Holy Crap, I caught a Virus

[JGRobinson]

Holy Crap, I was trolling around doing some research on an old handgun a friend of mine has and I got Whacked by a trojan called Security Sphere. It looks looks just like a spyware elimination program but its the cause not the cure. luckily I didnt let it run. I put it in safe mode, re-downloaded AVG and zapped the bastard! It took me about 3 hours to get the thing going but its Alive, wow, that sucked!

Gun sites are not safe, nor is porn, whats next, religious sites?

[clarencebunsen]

My daughter had a similar problem yesterday, it called itself Win 7 Antispyware 2012. It also gave her a considerable removal problem.

[chris]

Those evil bastards...once I was doing research and went to Google and was looking for some images and got zapped. Luckily nothing happened. I got an email today saying there is a virus out there called Postcard and do not open it even it is from a friend. Will kill your harddrive.

[Ralph]

I was doing some looking around for oriental headboard designs last night and ran across a bad site with a hidden Trojan.
avast! antivirus automatically blocked the site and wouldn’t let me proceed, thereby eliminating the need to spend hours weeding it from my system. ;D

Just sayin`.

Glad you were able to get it out. Been there and done it and it ain’t no damn fun!

[JGRobinson]

I had AVG on my machine and it blew it right off the hardrive! I reinstalled it and it did wipe it out but Im looking into a new one, Avast will be on the top of my list.

[Swimmy]

When I used windows, Avast was my anti-virus software of choice too. AVG is too commercialized now and not what it used to be.

[clarencebunsen]

I also switched from AVG to Avast a few years ago but these things always go in cycles. I should ask my daughter what she is using.

[virgilgal]

I don't understand a lot of this stuff but when I was at Cooperative Extension we had a virus; might have been the Antispyware one that CB mentions, that kept annihilating our computers in my office. They ended up giving us all Linux Ubuntu operating systems and I have never had a problem since then; they don't even bother with it. I have used Avast since I had a computer and had some issues in past years but it did a decent job; perhaps I didn't know how to use that properly; I did kill one home computer with it installed. At Extension they also used a program called Symantecs. I do highly recommend Ubuntu for all your internet activity and it's a free program. I have never figured out their word programs and other programs as I have Windows so I have kept Windows as a backup for my offline work.

[Clipper]

I have avast thanks to Ralph, who installed it when he cleaned up and cleaned out my hard drive when I was home in August. I have been very happy with it's performance. He installed CCleaner, MalwareBytes, and Avast for me, all free programs and very effective thus far in keeping my machine running fast and problem free.

I had previously run Norton and McAffee programs that cost me anywhere from $39 to $70 a year, and were far from efficient. I consistently had problems that required me to have the hard drive dumped or cleaned up and reformatted. The FREE program from Avast has kept me virus free and it simply won't ALLOW you to enter a suspect site.

I found from a friend here that does the IT work for a local grocery distribution center, that Avast is a program of choice for many large businesses, and the "paid" avast program is even MORE efficient than the trouble free program you can download for free for your home computer. I assume that large networks use more than one software package to insure or maintain a secure and virus free operation, but I was encouraged to hear that Avast was part of their arsenal.

[Ralph]

Symantecs is the parent company of Norton. Norton was great but it became far too intrusive into one’s operating system and far too ineffective. The biggest problem I have when I am working on someone’s PC is getting rid of Norton & McAfee. They are at times harder to remove than the virus itself.

AVG was a nice program until a few years ago. I updated it one day and immediately my system started to drag worse than walking a dead cat, one of my other PC’s refused to do anything but stare at me and caused me to reformat as the system restore was compromised by the very program that was supposed to save it!

It’s nice to hear your info there Clipper, I have heard the same from a few folks that I work with up here.
I would look into the paid version if I didn’t have so many PC’s to put it on.

My best advice is not only to run what you feel is the best antivirus program you feel you can find, but to make sure your security settings are tweaked as high as you can get them without interfering in your normal day-to-day operations. It is also a big plus when you upgrade equipment and actually know how to tweak that as well.

I recently upgrade our router from an older Linsky’s wireless G with WEP encryption to the newest Cisco/Linksys E4200 Dual-Band N with WPA encryption. It may not seem like much to some folks…a router is a router. But routers are much more than just “channeling” devices, they are your second line of defense against being hacked from the outside (the first being your ISP) and the newest ones are much, much faster, especially if you are streaming with Netflix and other such services.

Most people shy away from such pricey upgrades, $160+ may seem like a lot, but when you take into account what you paid for your PC as well as the programs and personal information stored on it, it is cheap. I have three PC’s, three laptops and a networked hard drive with its own encryption and firewall…two desktops and the HD run 24/7 and Betty’s wireless laptop gets in at least a 12 hour day, so the price when divided up between them is worth it.

JG, I would research avast! and do what you feel comfortable with, but as I have often pointed out, avast! has been the only program I have found that actually prevents you from even venturing into the abyss.

Most of us that cruise the internet are going to get hit, many of you are probably running infected machines and not even aware of it. So many games and utilities that one downloads are loaded with toolbars and “helpers” attached that you have to be extremely careful what you click on.

One thing I have found out since I started is that no matter what level of protection you have, they key is in knowing what to do and how to remove “the bad thing” once you get it. If you don’t, or don’t know someone reputable who can, you stand the chance of losing everything……and while it will make you very sad, it will more than likely make someone else very, very happy.

[Clipper]

I think one of the more desirable features of AVAST is that it updates itself and simply notifies me several times a day with a message that says that they have updated new virus definitions. Other programs that I have run in the past, always gave a pop up message that you needed to click on to update the program. It simply seems nice to know that when you get the message they have ALREADY updated the program and you are ALREADY protected. It may be a touch feely smoke and mirrors thing, but it sure bolsters my comfort level.

One thing I had noticed is that whatever security programs and anti virus software you load, IT'S A BITCH TO DELETE ON MANY OCCASIONS LOL. I had a hell of a time getting rid of McAffee when I bought Norton a few years ago, and they interfered with each other at the time. I had to have a friend here in Bristol dig into it to make it happen. My subscription had expired and yet I could not get rid of the program.

[Ralph]

Hehehe…….it blocks most malicious sites silently with just its little “pop up”.
Wait till you hit a real bad one and the sirens go off!!!

Makes you want to go stand in the corner for half an hour!!

[clarencebunsen]

I always like Norton software when Peter Norton ran the company. Since he sold it, not so much.

One of the things I hope is still around when I finally replace my old XP is Microsoft Signature. From what I understand in order to get that designation a computer has to come with no trial programs installed.

[Deleted]

Dec 7, 2011 18:51:57 GMT -5 JGRobinson said:

Holy Crap, I was trolling around doing some research on an old handgun a friend of mine has and I got Whacked by a trojan called Security Sphere. It looks looks just like a spyware elimination program but its the cause not the cure. luckily I didnt let it run. I put it in safe mode, re-downloaded AVG and zapped the bastard! It took me about 3 hours to get the thing going but its Alive, wow, that sucked!

Gun sites are not safe, nor is porn, whats next, religious sites?

I noticed today at the Walmart drug store that they have many types of trojan's with all types of names.. I thought all ya had to do was pull them off.

I do like some porn site's.

[Ralph]

Dec 8, 2011 15:56:11 GMT -5 clarencebunsen said:

One of the things I hope is still around when I finally replace my old XP is Microsoft Signature. From what I understand in order to get that designation a computer has to come with no trial programs installed.

Microsoft Signature PC's are only available directly from Microsoft stores. They are "unadulterated" PC's that have no manufacturer included software or trail software installed on them.
Desktops start @ $450.

Whenever I buy a new PC, before it even goes on-line, I clean ALL the garbage off of it right down to the bare operating system & whatever it takes to run the damn thing. This includes cleaning out the registry and msconfig as well. Then I install whatever software I want.

When I bought my wife a new Lenovo laptop last month it took me most of the day to remove all the garbage and clean it up. It even had apps on it from the store where I bought it!!