Viruses, worms, whatever

Walt2

Walt2

Joined
Mar 13, 2001
Messages
1,157
There sure are getting to be a lot of individuals who like to screw up other peoples computers, especially by emails. I was recently told that I had a virus attached to the link to my website. Found out that that was not the only one. Got everything cleared out and then over the weekend the computer froze up Sunday morning and there was another one, all settings were screwed up in the computer. I have learned the hard way over the last 2 years that McAfee, Norton, and the free versions of others will not protect a computer from all of these problems. Admin, if this is in the wrong location, please move it.
 
Not only is this malware increasingly prevalent, it's increasingly clever. I've seen worms that will actually disable your anti-malware updates or prevent it from running scans.
An effective method is to download a good program like "Super Anti-Spyware" on a known-safe computer, then put the .exe on a flash drive.
Boot your computer in safe mode, insert the flash drive, and run the program from there.
 
I use Microsoft Essentials, CCleaner and Malwarebytes to keep my computers free of that stuff. works good and all are free.

https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/

http://download.cnet.com/CCleaner/

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5201

Edit: I update them run them every other day before I shut down the computer. Malwarebytes' scan takes the longest...upwards of 25 minutes....but it's thorough. Security Essentials takes about the same and CCleaner the least ammt of time.
 
Top tip for keeping a clean PC.....stop surfing for free porn.... and NEVER EVER click yes to view ANYTHING

also setting windows and your virus scanner/malware scanner to check for updates and run every day
 
server that hosts your website needs to be more secure also dont trust attachments
 
I work in I.T. Viruses are indeed getting smarter. The ones I fear currently are Ransomware (cryptowall 3.0 is the current menace). They encrypt your data using an unbreakable RSA 1024 or 2048 bit code. It would take all of the current computers in existence combined a quadrillion years to break the code. Then they ask for a ransom usually in bitcoin for somewhere between $100-$10,000.

One suggestion I have for the OP is adblock plus, this is an addon for most browsers. Also keep your computer up to date as well as running an anti-virus plus an anti-malware. I agree with another above (microsoft security essentials and malwarebytes). You could replace microsoft security essentials with any AV you prefer.

If anyone ever needs help cleaning a computer, I volunteer a load of my time at bleepingcomputer and the folks there will help you for free. You might have to wait in line for help, I think they are pretty busy. I generally stick to the hardware sections at the moment.
 
Last edited:
@the Count

I had SERIOUS SERIOUS issues with Avast in the past and I was far from alone.

Check this out: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=152627.0

Many people seem to have a lingering problem that Avast has poo pooed and claims to have resolved. The funny thing is that after updating to the version with the problem resolved in it, I still had the problem which included blue screens, inability to boot and other really annoying crap. The final solution for me was to scratch the drive and re-install Windows 7.

You may be having a good experience with that tool but I sure didn't and would NEVER recommend it to anyone.

Normally I find your advice to be flawless, and often, uniquely wise. Not this time..........................

Corey "synthesist" Gimbel
 
zingo156 said:
I work in I.T. Viruses are indeed getting smarter. The ones I fear currently are Ransomware (cryptowall 3.0 is the current menace). They encrypt your data using an unbreakable AES 1024 or 2056 bit code. It would take all of the current computers in existence combined a quadrillion years to break the code. Then they ask for a ransom usually in bitcoin for somewhere between $100-$10,000.

One suggestion I have for the OP is adblock plus, this is an addon for most browsers. Also keep your computer up to date as well as running an anti-virus plus an anti-malware. I agree with another above (microsoft security essentials and malwarebytes). You could replace microsoft security essentials with any AV you prefer.

If anyone ever needs help cleaning a computer, I volunteer a load of my time at bleepingcomputer and the folks there will help you for free. You might have to wait in line for help, I think they are pretty busy. I generally stick to the hardware sections at the moment.
Click to expand...

Microsoft Security Essentials and Antimalware free versions on both is what the last one got by on my computer. Dell tech support cleared this mess out and says that microsoft essentials has not been updating lately. They recommended the pay version of the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. I am an old individual and do not know a whole lot about computers. I have a grandson who has a Masters Degree in Communication Systems (computers) and has taught computer science in college and he kept telling me to get away from the free versions and either go to Kapersky or the above mentioned antimalware. This I have done and will see how it goes from here on. Thanks a lot for the info on the free service, I now have that saved.
 
Get an iMac.* Problem solved. :D (Ouch! Ouch! Stop kicking me.) Seriously, I have had my iMac since 2010 and can count the malware infections on the fingers of one hand.
I used to have nothing but problems when I ran PCs. There is always some malware that can get around your software. I have had computers disabled that were running
Avast, Norton, etc. IMHO, Malwarebytes is probably one of the best and least intrusive. Some of the others are so intrusive that they make the computer unusable.

Don't view free porn? Yeah, right. :D


*I run an anti-malware program, but it rarely finds anything. Go to the dark side. We have cookies.
 
I run Linux "Ubuntu" on my personal computer.

What is this Mal-ware you speak of? :-) I've had the same hardware in it for better than 9 years, and no infections, mal-ware, nor unwanted anything on it at all.
 
Ron! My man!
I'm running Linux too, I've never once had a problem with viruses or mal-ware. Imagine that! Oh and it's free! Woot!
 
There is a heap of mal-ware out there for lunix, IOS and everything else. Its just that those systems make it harder for you to infect yourself. My aunt killed her phone by hitting one of those "you have a virus" ads, turned out it wasn't one of the harmless ones. The thing is all of these systems are very complex, and there isn't an easy solution. Well, there is, but no one likes it. There is a lot of the internet that is full of badness. There is a lot of it that is marginal. stick to the good stuff, and don't click ads. Free stuff never is. Heck sometimes its not even your fault (superfish is in a lot of stuff, not just the new lenovos)
Its a fact of life.
 
The virus writers tend to stay ahead of the AV's, it is more important to educate yourself on the virus infection vectors (where they come from) such as email attachments and exploits which target old flash/silverlight/java versions etc than to worry about which AV to use, safe web browsing is a huge part of this, use linux for those free porn websites lol! A bootable flash version of linux is great! The newest versions of Ransomware I receive weekly and test on a virtual box are only generally picked up by 1 or 2 AV's out of ~60 on virustotal.com (you can upload any file in question there and it will be scanned by all of the AV's in the list). It is never the same 2 AV's that pick up the newest virus version. So basically it is hit or miss mostly due to luck. Until someone gets hit by a virus and reports it, no one else knows it exists even the AV writers.

To all of those using Linux and OSX: there are viruses but you are far less likely to be affected by viruses due to the user volume of the OS's. Virus writers target windows because world wide ~90-95% of users are using windows. Linux and OSX make up the rest which is a small portion. For those virus writers it is more profitable to write one piece of software that can hit 95% of the computers vs writing multiple versions to gain only 5%.

Viruses still suck! Especially those new ransomware viruses. The cryptolocker virus made about $27 million in the ~9-10 months it was going around. Since that virus there have been more than 20 copy cat ransomware viruses. One thing is certain: they are here to stay. The best option is doing what is known as a cold backup every few days or once a week etc. To do this just connect a flash drive or external hard drive, backup your data and then disconnect the hard drive. The next option would be to use cloud storage which has previous versions enabled. With either of those backups even if you do get hit, at least you still can get your important personal data back without paying the criminals...

The joys of the I.T. world, happy computing!
 
Last edited:
ron_m80 said:
I run Linux "Ubuntu" on my personal computer.

What is this Mal-ware you speak of? :-) I've had the same hardware in it for better than 9 years, and no infections, mal-ware, nor unwanted anything on it at all.
Click to expand...

I have not had a virus on any of my windows machines since my college days in 2006. That was thanks to a roomate who I let use my computer (never again!). It is possible to use a windows machine and not get infected but it takes a significant amount of work... Linux is any poor mans best friend (that's me). I use it on all of my media center boxes and recommend it for repeat virus customers. I prefer Linux over OSX (mac).
 
Last edited:
Someone made a comment about subjects making money from infecting computers with viruses. How do they make money out of it if they are not the ones removing them?
 
Walt2 said:
Someone made a comment about subjects making money from infecting computers with viruses. How do they make money out of it if they are not the ones removing them?
Click to expand...

They encrypt your files (makes your files not open in simple terms), then they charge $100-$10,000 fee to give you the key to fix the files. There are also other viruses such as keyloggers which record your keyboard input, whatever you type gets uploaded to the virus writer. If you sign into a bank, they would then have your login info and could possibly rob you.

I think the best way to explain ransomware is give some links notice in this one there are 223 pages, this was the cryptolocker virus which made $27 million in ransoms:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/506924/cryptolocker-hijack-program/

This is the current virus cryptowall 3.0:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/532879/cryptowall-new-variant-of-cryptodefense/

In the first post of that second link there is a link to the write up explaining the virus:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/cryptowall-ransomware-information

There is a ton of info there but the basic principal is they lock your files and if you do not have a backup, there is little or no chance of recovering data without paying the thugs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top