Gadgetory

for as long as cyber criminals have been cooking up malicious software to do stuff like steal your precious data the security industry has been thinking up creative names for their little schemes Trojans worms ransomware you get the idea but one of the most sinister forms of malware prevalent today is the dreaded rootkit and a little to the laymen this sounds like some kind of dental procedure an actual rootkit on your PC can be far more unpleasant but then what exactly are they and why can they be even more problematic than other types of computer infections great question like with a lot of the other threats to your system the name rootkit reveals a lot it's derived from the concept of root access in the operating system Unix which allows a user broad permissions to change files and settings and while the means by which different rootkits access to usually off-limits parts of the computer differ all rootkit serve the same general function to conceal either their own presence or the presence of another piece of malware so that it can carry out its nefarious deeds on your system without you ever knowing and it's because of this concealing behavior that root kits are often very difficult to remove as many users in the mid-2000s found out when they realized Sony had shipped a metric but ton of music CDs with root kits designed for you guessed it copy protection these root kits hid the DRM software which limited what users could do with their optical drives and also caused serious system slowdowns and introduced a ton of security flaws that other malware creators were able to take advantage of and then when Sony finally released a removal tool after news of the rootkit went viral all it did was cause even more issues so how do root gets hide themselves anyway while some root kits just inject themselves into your programs somewhat like traditional computer viruses the more dangerous forms run as part of your operating systems kernel no not the chicken guy but the core part of your OS that allows your programs to communicate with your hardware through things like device drivers since drivers usually run in kernel mode many root kits disguise themselves as drivers which is why you should only download drivers from trusted sources like the manufacturers website no matter how badly you want to get your fancy new graphics card working what makes kernel-mode rootkits so insidious is that they essentially appear to be a part of the OS itself meaning you can't really trust your antivirus program to detect it or anything else your system says about itself for that matter and as if that weren't bad enough other kinds of root kits even go beyond infecting your OS kernel by doing things like contaminating your hard drives boot sector often done to break encryption or getting into your systems firmware such as your motherboard or GPU bios if that happens not even completely reformatting your PC will help well Linus that all sounds pretty darn awful if I don't even know I have a rootkit how can I get rid of them that admittedly is a challenge larger organizations have tried strategies like logging suspicious access requests through a firewall or dumping everything in a systems memory to look for malicious code but these aren't the kinds of things a home user can easily do modern motherboards with UEFI BIOS have some features to block rootkit such as secure boot but this solution has been criticized for keeping a user from doing legitimate things like installing multiple operating systems so while some simpler root kits can be detected and removed by your favorite anti-malware program the best counter strategy is to just be super careful about what you download speaking of things to be downloaded why don't you download some knowledge to your brain little bits lets everyone use electronics as modular building blocks their modules snap together with magnets so you can create circuits in seconds it's perfect for kids parents big kids yo coders hardware hackers makers artists designers engineers and students in with little bits you can even get your dog to like send text messages or make a robotic snack server so why buy electronic toys and gadgets when you can literally invent them the modules range from very simple you know power sensors LEDs to very complex with Wireless and programmable modules and there's over 60 modules that can be used in a vast number of creative combinations and better yet little bits is offering new customers 20 bucks off their first kit and free shipping anywhere in the continental US all you got to do is go to little bits comm slash tech quickie that's little bits cop slash tech quickie I don't know why that's in there twice and go ahead and get 20 bucks off whoo after you make something actually puffed send me an Instagram or better yet tag me on Twitter because I'm more likely to check that I would love to see it so thanks for watching guys if you liked the video do that thing if you disliked it do the other thing check out our other channels we've got a great video on channel super fun right now it's like part two of the nerf battle the fire department shows up so definitely not gonna want to miss that and also leave a comment under the video if you have suggestions for future passes Possible's don't forget to subscribe and follow and all that good stuff see you next time