I’m careful! I used to fix computers for a living and I know the guts of my precious computer inside and out (since I built it). I know how to avoid viruses! (only 1 virus in 14 years) I have a firewall! I have scanners!
But yesterday…I dunno why…but I clicked on a link from a junk email that I filtered out. I don’t know why. I should have just left it alone and let it get deleted but for some reason I wanted to see if the link worked.
It worked. I shut down my IE (no boxes or windows showing me anything had happened) and I turned off my computer.
This morning? I find 6 fucking malware/spyware programs installed on my computer! ARGH! (I learned of this when the programs started up after I started playing Knights of the Old Republic and it crashed my game).
Adaware couldn’t get rid of them (running process) so I boot into safe mode (Win XP Pro) and I found out that my administrator account isn’t password protected in Safe Mode! WTF? My admin account name was changed to my normal user ID but in safemode the “default” is restored without a password!
So I now retract all my bad thoughts towards users who install spyware/malware. I always thought these people were allowing these programs to install but now I know who to blame…Microsoft!
You used to think people who installed malware were stupid. Then you knowingly did a stupid thing. Since you can’t possibly be stupid, it’s Microsoft’s fault.
Oh I admit I’m stupid…for going to a link in an email.
But I blame microsoft for allowing 6 programs to install on my HD in 1 minute without my knowledge. My IE is set to default. I even typed in the fucking link (so there wasn’t any hidden code in Outlook).
And these were programs, not little cookies. I found all 6 directories with no mention of them in my add/remove program (for some reason the info I found of these programs said I should uninstall them?).
I wish I could run all my games on Linux or any other OS. I really do.
Heh, I read /. enough to know Windows has more holes than swiss cheese.
It’s just that I can’t imagine why IE would allow this sort of access to my HD! I’m used to catching dozens of cookie “dataminers” but actually having a program install behind the scenes is scary.
I need to switch browsers. I used to like Netscape until IE became the defacto standard and back then, I didn’t have the HD space for both programs (I’m fine now with a little over 450 gigs ).
Any recommendations of browsers that have the least amount of risk that supports encryption? I still need to do my banking with 128 bit encryption enabled.
I’m seriously considering getting ad-aware pro and giving it to my GF. That alone should cut my “service calls” from her 95%
I suppose you must have recognized from the title that the article I linked to was featured on Slashdot. Og forbid that a Slashdot reader would actually read the articles.
Try Mozilla Firefox or Opera. Your online banking should work in one of them, and if it doesn’t, send them a message by taking your business elsewhere.
In addition to Firefox and keeping up with Windows Update, the best thing you can do is routinely run with a limited user account instead of an administrator account.
My current nominee for the ninth circle of hell are the authors of CoolWaveSearch and its apparently innumerable variants.
This piece of shit apparently installs itself through a known bug in the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, attempts to evade and/or disable anti-spyware programs that I have installed on my computer, prevents me from downloading new anti-spyware programs by blocking access to their Web sites, and alters results produced by Google or Yahoo searches.
My understanding is that IE hijacks and/or worms by-pass all protection offered by Windows so it wouldn’t matter in the end.
If this is all I need to do, I can create a low level user just for me to use while online but I don’t know how well it’ll work. I normally don’t “surf” from home as I’m too busy playing videogames
biqu, yeah, I didn’t read the article when I replied so I see what you mean I normally read /. for the commentary and of course, I only read from work so I end up missing most weekend articles (sure I can go back into yesterday’s news but reading today’s news is usually enough to fill my day).
Spybot often finds and gets rid of stuff Adaware doesn’t. I have both and run them. Just a thought. Hope you manage to get rid of all traces of those programs. Malware sucks.
Another program to get is CWShredder - it is so far the best at keeping track of the worst piece of malware, CoolWebSearch (as BrotherCadfael mentioned), and getting rid of it.
Another honorable mention for CWShredder. After running Ad-aware and Spybot both numerous times and still being unable to get out from under CoolWebSearch, and after rummaging around in Regedit time after time trying to eliminate it only to have it reappear instantly, I discovered this little jewel of a program. It’s free and it wipes that crap out virtually instantly. (And sure enough, with five of us on the computer, including a 17 year old girl, CoolWebSearch pops up at least daily when opening IE. I run CWShredder and wipe it out again. Takes no more than 20 or 30 seconds from start to finish, and you feel like you’ve taken a sledge hammer to that piece of shit each time you do.)
I’ve wondered why this shit is legal, myself. This kind of crap, and pop-ups, are by far more annoying than spam as they actually interfere with your use of your computer. Why all the legislation about spam but letting this kind of shit go unrestrained? I swear, after two or three days of trying to get that crap off my computer (plus the russian-teen-sex site it kept pointing to) only to have it keep reappearing even after I’d deleted everything I could find with Regedit, I wanted to find out where CoolWebSearch was located and do some serious damage.
).