Are You Kidding Me? Koobface?

All I set out to do was to update my Kindle as instructed by an email from Amazon. My Kindle is a pathetic “Generation 3” which suits me fine. But it appeared from the notice that it would die a sudden death if I failed to update it.

So I tried. I followed all the steps and allowed my Kindle to remain charged for the requisite eight hours, but at the end of that time there was no sign that my Kindle had been up dated.

Yesterday a second Kindle update demand arrived from Amazon. This time I searched Google for a phone number to call for help, and miraculously I found one. 

 In the process of attempting to complete the update, the pleasant Indian technician discovered that both my Kindle and my computer had been hacked by a “worm” called Koobface.

“What? A worm? My Kindle works fine. And I just had my computer professionally cleaned and cleared.”

So with his arrow flying around my computer screen, the technician pointed out the many deficits that Koobface had created.  In addition, my IP had been compromised—I now know what an IP is—etc. etc. I was horrified.

Koobface? You have got to be kidding. It sounds like a name one of my grandsons would have called one of his brothers when they were eight or ten.

But here is Koobface, in part, anyway, from Wikipedia:

Koobface
Type	Computer worm
Subtype	Malware
Point of origin	Russia

Koobface is network worm that attacks Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms.^[1][2][3] This worm originally targeted users of the networking websites like Facebook, Skype, Yahoo Messenger, and email websites such as GMail, Yahoo Mail, and AOL Mail. It also targets other networking websites, such as MySpace, Twitter,^[4] and it can infect other devices on the same local network.^[5] This infection allows an attacker to access users' personal information such as banking information, passwords, or personal identity (IP address). It is considered a security risk and should be removed from the network..^[6]

How scary is that? If you want to know more you only have to check it out. It’s all there.

Hours later, with some fast talking, and funds exchanged, my computer is firewalled to a fair-thee-well, my Kindle is brilliantly up dated and my computer, my I phone and my Kindle are “protected for life” by a company who shall remain nameless in case a blog-cruiser in cahoots with the notorious Koobface decides to blast through this inevitably obsolete wall.

I make the point about obsolescence because when I asked the tech guy from this computer- plus protection company if they were technologically capable of staying ahead of the inventive and destructive Koobface, his answer was vague and not exactly to the point.

I don’t blame them. It is the world we live in, isn’t it?

 Nowadays we barricade ourselves into what we believe to be safety, whether it is policemen around schools, firewalls built into our computers, dead bolts on our doors, sensor lighting, I D checkpoints or Doctors Without Borders’ outposts fenced safely, presumably, by international agreement.  

One way or another those who are determined to do damage, those who have watched, waited, listened and learned, manage to blast huge holes through our carefully woven safety nets, thereby forcing us to mourn, wring our hands and restring once more. 

One tries not to despair.

As this lengthy telephone conversation about the invasion and the healing of my computer progressed, none of which I really understood, I found myself wishing that I were twenty again. At twenty my communication life was simple: straightforward, landline, rotary phone calls. A missed call from a boyfriend the only possible tragedy.