Updating Virus Software-MANDATORY!

[Kevin Shasteen]

Well, these past 10 days have been long and boring.

 

My computer was hit by 6 different viruses all at once via an email. The viruses were non-stop pop-up advetisements that slowed my computer down so much that the computer would eventually lock up.

 

I had McAfee (I think that is how you spell it) Virus Protection that my brother, the computer guru of the family, had installed. Yet, I rarely ever updated the software. That changed about 10 days ago. Upon updating the softwar, only after being hit with these constant pop-ups, did the virus protection software locate these 6 viruses.

 

Prior to this incedent I took the, "It will never happen to me" approach regarding viruses and never updated the software except every once in awhile.

 

Well, those odds - that it would never happen to me caught up to me about 10 days ago.

 

I had to wipe the hard drive completely clean and then reinstall everything. Luckily I had everything backed up on CD-ROM.

 

Words of Wisdom....update your virus protection software weekly and backup your files!

 

Kevin,

(Yea,Still an Inliner)

[blueovalz]

I was the same way until a couple of months ago when I got hit. Unfortunately, the worm that caught me was off the IP, and there was no fix in the works at the time, but regardless, I now update (rather that procrastinate) constantly (and patiently) whenever it is called for. Now I see how often I get virus hits, and my computer is back up to "speed" once again.

[JMortensen]

That sounds like "spyware" to me, not a virus. I actually got a call from a guy guaranteeing me that he could get my website onto people's browser for any search term. At first I thought it was a search engine optimization business, but then he mentioned that you need to run this program for the thing to work. Being the dumbass that I am, I installed the program. When you search for something, even if it did not come up in the search results, when you CLOSE the browser it would open a new window with the website that had paid for his "service". This became incredibly annoying in about 30 seconds time, so I went to uninstall the program. You CAN'T. I called him back and told him he was an @sshole and that his service should be a crime, how did he sleep at night, etc. He basically responded that it is not illegal so I could go F myself.

 

Did a little searching on the internet and found Spybot - Search & Destroy. It is free (they do accept donations though), ran it and it got that crap off my computer.

 

Apparently the main way to get this Spyware on your system is to download freeware, and it will install the spyware with the program you actually wanted.

 

Antivirus software does NOTHING to prevent or remove spyware AFAIK.

[Guest Aaron]

I wish I could get some of my customers to understand that. I have Norton AV at home and have it automatically update any time there is a connection to the internet. It slows me down for the first 10 min or so, but I have not had a virus since I installed it.

 

If anyone does not have a virus checker, I highly recommend NAV. Second is McAfee (it is my second choice because my dad had problems with the firewall that it comes with, and I never got the automatic update to work consistently). Finally if you refuse to spend any money, get AVG. It is free, but sometimes you get what you pay for. Their updates are usually several days to a week slower than the other two.

 

This is just about the cheapest place to get NAV or MAV.

http://www.directdeals.com/

 

AVG

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

[Phyte]

Phyte *hugs* his macs

[wheelman]

Guys,

I'm a software engineer/network admin for my company and have fought these things for years. If you don't have an up-to-date virus scanner you are guaranteed to have virii/spyware. Please get one and keep it updated, this will slow down their spread and limit their scope, it helps all of us not just you. McAfee and Norton are the most popular but there are others. Also keep your operating system patched with all available patches. I know people worry about a patch breaking other software, which has happened, but MS is much better about this these days. And don't think that because you own a MAC or run Linux that you're immune, you're not. Be vigilant.

 

Kevin,

You probably had several of those 6 virii much longer than you realize, most infections aren't apparent unless you are really aware of how your computer normally runs.

 

Let Kevin's experience be a lesson to everyone. He was forced to re-install all of his software because he thought it would never happen to him. I'm very anal about this at home, we have 5 computers in our house and the last thing I want to do is spend a week or more re-installing software on them while my family whines about the systems be down.

 

I'll climb down off my soapbox now, thank you all for listening.

 

Wheelman

[Guest Phailure]

antivirus is pretty crucial... I cant just trust one virus scan so i usually use trend micro's free online virus scan along with norton.

[wheelman]

Phailure,

Have you ever had an instance where all your scanners were up-to-date and one found a virus the other(s) didn't?

 

I use McAfee at home and InnoculateIt from Computer Associates at work. Both scanners are kept up-to-date and catch the same virii trying to invade.

 

I also have both my home and work networks protected behind Linux based firewalls that are setup in stealth mode and use stateful analysis of packets passing through them so things like slammer can't get through.

 

My wife's computer is the one that always "catches" something but it's spyware brought in with things the kids download for "free". We only allow her computer and mine access to the internet so the kids use hers as nobody is allowed on mine. The spyware is farely innocuous but irritating none-the-less so I always eliminate it when it makes it's presence known.

 

Wheelman

[Guest Phailure]

Phailure' date='

Have you ever had an instance where all your scanners were up-to-date and one found a virus the other(s) didn't?

 

I use McAfee at home and InnoculateIt from Computer Associates at work. Both scanners are kept up-to-date and catch the same virii trying to invade.

 

I also have both my home and work networks protected behind Linux based firewalls that are setup in stealth mode and use stateful analysis of packets passing through them so things like slammer can't get through.

 

My wife's computer is the one that always "catches" something but it's spyware brought in with things the kids download for "free". We only allow her computer and mine access to the internet so the kids use hers as nobody is allowed on mine. The spyware is farely innocuous but irritating none-the-less so I always eliminate it when it makes it's presence known.

 

Wheelman[/quote']

 

I've had that (one scanner finding viruses and another not) happen to me many a time which is why I always try to scan with a couple. Spyware is quite annoying especially when it doesnt go away. I figure spyware is like a gateway or something for viruses so I try to stay free of them. Recently, I had a spyware related to peopleonpage or apropos. Quite the pain to get rid of since it keeps comin back. Had to go in and manually delete all the registry keys and unregister the dlls, etc... what a pain. That spyware also attracts viruses somehow.

[wheelman]

I had to deal with one that was similar a few weeks ago. I can't remember which one it was but it kept pulling in pop-ups. I killed the processes in the task manager but it would return so I booted in safe mode (Win 2K) and deleted the executables and registry entries associated with them. I personally haven't experienced a virus infection from spyware but wouldn't be surprised if it happened.

 

Wheelman

[johnc]

Adaware helps keep the spyware off.

Norton helps keep the viruses off.

Zone Alarm helps keep everyone off.

 

I have scheduled tasks that run periodically to update all the above.

[Pathogen]

You really need to do all of the mentioned above, (Run a up to date virus program and do regular windows updates). Spyware isnt as easy of a problem. Like mentioned earlier some of them you need to clean the registry. The problem also is that I've had with quite a few system's is that you can run ad-aware (by Lava-soft), then Spybot (by PepiMK) and then SpySweeper (by Webroots) and all of them will find something even after cleaning registry manually. So if your system is acting funny I would do a spyware scan, but dont rely on one program. I run all 3 spyware programs on my system, usually the system is clean and no problems, but once in a while Spysweeper will find a spyware object that the others dont pick up. There is no 100% program that will get rid of all spyware. Norton 2004 is getting better since it can detect some spyware/dialers but it doesnt do the best job of removing them. However lots of people just run AntiVirus software and think they are protected. Running a firewall will also help stop worms/trojans from infecting your system. Also some of the real bad spyware hides themself in Temp files on your system that they will re-infect the computer and appear to be innocent temp files. So Make sure you delete your temp files often.

[Guest BigWhyteDude]

For addware i use Lavasofts Ad-aware 6.0,

Anti-virus i use norton,

And to help keep my computer up to speed i also use a registry mechanic program.

 

Andrew

[spotfitz]

I have recently been receiving an email containing the Beagle virus from a member of AOL, which uses "ZXT" as his name and 240ZXT as his AOL account name. It has been sent to me in several different ways from the same person. Luckily, yahoo now has virus scan which has found the virus each time, but even then I worry about some of us having problems not keeping our protection up-to-date.

I'm always hit with spyware and several others in our office have had viruses on more then one occassion, which is very often. These spyware programs are usually where you get attacked by the viruses. They make the "door" which allows the viruses to come in undetected.

Your only protection besides staying off the net is to do as everyone here has mentioned. Keep your programs up-to-date!

If anyone else has received an email from "ZXT" with attachments the likes of "I_search_for_you" , please let me know.

If you are "ZXT" get your crap fixed. If your doing it intentionally, may God have mercy on your soul because I have sent you several emails telling you that you are sending out a virus/or have one yourself. I'm about to take the gloves off!

[Guest Phailure]

Adaware helps keep the spyware off.

Norton helps keep the viruses off.

Zone Alarm helps keep everyone off.

 

I have scheduled tasks that run periodically to update all the above.

 

In my opinion, adaware does a fairly good job but will not always get everything. I think pestscan does a pretty good job finding spyware (you have to remove manually or pay for them to remove it for you). Norton does not always get everything either. I just scanned a computer with norton a few days ago and came up clean. I know this computer had been giving us trouble so I scanned it with trend micro's virus scan and 100+ viruses came up...