Generally the word Nuke evokes images of giant mushroom clouds rising from the rubble of a dropped bomb. It is of course bad news to have one dropped on you. For a growing number of Internet users it conjures up images of the “blue screen of death,” It certainly does not compare to a nuclear winter. It is a pain to have to deal with, nonetheless.
As we all know, there are people in all segments of society who try to push the limits of the mediocre. Computer users are no different. They are refered to as Hackers. Along the way Hackers have gotten a bad rap because of the margins of that group. Hackers generally are law-abiding citizens who are pushing the limits of computers and software. Then of course the bad apples start showing up and ruin the party for the decent folk who are there just trying to have a good time.
The Hackers call those guys Crackers. Crackers generally are in it for the fun or because it’s there, so they try to break through the computer security of a network, and then do their thing. Whatever that may be. Which brings us to the Nuke thing, when I was on the net the other night doing, ahem, “Research.” Someone tried to Nuke me. The operative word being tried. I didn’t even notice it.
Unfortunatly, a lot of people do notice when they are being Nuked. Your computer freezesup and a blue screen comes on and or a message shows up, then you have to reboot.Generally it isn’t damaging to your system, but if you were working on your bestselleror your “A grade” paper and you didn’t save then zap it’s gone. Kiss your pulitzer goodbye. One for the bad guys. A Nuke is a file which is sent to your computer while you’reon the Net. If a computer isn’t protected from that, the ‘puter doesn’t know how tohandle the file so it freezes up. It is sent to your IP number which is your ID while you’re on the Net.
Remember the operative word? Tried! Well, I downloaded NukeNabber and installed it in my’puter. It works in the background and shields your ports from Nuke attacks. As I wasshutting down my browser and stuff I noticed in the Nabber window it said one Nuke. Huh??I thought to myself. I opened the log and it had the details of where it came from,the IP# of the alleged Nuker and the name of his or her ISP (Internet Service Provider).The message the person wanted to send me also was there. It is too nasty for apublication such as this to reprint, but the first letters of the words begin with Fand and a Y I’ll let you fill in the rest. Go to (http://www.download.com/PC/Result/Download/ 0,21,0-40115.00.html) to download NukeNabber. You might need to upgrade your winsock to a 2.something.If you’re using Windows ’98, it isn’t necessary to have NukeNabber, they supposedlybuilt in the security for it. I’ll have more next time. Till then.
Live long and prosper iyiyuu@mail.com
