Rootkit: The worst guest ever

Alright. It’s confession time.

Here it goes… when it comes to maintaining my own things, I can be kinda lazy.

For my daughter, I wouldn’t think of cutting corners on anything. I buy her the safest car seats I can find, the clothing designed to last, the toys with the greatest learning benefit and ease of cleaning. I’ve even registered the warranty on everything I could.

But when it comes to me… eh.

Last night I slept in a t-shirt that I’ve had since high school. It’s had a rip in the armpit for the last two or three years, but it covers all the important parts anyway. I wait as long as humanly possible to get a new car and if I find a pair of comfortable shoes, I might wait until you can see my waggling toes before I toss them.

And, on my computer, when I get a reminder that it’s time to update my anti-virus software, I always used to be a “remind me later” kinda girl. Used to.

By now, I think we’ve all heard about the Lower Merion School District debacle. The school gave out 2,000 laptops with a “security feature” that allowed them to help locate the computers when lost by activating a webcam remotely.

Only, as it turns out, the webcams weren’t just activated when they were lost. They were activated other times too. Over 56,000 times to be precise. And one of those times led to an adolescent boy caught in his room in the middle of “elicit activities”. Though, pictures coming out now are showing sleeping being one of those such activities. Everyone can guess what these might be, but one thing is clear—the very thought of that kind of intrusion into our children’s lives is unacceptable and beyond scary.

But it isn’t just laptops with this brand of tracking software installed. It could be you or your children’s computer right now.

Picture it.

It’s the end of the evening and you’re finally done. You’ve won tonight’s battle of parent versus brightly colored plastic toys, and left them cowering in the corner to regroup for tomorrow. You shuffle into your bedroom after a quick look in on your kids; you sit down to do a final email check. You minimize the children's games and scan the bolded lines with glazed eyes. You yawn and stretch as you walk away from your laptop, content that anything else that comes in can wait until tomorrow.

Your favorite pajamas are thrown over the desk chair and as you strip off your clothes and toss your day into the laundry pile, the webcam silently turns on and someone—or some ones—are watching. Maybe even recording.

Yes, unfortunately, it is possible.

There are a bunch of different kinds of bad things that can make their way onto your computer, but the one we’re worried about in this case is something called a rootkit.

I’m sure you’ve heard of a virus, and worms are all the rage in the media. You’ve probably even heard of malware. But I’d be willing to bet that “rootkit” hasn’t been at the forefront of your mind when you are thinking about online safety but it should be.

Let me explain.

Imagine your computer as your house. Rootkit is the neighbor you never wanted who always wants something but never offers anything. He waves you down when you’re coming home from work wanting to know what you’ve done with your kitchen and whether he can see it. “And, where did you put the couch? Mind if I look?”

A rootkit needs you to invite it in once—it can’t get through the front door without your help. It might go the Trojan route where it dresses up as your eclectic Aunt Trudy offering cookies to get the invitation in, but once it’s there it’s kind of like the guest that will go rummaging through your drawers and medicine cabinets looking for useful information. And then will just hide out in your closets and disguise itself as your furniture. You’ll never even notice.

Once rootkit has gotten into your “house”, it has everything it needs to know to look like you. It’s gained access to your clothes, your makeup, your shoes, your family pictures, your files. Everything. Rootkit is the ultimate champ at identity theft.

From the comfort of your home, while it lounges in your favorite chair, rootkit can help itself to anything you have sitting around. Financial files, health information, photos, and yes… control of your webcam.

Some rootkits will even build a “backdoor” to your house that you don’t even know about just in case you ever kick it out. Even YOU won’t have the key to that one.

The good news is that there are anti-virus programs out there that can intercept a rootkit so you don’t have to bother hiding from a knock on the door every time you’re home. Your online presence won’t need to be haunted by someone just waiting for you to make a mistake and keep the door open too long. Not even the backdoor will work—not even for rootkit itself.

And that guilty little webcam we talked about earlier? That will stay shut off until you turn it back on.

So, be lazy if you want. Wait the extra week to do your laundry. The trash can probably go out tomorrow too.

But, make sure that you buy anti-virus software with anti-rootkit protection. (Not all of them have it!) And when that annoying little reminder interrupts your best score on Solitaire ever or makes it hard to farm your sweet potatoes—just do it.

You never know who rootkit may be disguising itself as today.

EDIT: I made the mistake of using spellcheck for the first time ever, and it didn't like rootkit. And, to punish me, it's leaving it highlighted so that's all anyone can see on the page. Blogger is a bitter mistress. Pardon.