Fell off the blog wagon…

Yes, here it is almost the end of the year and it is the first time I’ve had time to breathe… So just cope!

Work… Hackers are us. George had enough. New firewall and the idiots just kept coming. He has the firewall set to different responses. The harder the hackers hit the firewall, the more damage they do to their computers. So, if you just peep at the network, it yawns. You try to hammer through, hope to hell you have a computer and not a brick in the morning. I’m not sure exactly what he is doing, but the attackes slowed down.

We also got really busy. Typical stuff. Kids going back to school and their laptops breaking or the parents finally getting on the computer only to find that the kids filled the computer with porn, viruses or tons of games. So, lots of clean-ups. George has done some work with the state too. Not a lot of money yet, but the local job force got virused with a RAT virus. (remote administration toolkit) and the poor things were trying to call home to ‘mom’ which tied them up. he left the one client with the info to look for on other computers. If there are other infections, there will be more work. Here’s hoping!

As an ISP, life is slowing down. It is the one area that lots of people are cutting back. Not too many new clients. Oh well.

Let’s see… Oh yeah. Still a 4.0 GPA. I’m ace-ing my computer course at the moment. Next semester I’ll have more business classes. akkkkk!!!! I’m trying not to panic.

And….. umm…. While I said I wouldn’t say too much about my love life,… I moved in with Pete. There. Enough said. Good thing Mr. Clark likes him.

Last, I’m trying to get ready for Christmas. We had the big family Thanksgiving which was okay, except when Dad started asking Pete what his intentions were. You could have cooked the turkey on my face. Mom wants a big Christmas dinner too, and I’m just not sure I want that. I’d rather run off to the Bahama’s with Pete. (hahahahaha!!! not that we have the cash!) Maybe I can persuade him to at least go out to the movies.

More after the holidays.

Their Baaaaack!!

Yes, the hackers have returned. Damn! There goes my peace and quiet. Back to making sure that EVERYTHING is triple secure. Sigh…. I really detest having to undo my work station every night. Lock the laptop in the safe, etc. Sigh….

Other than that, we are getting ready for the autumn crunch of computer repairs. Last year we got swamped. It seemed like every idiot with a computer fried it on the same night. There wasn’t even a thunderstorm to blame. Oh well. George had the inventory beefed up with power supplies and network cards. Stocked up on Clorox wipes too. Flu is one thing, but I swear some of these people don’t just eat AT their desks, they eat ON their computers. grrr…… One of them had sesame seeds in the keyboard. Oh… and we won’t even mention the name of the person who’s computer was full of cockroaches!!!! Ewwwww!!!! And to think that was in the office alone for a day….. ewwww!!!!

I’m half way thought my Professional communications class. I don’t understand why I need to take it. I do it every day… Oh well. Guess I have to learn how to be all “touchy feely”, and not offend anyone. I don’t offend anyone now, except for my classmates when they ask for a peer review on their paper! Gods these people can NOT write!

Grrrr……. I think I need Chocolate!

Life goes on….

And on and on….. We have been blessed with two weeks of absolute quiet…. No Hack Attacks…. I’m not sure how to act!

Oh wait… Yes I do. I’m back to dealing with our favorite idiot who can’t remember how to empty his temp files…. grrr….

I’m on the Dean’s list again. 4.0 average!!!!

It is cold too. Had our first snow storm. Brrr…..  Pete had a fender bender and crumpled his pretty SUV’s bumper. He hit ice. I told him we should have taken my old truck, but… oh well. Mr. Clark got into a fight with a pitbull and we had to rush him to the vet. No real damage besides a puncture wound. Oh, and my nerves.

Off to dinner in a bit…..

Holy Hoppin’ Horny Toads!!!

Wow! We’ve had a hacker that has been using a virtual machine to try and hack our system. Argh!!!! 52000 attacks in one day. Gads.  I’m just glad that George got a new firewall set up. He’s using Endian. Open source software. It is really working well.

Meanwhile, I’m almost done with class for this section. Wheeee!!!! However, next time, I have to be careful I don’t get Pete as an instructor. Do Not want the stigma of sleeping with the teacher!!!

Our weather is getting colder. Not totally ready for summer to be over. Oh well…..

TMI….

Sometimes there are things you just shouldn’t know…. don’t want to know… wish you didn’t know. Oh well…

We are coming up on the three month anniversary of our hack attack. To date, the FBI has done diddly squat, and now I know more about George than I think I ever want to know. I knew he was a member of the 2600 guild. I knew that he had some pretty good tricks up his sleeve. I know he is the fastest network admin that I have ever seen in my life.

For example, I had him run me to the store because my pickup is acting up again. I get what I need, head back to the car and he is all kinds of antsy. I ask what is wrong and George asks if we are done. I mention that I have one more stop, but it could wait if it was necessary. George nodded and hands me his phone. Kevin had called. Our firewall at work had been breeched. So, we headed back to the office. My computer was shut down already, so I wasn’t worried about that. However, until he dealt with the hacker, I couldn’t get back online. So, I went back to the storage room and cleaned.

I came out because I could hear him talking in a loud voice into his phone. One look at his face, and I went back to my cleaning. About 40 minutes later, he came in and I asked what was wrong. Seems that whoever has been hiring hackers hired one of his fellow 2600 members. Someone he personally knows. Now, the guy didn’t realize who he was being hired to hack. So, that pissed them both off. I think they had some sort of hacker fight, because George was growling and working on his computer. Then I heard him say “Goodbye &())(*_)(^^!!!!” as he hit a series of keys. When I asked him what that was about, he said he had just gotten rid of the hacker. I didn’t get a better explanation, because the phone rang. Apparently, it was the hacker he had just disemboweled.

At that point, I waved goodnight to George and left him to his phone conversation. Pete met me for dinner and while talking about our day, I realized that Pete knows more about George than I do. Geeze!!! Pete really respects George for his ethics. Said that George could have been a lot nastier and has the capabilities to do so. Also that George use to be some sort of bad ass in the military. hmm…… Guess I aught to be good…

Meanwhile, I am bored silly with my latest class. Pete promised me a trip to the mountains if I’m good and manage to pass the class without screaming. I’m working on it.

OH!!!! Mustn’t forget the movie we watched. Demolition Man. Sylvester Stallone, Wesly Snipes… Oh my god it was a riot. Sandra Bullock singing commercial jingles……. LOLOLOLOL!!!!!

La-La-la-La-Laaaa…. I’m on the Dean’s List!

GeekgURL has a 4.0 average! Yes, I made the Dean’s list. Pete was so proud of me, he to us out to dinner at this fantastic seafood place. Oh My Gods it was good!!! I pigged out on shrimp, scallions and lobster.

George and Kevin are acting like proud brothers…. all their fault that I’ve done so well in class.

Meanwhile back at the job,…. the hackers are still circling the wagons… um… the office. The FBI didn’t do squat. Or, if they did, they just hit one set of hackers. We had another attack last night. George is just plain tired of it. He shuts off everything he can and then treble firewalls the rest. He sets the alarms and then off he goes. In the morning, he clears the files, checks on the computers and fixes any damage the hackers may have done. He is really tired of this.

What we aren’t certain of is whether the network trunk line going down was due to the hackers messing up or just some farmer hitting a line with a backhoe. We may never know. All we had was nearly a day of downtime and a week of repairs after that.

Sure hope whoever it is that is paying the hackers runs out of money soon! Or, that they get caught.

Oh….. and as a final note,…. Mr. “I can’t remember how to clean my cookies” called again. 400th time! since I started working!!!

Another one bites the dust…..

I know it has been forever since I last posted. Let’s see…..

I’ve been on vacation! I took a week off and then half of another one because I got a nasty cold. Pete was very sweet and nurse maided me. :> I learned he could cook!!! He and mom vied for my appetite. She almost won with chicken and dumplings. He did win with chocolate cream pie! sigh……

I got lots of stuff done on my classes right up until I got sick. Good thing too, because I didn’t have to worry about being behind on assignments. Plus, I think Pete put in a good word for me. It helps dating a professor…..

Work….   George called the FBI. Three days later, they sent a couple of suits out to check what was going on.I had to be there because my computer was one of the “hacked” ones. It actually felt good to be able to go in and then leave when I wanted to. Not that I don’t like my job, but I really needed some time away. Back to the FBI…  Since it was business hours, the hackers did not oblige them and show up. However, George had about 300mg of logfiles for them to go through. They were so stereotypical it was funny. Dark suits, dark glasses, etc. I kept expecting to hear the theme music from the Matrix. They took lots of notes and copies of the log files. Then they left.

Of course, the hackers attacked that night. George redirected them and battened down the system. He has this little logo of a Wilson’s cricket bat that he sticks up on the dry erase board every time we giet rid of a hacker. There are now 35 on the wall. Our system has been updated at least once a week. It took me three days to get use to the new passwords. We’ve gotten into a routine too. First thing in the morning, George checks the log files and sees what has gone on in the night before I turn on my computer. Some idiot tried to install  root kit on my laptop. Silly hacker, root kits don’t work as well on Linux!  Then after the all clear, we get to work. At quiting time, George sets a bunch of alarms and then shuts 95% of the systems down. He only leaves up the essentials. That way there is less for the hackers to hit. Best of all, George is finally getting some sleep.

The only other excitement in our lives was an old girlfriend of George’s showing up. She stopped by and we visited for hours. Not that I have any proof, but…. I think George had a “really good time”. He whistled around the office for days after she left. I hope she comes back again soon.

Batter, Batter, Batter, SWING!!!

I was suppose to have this week off. Oh wait… I was suppose to have last week off and got delayed to this week. I am so frustrated by whoever the idiot is who keeps hiring the hackers that I coulds scream.

Kevin is keeping up with the installs. I’m handling the stuff I usually deal with, including Mr. “I forgot how to clear my cookies”. Poor George is up to his eyeballs in hack attacks. They seem to like hitting our network around 10pm, just as George is heading off to bed. So, up he gets when the server screams….(insert auuugha noise here) and off he goes to battle whichever idiot is trying to hack the system. It usually takes him about 6 hours to stop the attacks. Plus, reset the network, servers etc.  So far, we have noticed just a few things….

• All the hackers are West Coasties.
• There are at least 5 so far.
• Only one has gotten past the outermost firewall
• We have no idea of what the hell started all of this.
• George is not a terrorist or whatever else the $$$ is telling the hackers he is.

This whole thing is drivng us nuts. George isn’t getting any sleep. It is making him very crabby. I told him to go take a nap today. He actually did it. The hackers don’t seem to attack during business hours which also makes us think that they are doing it on the side. Why we are being attacked like we had some sort of information is beyond us. We are just tired of it. At this point, George is just about ready to call the local branch of the FBI. He has a bunch of info to give them about the hackers.

Meanwhile, when I’m not dealing with Mission Impossible Central, I have been taking classes. 4.0 grade point average so far! Scary class starts next week. Business Algebra…… Pete and George both say they will help. Now to not melt into a bowl full of jello!!!

Hackers part 2

Ok, the idiot didn’t give up. George got peeved enough at him that he actually called the guy at his desk. Tried to tell the guy that hacking an ISP is against the law. Something to do with the Homeland Security Act…

The guy still didn’t get it. Some idiot walked in with a big check, and told the guy that George was some kind of evil genius terrorist. That hacking him would save the planet, etc….

Oh My Bloody Gods.  pounds head on desk repeatedly

I think it took George an hour to convince the guy that he WASN’T the bad guy. I gave up trying to work and went home at noon, because George was still talking to the idiot. Maybe, just Maybe by next week this will all be done and I can get back to work. Better be soon, because billings need to go out and I still don’t know which one is my accounting server!

Hackers

Work has been interesting. Slow, but that is ok. Probably a good thing all considered. Between me trying to cope with my classes, dates with Pete and everyday stuff, the hackers attacking our network has made things frustrating. Three days ago, George noticed that the network was working harder than it should be. He started investigating it and noticed that we had someone trying to hack our server. He smiled and went to take care of it. He figured that it was gone, as we have hack attackes from time to time. Just the sort of thing that happens because we are an ISP. Idiots think that they are l33t h@ks0rs… and have to prove their testoterone driven systems by attacking other computers. No, I do not understand that aspect of being a geek at all.

Then last night, George’s computer started screaming at the top of it’s little speakers voice. A claxon alarm. Once he got it shut off, all I heard was “Dammit all to fuck” and the sound of the network being torn apart. Good thing I was done with work early and we had just been sitting around talking. When I left, George was knee deep in computer wires. He was ripping things apart because some hacker had gotten all the way into his system. Not sure if he was shredding the network because of safety issues or because it stung his pride. Either way, I was getting out of there.

Came to work this morning to find that my desk had been moved. I have a new monitor to use with my system and the entire office has been redone. It will take me at least a week to figure out where George has relocated everything. I’m not even going to think about the actual system. I really didn’t understand all the ins and outs of the various machines, and George has taken off all the taped names off them for the moment. They had been named after Lord of the Rings characters. Aragorn was the server, my machine was Galadriel, etc. Now I think George said he was using the Kama Sutra or Hindu mythology. All I know is that the big bad server is now called Kali. I’ll have to wait until he gives me all the particulars and passwords later. Meanwhile, I don’t even have a printer. If I want to print, I have to drag a cord across the offce.  I’m just wondering what George did to the hacker. He has a bag of tricks, and none of them nice.

I’ve got a date with Pete tonight. I think we are going to the movies. Night at the Museum II is playing. What I want to see is the other Iron Man movie. At least while we are at the movies, Pete won’t ask me how class is going. I’m doing alright, but I am not sure I am ready for Accounting II. Yuck. I have psch I and Business ethics coming up. Wheee…. I get to learn how to ethically play with your mind.