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.
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.
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.
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.
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 keeps telling you you have a virus 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.
Get a mac…
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.
I agree. I run a Mac but I still run anti virus so I don’t pass stuff through to my disadvantaged PC friends.
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.
I use a program called Mail Washer and absolutely love it. It is available as freeware for one e-address, though I use the Pro version as I use multiple e-addresses. http://www.mailwasher.net/
This program checks your e-mail while it is still on your ISP’s server and shows you what’s there, who sent it, and a preview of the content. You simply check the ones you don’t want and hit a “process mail” button. It deletes the unwanted e-mails from your ISP’s server and opens up your mail program so you can download only the wanted e-mails.
Over time, you teach it who are your friends and who are spammers, so the whole review and process thing takes less time. I love it because it does not cause me to lose any e-mails from potential new clients, but makes spam pretty much of a non-issue. And, it basically allows me to get rid of potential virus laden spam before it can touch my hard drive.
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.
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.
My Techie called it this. I spent 7 hours reading in a book, in my truck in the big town. Spent way more money than I wanted to but felt they charged me less than the time they had to run all the scans. I did not loose one file or anything. The pros are the only way to go in my opinion.
I have always been very punctual about my up dates and actually have a schedule that prompts me to do so. My system is custom built and far better than one can purchase “out of the box”. My firewall is supposed to be top of the line. No matter how well protected you think you are, it can happen. Most of what was written above is how I run things here, but I did catch a bad one. Neither Kenny, Liz or I play or surf and none of us open any attachments.
My Techie said my problem was sent into my system on the coat tails of an
e-mail, perhaps from a friend who sent it to me without knowing they even were infected or playing host and passing it on. No matter how good your anti virus is, these scam artists are daily learning new ways to attach and get around all your protection. It may have been residing in my computer for several days. Eventually it hatched and presto I was locked up. The pop up was like Ray said, credit card # etc for a fix which was just a scam to obtain my info. It looked real but I am sure I am pretty hard to scam. Was easy to pull the plug and take it to the guys that do this sort of thing daily.
They told me I did the right thing and if you play around clicking things you may lose lots of stuff. What prompted me to pull the plug was when I tried to click on the X to get out of everything I realized I was infected.
Oh ya, allowed things to cool off, re booted and there the darn thing still was. Pull plug time.
I will never know where it came from and do not know if it will happen again. Was I PO’d, you bet, Big time! Will it cause me to do things differently? Not really because In 15 years of computer operation this was my first. I know I am not so special or all that smart so perhaps I will catch one again.
We will tighten up not clicking on unknown URLs to sites we are unsure of.
Was told this is one of the most common ways they plant their devious software. A site can be infected and not all that visit the site will catch it??
Attachments will be deleted and darn sure not opened.
I do not know all the answers, for sure. Just want to advise all of you, my friends to be careful.
Denny
Thanks Denny,
I have a rule, be wary of any link. I keep all my walls and antis updated daily and never ever click on a link I dont think about first. I may miss a few emails at times, but it’s worth it.
Z
here’s a freewware windows malware removal tool Malwarebytes i’d say the best. it’ll get most stuff but not all. there is no magic bullet.
Freeware version is same scan/detect engine as pro version. proversion has real time protection for 30 bux a year.
there’s other very specialized malware removal freeware but not to be used by anyone but very well versed malware specialists.
if anyone needs excellent help to remove or even just check their computer http://www.suggestafix.com is the place to go. We have 3 of the best malware exterminators on the planet. I’m an admin at SAF.
One thing to keep in mind about the malware tools is that many of those purporting themselves as tools for removing malware ARE malware. Having been a Network Admin for the last 15 years running networks composed of Windows, Linux, Netware, and Macs, and designing and installing complex wide area wireless networks, (yeah, hard to believe I can’t find work…) I have been infected twice at work and 4 times at home. I was able to lock things down at work to the point of computers being pretty much useless for any but the purchased purpose, but at home, convincing grandkids that glitter smileys or that really cool screensaver is taboo is tough. It is also difficult to get through to them that they do not download anything without Grampa’s OK.
I will never tell people that Macs are invulnerable to attack. They are not. However, the vast majority of malware and virii are written for Windows as Windows is where they can do the most damage. It’s a numbers game. As the number of Macs goes up, the attraction to attack goes up. In the mean time, Mac owners can and do rest a little easier. Besides that, things are just plain easier to do on a Mac in most cases.I would much rather hand a new computer user a Mac than a PC. They are so much more user friendly that most PC users spend the first couple of months learning that things do not have to be so complicated when they are confronted with using a Mac on a regular basis.
I still run anti-virus software. Probably the biggest mess I ever had to clean up was from an infected Word document that came from a vendor into my all Mac network. I had been begging the owners to let me install anti-virus software and they were not willing to spend the money because the Macs had never been infected. We were sending that Word document out to our customers and infecting them. The damage control fallout from that incident got me the OK to install anti-virus software on all the Macs. We caught tons of virii after that, but we still never got infected. Every one of the malicious payloads was for Windows machines, every one.
I have a total of 6 domains, 4 of which are active. 3 of those are hosted right here on Mac Servers. I run a hardened Linux firewall that is custom set up and programmed to resist attack. It wasn’t all that tough to do. I have never had anything other than a Windows PC infected with a virus or any sort of malware, never.
If it was the Security Center Virus it’s a major pain in the BUTT!!! It doesn’t cause any damage to your system just keeps popping up that you are being scanned and have them.
Takes a few hours to clean it out but it can be done, I know I had it and that’s about how long it takes.
for this virus I don’t care what you’re using you can get it!!! I have AVG, MalWarebytes, Commander firewall and spybot, it made it by all of them.
Fatman