A hacked Facebook account won't compromise the Ubuntu login password
even if it's the same as her Facebook one. However if you want to be
totally sure then go to 'Users and Groups' then click on the 'change'
link next to 'Password'.

Where is the password? I've tried recovery mode and at the end it asks for a
name and password. I put in what I set up when I installed Ubuntu. Ubuntu tells
me it's incorrect.

The computer is a 2 hard drive dual boot. No anything but Ubuntu on one drive.

Is it possible that since I overwrote W2K when originally installing Ubuntu that
Ubuntu thinks there is a Windows password? The other drive is XP. I have never
set up a password for login on Windows as I'm the only user 99% of the time. The
tech leaves all passwords blank. So what is it looking for? Since no passwords
were ever set up, there shouldn't be anything in the BIOS.

I'm one of the few that gets a straight install of Windows from the tech. I use
different security programs than he uses and he knows the first thing I will do
is load the security and necessary precautions if he has to wipe the Windows
drive to upgrade.

I would really like to know just what Ubuntu is searching for.

When installing ubuntu you were prompted to give a username and password.
This is what ubuntu is looking for. The password is the same as you would
use to install software. If that is not working something else is wrong. I
have what is the error message you are receiving?

It is possible to change this from a live cd... but more difficult.

Also, if you can still log into the system, make sure you have at least one
user with admin privileges in addition to the one you are trying to change.
The this is just so there is a failsafe.

OK, let me be really specific...

I have long suspected that some program takes over my system and them emulated
or rather installs another system on top of it so that it can use my original
system to hijack my wifi connection and files share, snoop or something worse.

One reason for this is that when I do get the Wifi to work there is briefly a
flash of Firefox on my screen that vanishes again and never shows up to me
anywhere, and Firefox doesn't open until I click again to open another Firefox,
THEN I get something like 0-75 Bytes per second access.

I was thinking that maybe my having used only one user and one password for
Admin and for my use of the system had allowed them to sniff, snoop and subvert
my system. Is this possible? Probable?

I read somewhere, where the CIA bragged that Unix was totally coopted from the
beginning.

You should look at the system logs. You will see what has been loaded
and run, what is running, and feel more secure. Nothing is run that you
didn't set to run by installing applications. Installing by itself is
not a method to make an application to run in the background. That takes
much more effort. need proof? ever tried to have an application run at
startup? Easy peesy in any MS program, not so easy in Linux, and that is
the plan to keep your info safe.

Thanks, but what if someone installed a copy of Ubuntu as a child of my original
Ubuntu? Can that be done? Or even as a parallel OS and then set a lower priority
for i/o or something that would allow them to steal the bandwidth on the wifi?

It's far more likely that the Wi-Fi signal is being picked up by
somebody else in range and they've broken the access key so are able
to piggy-back your broadband. What sort of security level have you set
on the router and have you also changed the default router login ?

Getting remote access to any OS and being able to install another one
in parallel isn't going to be something you wouldn't notice happening.

If I remember correctly, the wifi in question is public access in a
apartment or condo right? In addition to just being clogged by everyone
trying to use it... There are various attacks out there that can disrupt
wifi signal without having any access to your account. One of which was
recently published as an android application, where the phone connects to
the network, spoofs the router, and drops all data requests from other
machines.

Now I don't know much about the technique or app other than what I learned
reading about it recently, but it was an interesting read anyway.

I don't see how anyone would be doing what you describe on your OS though.

NYC Wireless controls the router. Maybe I should forward this post to them, if I
can.

I know I would never know, that is why I thought the Ghost pop-up FireFox was
suspicious. Why would it come up and then vanish like that?

I've had similar experiences on Windows and other Linux installations that ended
up with so many copies of my desktop opening on my slow system that it was
rediculously apparent. Seems like some of them or maybe all of them also opened
the Ghost browsers that vanished.

Are you saying someone that would do this to you has been at your
computer with your password?

No, this would have been done via some kind of backdoor, sniffing, etc. Which is
why I suspect political motivated intervention by our "Security Class" working
for the Bankster owned government. I'm very "vocal" with my keyboard, always
tearing them a well deserverd "new one" if you know what I mean. They don't like
it when I speak.

I've been a one man "Occupy Wall Street" for many years now.

I have heard that Unix was coopted by the CIA from the beginning. I have no way
of knowing if that is true; other than my experiences with multiple desktop
booting and Internet denial of service attacks.

I'm not bothered by them knowing everything I do, I just get pissed when they
slow me down or block me on my own home computer and Internet connection. I'm
down to 0/bps to 1K/bps 99% of the time it is 0/bps. Web pages time out instead
of loading.

This happened initially on my windows systems so I changed to Linux years ago
and experienced the same issues on Linux which is really weird right?

It is, theoretically at least, possible to install a rootkit that puts
the original system into a virtual machine and runs that. It's next to
impossible from within the VM to tell and the host rootkit could be
doing anything.

However, it's not something I'd be too concerned about. So far as I am
aware, this remains a theoretical exploit only - at worst, it might be
found in the lab. No such exploit has yet been found in the wild. It
would be *major* news if it had.

The CIA thing is pure FUD. Microsoft has given the NSA the keys to your
computer. That is a known fact. The rest is just something MS likes to
spread.

Oh, absolutely. Linux, being open source, is proof against that. Any
government backdoors in the code would be found pretty quickly.

The rootkit thing, though, is not FUD (see the links below). There's a
lot of people in the AV community getting *very* worried at the idea and
a lot of money going into working out how to detect/remove/prevent such
an exploit *before* it gets loose.

But I stress - these things have yet to be seen in the wild. You really
shouldn't be losing any sleep over them.