Welcome to the Virus Experts' Home

Here you will find a growing amount of information on computer viruses, malware, and computer security-related topics in general. Currently, we have published two articles, both of which can be found below. If you want to contact us, please do so at the discussion boards. This site is still under construction, but many articles are in their final stages of completion. The red text in the top- right corner of each page denotes the "quality" of the respective page.

Filesystem Security

Almost everyone these days has had to install an operating system. After a typical installation, you are left with an uncustomized system that is begging to be tweaked to your heart's content. Many of the tweaks we make include user-interface themes, plugins, additional applications, games, etc. However, the customizations that really need to be put in place are those that deal with some of the lowest levels of the operating system. The filesystem.

MD5 Shadow Passwords

Using shadow passwords in modern Unix operating systems gives protection from people who have stolen the contents of your password file (/etc/passwd) as they still have no clue about each user's password. Stealing the shadow password file (/etc/shadow) is much more difficult if you do not have root access on the machine in question. What if someone is able to get ahold of your shadow password file? Surely the passwords are not stored in plain-text. Even if they are stored in DES-encrypted form, how long would it take for the thief to crack the passwords? Enter MD5.

The Virus Experts are here to assist you in your daily virus needs, including, but not limited to

• increasing public awareness of "digital" security
• developing viruses (wild ones only!)
• anti-virus software and techniques
• analysis and debugging of viruses

Factually correct articles, but not updated after site redesign:

• Internet Security 101
• Internet Security 102
• Windows 2000/XP Firewall (still under development)

Virus Experts version 4 is launched!

We are more than happy to announce the fourth reincarnation of this website. Moving right along, we hope you had a fun time getting infected with the latest frenzy of computer viruses through email, websites, and IM's from your friends. Happy Leap Year!

We're not dead yet!

This site is still under development, and that's exactly why you haven't seen any updates for the past few years. A new XML backend is being written that will incorporate an xmlBB-based forum. Stay tuned!