Warning!

[LadyFisher]

I hate to report yet another problem, this one is serious. Denny Conrad called to let me know he had contracted a computer virus which cost him $$ and a day of his time to take his computer in to have it professionally 'cleaned'.
It was a pop-up virus - and even 'tho he "never" opens email from folks he doesn't know, this one which had an attachment got in. It locked up his computer and the only solution was to pull the plug and take it to town. He has no idea how it got in.
You just have to be as careful as you can, and sometimes that isn't enough.

[tailingloop]

Addition to keeping anti-virus and anti-spyware software operating and up to date, that is not enough to protect your computer.

You also need to make sure you keep you operating system, web browsers, and other applications up to date with the most current versions. Many people keep their anti virus up to date as well as operating system (windows, Mac, etc) with automatic updates but do not get updates for other commonly used freeware like Adobe Reader, Flashplayer, web browsers, email clients like Thunderbird, etc.etc. Many of these have vulnerabilities that can be exploited through email or by website links. Anti Virus may not initially catch some things that come through these paths.

I check my applications at least weekly for updates. Most applications have a function to do this manually. Many look for updates automatically if configured to do so.

Also, I have my personal firewall set to never allow an incoming or outgoing connection to be established to my computer unless I explicitly enable it.


As part of my job, I am responsible for ensuring some critical DoD systems are protected, so I do have some background in this area. Last year we evaluated more that 200 possible methods of attacking our system, most of which were not viruses, but might allow a virus to be installed remotely or for someone to remotely gain control of the system. Of these, almost all are addressed by installing the latest operating system or software version updates.

[ducksterman]

I use a small free program called Secunia which is constantly checking for needed updates in the things tailingloop was talking about....the first time you run it you might be surprised.

[Sully]

I read and delete emails at the server level. Only ever bring a few directly into my machine and those are only from people I know. Those do get scanned

I run split drives here ( Dell would not sell me two drive for this machine???) and a Terabite external. I make an image of my C drive daily...so even with the utter downfall of mankind...I can boot from a DVD...restore the latest image..and all I can lose is the "stuff" I did the prior day.

[Host Ray]

I also just got a Virus, it was actually not a virus but a malware. It was called AntiVirus soft. It looks exactly like an antiVirus, but it's a scam, it sends you to a site to buy the fix for $29. It keeps telling you you have a virus when you really don't and won't let you open anything. I have an active antiVirus, ad aware,firewall and spybot. But it got in around all that protection. it was a pain to get rid of too. So I now also have Malware too.

[Bass_Bug]

I also just got a Virus, it was actually not a virus but a malware. It was called AntiVirus soft. It looks exactly like an antiVirus, but it's a scam, it sends you to a site to buy the fix for $29. It keeps telling you you have a virus when you really don't and won't let you open anything. I have an active antiVirus, ad aware,firewall and spybot. But it got in around all that protection. it was a pain to get rid of too. So I now also have Malware too.

My son and nephew both got this same "AV malware". All you have to do is boot in safe mode and choose system restore, and it's cleaned in 30 minutes.

Both of their machines have AVG and Zone Alarm, as does mine. However They are both of Face Book and play Farm ville and I don't. Not sure what they clicked on, but I find it suspicious.

[Jerry]

Get a mac.....

[kbproctor]

Get a mac.....

I agree. I run a Mac but I still run anti virus so I don't pass stuff through to my disadvantaged PC friends.

[Wes]

run a mac is no answer. everyday more attacks are targeted at mac cause criminals have discovered how easy a mac is to penetrate and the large monetary rewards for exploiting mac users. mac users are smug and believe all the apple spin about tight security when the opposite is true, osx is very vulnerable. Apple is excessive to the point of fault to ignore security vulnerabilities even worse than microsoft with windows. try a search at the register.co.uk and theinquirer.net and see the problems.

[tailingloop]

Get a mac.....

Macs have exploitable vulnerabilities too. I have watched one of my bright engineers demonstrate how to exploit some of them. So do common apps such as Adobe Reader, Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, and others, even when installed on a Mac and make your system vulnerable. If you have a Mac it is still in you best interest to keep everything up to date, run anti virus/spyware/malware, and run a personal firewall.


Microsoft tends to spit out patches as they have fixes for vulnerabilities whereas Apple waits to roll up a bunch into one release. Windows vulnerabilities are more often exploited because there are more windows targets out there and the people that do this want the best bang for the buck.