Oliver

This virus hit companies worldwide on Thursday, September 9th, 2010. Some of the companies compromised include NASA, P&G, Bank of America, Florida DOT, and Disney. The virus compromises Windows firewall as well as all of the major antivirus software. Afterward, it rummages through your contacts in various popular email/chat programs and forwards itself to all of your friends and family.

This virus includes several common tricks/bypasses to fool the victim. For example,
The link in the original email displays

http://www.sharedocuments.com/library/PDF_Document21.025542010.pdf

However, the link actually directs you

http://members.multimania.co.uk/yahoophoto/PDF_Document21_025542010_pdf.scr

note: The website has already been shutdown so you don’t have to worry

If a victim clicks on the link and executes the malware, then his computer becomes infected. The .scr file replicates itself and becomes csrss.exe. This file also happens to be a critical Windows file usually located in C:\Windows\System32. However, the virus puts itself in C:\Windows because it wants to masquerades itself as closely as possible to the genuine windows file without actually replacing it. The interesting piece: The executable displays a PDF icon even though it has a .exe extension. Talk about custom icons!

The virus also litters the C: driver with a dozen different files, most of them empty. It also creates an autorun.inf that attempts to reinfect the computer should a virus sweep (incomplete) occur. The virus also replicates itself on all of your shared drives/removable media so that when such drives are accessed, the accessor also becomes infected. Furthermore, the virus attaches itself as a debugger to all of the critical system processes. This means that the virus runs whenever those critical system processes are started.

Most people are still in the dark as regards to what the virus’s purpose is. Sure, it will try to spread itself. But what is it trying to get? Bank accounts? Username/Pass? emails? It opens ports such as 137, 138, 139,445 in windows firewall (after it tries to disable it) but no connections were seen coming in (yet). The virus also tries to call home by trying to connect to all of the hosts within 213.131.252.***:80 block, which seems to be hosted in Germany. Because of security policies, none of the connections succeeded so the purpose of the connection could not be ascertained. Microsoft, McAfee, and Symantec all have put out alerts and technical documentations on this virus but no one has uncovered a malicious purpose yet. I am very hesitant to believe that the virus writer went through all the trouble of disabling major anti-virus software just to spread the email around. The only damage so far is company downtime and reimaging computers. Perhaps the virus writer just wanted to target one specific company but the virus spread too far? Or was this a trial run to test companies’ security defenses? Maybe there’s a stage two happening soon. Perhaps its so sneaky that stage two is happening right now undetected.

Museum of Chicago posted a competition called “Month at the Museum”. An Excerpt from their website:

The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago is looking for “you.” And by “you,” we mean an adventurous, outgoing person with a strong interest in learning about science and the world around her or him, plus the ability to write engagingly about your experiences. Ideally, you’re also the web-savvy sort who can keep your thumb out of frame when taking photographs. If that “you” sounds like you, or if you are simply curious about this intriguing endeavor, then you should read on.

We’re looking for someone to take on a once-in-a-lifetime assignment: spend a Month at the Museum, to live and breathe science 24/7 for 30 days. From October 20 to November 18, 2010, this person’s mission will be to experience all the fun and education that fits in this historic 14-acre building, living here and reporting your experience to the outside world. There will be plenty of time to explore the Museum and its exhibits after hours, with access to rarely seen nooks and crannies of this 77-year-old institution.

I had so many details about my life I wanted to share with the museum but the application can only be so long. I mixed and matched my qualifications between the 60-second video, 500 word essay, and the short answers. Very excited about the possibility about living at the Museum for a whole month. I get to pick a new place to sleep everyday! Email me at [email protected] if you want a copy of my application!

Here is my Youtube Video for the submission!

Today I had my first taste of home-grown vegetables. The owners of the Yankee Ferry, Victoria/Richard, started their own garden in May on the pier next to the Yankee Ferry. For those of you who don’t know, Victoria/Richard bought the Yankee Ferry in the early 200′s and now live on it. With an area of approximately two thousand sq. feet, they planted zucchinis, tomatoes, corn, and cabbage. They harvested some corn today and generously offered me one. Talk about fresh corn straight from the ground! I love home made produce because it decreases the need for fossil fuel used to transport food around the globe.

The aerial view of the young garden in May, 2010

There were many unknowns when they first started planting. Would the soil be deep enough? Do the plants need fertilizer/pesticide? How dense should the plants be placed? Luckily everything worked out in the end with the garden producing a healthy one pound of vegetable per day.

The tire acts as a protective barrier that keeps in warmth and moisture

They selected tires instead of pots because of two reasons. One, they are promoting a greener earth by obtaining the old tires from the local landfill, thereby reducing trash. Second, the tires actually improve the quality of the plant. The rubber traps in moisture and heat, which lengthens the growing season as well as decreases the water need of the plants. Plants that normally would not start growing until May can now be planted in April.

The garden during sunrise

They also designed a nifty watering system that turns on everyday at 4am and 4pm.

Closeup picture of the corn

Richard and Victoria plan to continue planting each year using the same soil. Apparently, by planting different kinds of plants each year, the soil will remain nutritious and will never have to be replaced. Expansion plans also call for the rest of the pier being filled by next year.

Yummy!

Eric Beecher and I decided last semester to embark on an epic trip after graduation from MIT to celebrate our entrance into the real world. Eric and I have known each for four years through the MIT track team and our fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. We started out in Southern California and worked our way to Arizona/Nevada and back. Our friend Rajiv generously allowed us to stay at his house in preparation for our trip.

The Peak of Mt. Whitney (Source: Ian Parker)

At the beginning of our hike Eric and I were warned about all of the dangers of Mt. Whitney. Some said that we needed to camp at altitude for a couple days before summiting to prevent altitude sickness. Others recommended crampons and heavy duty boots to prevent us from sliding off the mountain. The park rangers forbid us to take the mountaineer’s route because this was our first time summiting. For the most part, thewarnings turned out to be too cautious. We summited Mt Whitney with shorts and tennis shoes. Some of the hikers laughed at us for not equipping ourselves. Others admired us for having the ability to do without the extra. I did come down with altitude sickness, although I was still able to summit without much problem.

The tallest two men in the lower 48

On the way up, we met up with a park ranger who recommended us to go off trail to camp because the official campground was too crowded. He gave us directions to Constellation Lake, the highest lake on the mountain and also a quarter mile from the main camp site. Either he gave us the wrong directions or we got lost, but hiking quickly became rock climbing on ice. We had our camping 50 pound camping backpacks still on us while we were trying navigate steep rock surfaces. One of our water bottle was tragically lost when I dropped it and we watched it gravely as it clattered down the mountain. But we did manage to reach the alternate “camp site.” We realized why it never became the official one. Winds battered our tent mercilessly throughout the night. My altitude sickness also became to set in at this stage of the climb so that night was not a comfortable one for me.

Having climbed the tallest peak in the lower 48, we set out to the Colorado River for our Canoeing trip. Being MIT engineers, we were not satisfied in just renting a canoe. Instead, we wanted to float down the Colorado River the DIY way. We followed the directions on this website. Basically we bought three sheets of plywood and resin/varnish for waterproofness. We cut the first sheet of plywood in the shape of the bottom profile of the canoe. Then we bent the other two plywood to fit the profile and glued it together. The hardware store only sold 8-foot pieces, not long enough for a needed 14-foot canoe. We had to do some ghetto-rigging to build our canoe.

The Canoe and me hairless

Lake Havasu with Eric in the foreground

After two days of building, our canoe was finally finished, which we promptly christened it “Roxanne”. Unfortunately, we found out after the first test that Roxanne was impossible to keep upright. We had to install pontoons (40 galleon storage containers) on either side of Roxanne to keep her level and stable. What Roxanne lost in speed and agility she made up for it in character. The boat had so much character. Because we weren’t experts in waterproofing boats, Roxanne was actually quite leaky. Although the leakage wasn’t enough to sink the boat, Roxanne definitely kept us busy on the river bailing her out.

Our canoe after the "upgrades"

We quickly became the talk of the town as we paddled down the Bullhead City to Lake Havasu, a distance of about 60 miles. Boats would blow their horns at us, and beachgoers would point and stare. People in their expensive boats flying down the river couldn’t believe that we were paddling our way down. We were offered beer and food all through out the trip. Talk about an effective way of receiving free food. Strangely, people identified us as MIT even we had no MIT apparel on us. Apparently, a homemade canoe is the marquee trait of MIT students.

Near-death experience #1

Our next stop was Joshua Tree National Park, the home of wondrous rugged desert trees and enormous rock formations. While the trees were pretty strange and all, the rock formations entertained and challenged us for hours. Eric and I have been going to indoor rock climbing gyms the last semester at MIT training for our moment to shine at Joshua Tree. There no easy hand holds, and the only thing padding our falls were the granite below us. Its the stuff that makes moms sleepless at night. Fortunately both of us came out of that day unscathed.

Eric on the Rocks

Eric did not eat well during the trip and it showed

Alas, all good things have to come to an end. On July 9th, we ended our trip and had an absolutely enormous Indian dinner, courtesy of Rajiv. The next day I flew back to NY and resumed my job.

My name is Oliver Yeh and I graduated from MIT February of 2010 with a degree in Computer Science/Electrical Engineering.

Check out my near space photography website!

One of my main hobbies includes biking. I biked across Canada with my friend Thomas Moulia (MIT ‘10) during the summer of 2008. I also love chess, basketball, cliff jumping, thrill-seeking, and gymnastics. I hope to always follow my motto in life, “Live as if there is no tomorrow”.