on things related to computers to make money. There has never been a virus in your computer and please, trust only the warnings if launched by your personal antivirus software (beware that there are also what we call the false positive ones but they're quite rare).
I don't see the use of creating a website and of keeping it secret later on, to prevent people from looking at its content by not wanting it to be in the search engines.... It's like having a shop and not wanting the clients to come in and buy stuff. Why creating it then in the first place ?