Spyware/viruses

[Insectoid]

Hmm, seems my computer got attacked by a spyware/virus/thing. Again.

Has anyone ever had major problems with these? I connected to the net, and seconds later, BAM! I get notification after notification: Windows has detected a spyware infection! A spyware program may be making illegal copies of your system and internet settings! (Perhaps I shouldn't have forgot to open Sympatico Security Manager, which doesn't do much good anyway). I suppose I'll continue to be bombarded with notifications every half minute until the thing is gone.

My computer told me to download Antivirus 9 from some MS website. So I did. Then it told me to download it again, while it was already downloading. [snip]. When it was done, I ran the installer and- Nothing happened. The installer was broken, and I now truly share the feeling of 'holy crap this thing is [snip]' many people hold for Microsoft. Does Linux have these problems? I suppose it's tiny user base (compared to MS) would result in little malicious software geared toward that OS.

I just felt like ranting a bit...

Mod edit: You need a better word to bash things than "gay."

[Dan]

It's not just a smaller user base, the way *nix based operating systems are designed makes it harder (but not imposable) to have successful virus or malware and when there are they noraml can not do much other then mess with the users home dir (unless the user is breaking the rules and running as root).

Vista tryed to take up a bit of this desing in the fourm of the UAC (the thing that pops up and asks you if you want to do that as admin). However it seems Vista users tend to just click acpect/run no matter what it says or trun the thing off.

In any case it might help if you got spybot (an anti-spyware scaner):

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

or a better anti-virus like AVG:

http://free.avg.com/ww.download?prd=afe

[Insectoid]

I am actually running the guide to malware removal on forums.majorgeeks.com, which includes SUPERantispyware, spybot, malwarebytes, and combofix, as well as various manual things. Apparently, they're all good programs. SUPERspyware found 124 bad things on my PC, AFTER Sympatico found & deleted 64.

We had AVG, but then they decided they wanted to charge money for it and my dad said forget it.

[Tony]

insectoid @ Mon Aug 04, 2008 4:02 pm wrote:

We had AVG, but then they decided they wanted to charge money for it and my dad said forget it.

Because obviously keeping your computer secure just isn't worth the subscription fee

Also, I think you'd need to better define what a "bad thing" is. Spybot picks up on tracking cookies (and those could be in the hundreds, depending on one's browsing habits (and settings)), something that antiviruses typically ignore.

[Insectoid]

Sympatico (trys to) get tracking cookies as well.

We used to have Norton, that was also terrible. We've had avast as well, but it wouldn't delete the crap it found.

Anyway, I found out what caused my screen to turn blue and have an anti-virus ad smack in the middle of it a few months back. I knew it was a virus, though I could never find it. Spybot did, and now I have a name for it! Though I've forgot...

I like how spybot tells you specifically what the program does, instead of just giving you the classification.

I guess, to figure things out like this, you NEED to get a virus once in a while. If I hadn't gotten this one, I never would have found spybot.

[Dan]

I am some what surprised by how many virus and malware you seem to get. You must have some very "intresting" browsing habits or are not updating your OS and have no firewall.

[Insectoid]

This is just the result of no proper malware removal since we got the machine (5-6 years ago). Lol, My OS (winXP) wants to update every time you shut down, because it seems to forget that it already has updated. Most of them are gone now, but not the one that's bugging me.

I have very interesting browsing habits, I visit sites like compsci.ca (great site, that, you should try it), google, facebook (sometimes), majorgeeks, youtube, etc. Nothing overly 'interesting' by any means.

[Zeroth]

Anybody else use it? If its not you, then it has to be someone else visiting the wrong sites.

I used to run windows, and I never had any issues, despite lacking a firewall+antivirus.

Here's what I did:
1) Firefox
2) Ad-block plus(blocks all ads, including malevolent ads, which happens to be the most common infection route for spyware these days)
3) No-script (Further blocking of all malicious scripts. Only allow sites you trust.)
4) Install a decent firewall, preferably from this list: http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/06/15/foss-for-security/#firewallssoftware

I also noticed your mention of Antivirus 9, from some windows site... my reccomendation is to never download or install something a pop-up tells you. The odds that its a piece of minor malware popping it up are extremely high, considering that MS doesn't have any popups advertising a product that they don't sell...

[Insectoid]

Oh, I agree with you, zeroth, I knew something was up when it told me to download something.

[snip]

oh, that was actualy Antivirus 2009, though I doubt it makes a difference.

Mod edit: Section snipped following a complaint by a user.

[wtd]

Dan @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 3:42 am wrote:

It's not just a smaller user base, the way *nix based operating systems are designed makes it harder (but not imposable) to have successful virus or malware and when there are they noraml can not do much other then mess with the users home dir (unless the user is breaking the rules and running as root).

There are also basic cultural diferrences. *nix and Mac people (mostly the same thing these days) are considerably less tolerant of fault than (solely) Windows users.

Whereas the typical Windows user might be willing to tolerate having to run half a dozen additional pieces of anti-malware software and see this as normal, the communities that form around other OSes know better, and are not so tolerated. Malicious software would not be tolerated, and software that opens vectors for exploit is likely to be openly criticized and if unresponsive, shunned.

There are also strong enthusiastic communities where such information can and is actively disseminated.

Microsoft will have to create an OS that is utterly and completely without fault security-wise in order to overcome the obstacle that it faces in not having this kind of community of users.

[Zeroth]

wtd @ Mon Aug 04, 2008 5:13 pm wrote:

Dan @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 3:42 am wrote:

It's not just a smaller user base, the way *nix based operating systems are designed makes it harder (but not imposable) to have successful virus or malware and when there are they noraml can not do much other then mess with the users home dir (unless the user is breaking the rules and running as root).

There are also basic cultural diferrences. *nix and Mac people (mostly the same thing these days) are considerably less tolerant of fault than (solely) Windows users.

Whereas the typical Windows user might be willing to tolerate having to run half a dozen additional pieces of anti-malware software and see this as normal, the communities that form around other OSes know better, and are not so tolerated. Malicious software would not be tolerated, and software that opens vectors for exploit is likely to be openly criticized and if unresponsive, shunned.

There are also strong enthusiastic communities where such information can and is actively disseminated.

Microsoft will have to create an OS that is utterly and completely without fault security-wise in order to overcome the obstacle that it faces in not having this kind of community of users.

That would never happen until you need a license to use a computer, much like driving cars, as the biggest problems in security is not the code, but the users. But we know how well that works for drivers...

[DemonWasp]

Zeroth @ Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:32 pm wrote:

That would never happen until you need a license to use a computer [...] But we know how well that works for drivers...

Well yes, but driving should be a privilege, not a right. We really need to start removing people from the roads if they're not able to drive. Can't see the road far enough ahead? Banned. Can't turn your head far enough? Banned. No spatial sense? Banned. Driving a 2000lb hunk of metal around at 100km/h can be dangerous enough with competent people; adding ineptitude to the mix just makes it worse. (Note: I bike to work, and I generally bike on the sidewalk because drivers regularly intrude on the bike lanes)

I run either WinXP + AVG + ZoneAlarm or Ubuntu. The second choice is becoming increasingly attractive; I just wish more of my games would run on it...DirectX is not the only way! OpenGL works just fine!

/rant

[Insectoid]

Quote:

Mod edit: You need a better word to bash things than "gay."

I wasn't feeling very creative at the time. Sorry 'bout that, will hold back in the future.

[marinajones]

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[btiffin]

One PC I disinfected with ClamWin reported 15,000 baddies. After a quarantine pass, I only had about 9 to hunt by hand. And one was a real prick ... you may know the kind ... disabling task manager so you can't get at the end-task and playing the cat and mouse, process A detects B isn't running so start it, B looks for A and starts it game. So many tracking bots that every keystroke and mouse move was causing the machine to slow to a crawl.

It came down to Limewire opening the door to most of them.

User education (including the easy-peasy Windows re-install from media) helped. She learned so much from watching me that I trust her as my backup webhosting tech support when I'm out of town.

And being a smalltown, everyone else just gets rooked for far too much money at the local shop. I'm old guy rambling. In short, I install Clam on all my friends machines that won't give up Windows and tell them to run a quarantine pass every once in a while (overnight if need be - it can chug).

Cheers

Note to smart people: Write a GNU/Linux anti-virus scanner that can disinfect a Windows partition (or at least report what's found). You'll be rich, errr, famous in no time and your code will be included in every live boot distro out there.