Discussion
Bah. My computer has been invaded.
Spyware Doctor is currently going to great lengths to root out these devious little creatures. So far its been eliminating them for about 3 hours of rescans and reboots.
They're going, one by one, but its slow work
Fortunately they all seem to be IE trojans, and I use Firefox.
Moral: never click programs from the interweb the validity of which you aren't 100% certain....
Spyware Doctor is currently going to great lengths to root out these devious little creatures. So far its been eliminating them for about 3 hours of rescans and reboots.
They're going, one by one, but its slow work
Fortunately they all seem to be IE trojans, and I use Firefox. Moral: never click programs from the interweb the validity of which you aren't 100% certain....
Parrot of Doom said:
Bah. My computer has been invaded.
Spyware Doctor is currently going to great lengths to root out these devious little creatures. So far its been eliminating them for about 3 hours of rescans and reboots.
They're going, one by one, but its slow work Fortunately they all seem to be IE trojans, and I use Firefox.
Moral: never click programs from the interweb the validity of which you aren't 100% certain....
Spyware Doctor is currently going to great lengths to root out these devious little creatures. So far its been eliminating them for about 3 hours of rescans and reboots.
They're going, one by one, but its slow work
Fortunately they all seem to be IE trojans, and I use Firefox. Moral: never click programs from the interweb the validity of which you aren't 100% certain....
Need any help removing them? I am an AV engineer...
gorvid said:
Are there any good free alternatives to spyware doctor...
What other programmes are best for keeping clean?
What other programmes are best for keeping clean?
Have a trawl through here - I have used a lot of the stuff here and it works well.
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=213618&f=95&h=0
The professional spyware removal software is made by a corp. called Facetime, they give a free version of their spyware engine called X-Cleaner here
www.spywareguide.com/onlinescan.php
I have a folder with about 50 anti spyware/AV removal tools handy - if you let me know what has been caught or what you are having problems removing, then i can send you the right tool to get rid.
www.spywareguide.com/onlinescan.php
I have a folder with about 50 anti spyware/AV removal tools handy - if you let me know what has been caught or what you are having problems removing, then i can send you the right tool to get rid.
Saabyfox said:
The professional spyware removal software is made by a corp. called Facetime, they give a free version of their spyware engine called X-Cleaner here
www.spywareguide.com/onlinescan.php
I have a folder with about 50 anti spyware/AV removal tools handy - if you let me know what has been caught or what you are having problems removing, then i can send you the right tool to get rid.
www.spywareguide.com/onlinescan.php
I have a folder with about 50 anti spyware/AV removal tools handy - if you let me know what has been caught or what you are having problems removing, then i can send you the right tool to get rid.
Thanks....
I [hope] I don't have any real probs - I just want to take care...
Spybot is on the case now...
Best advice with all viruses and spyware removal tools- once it has detected something and potentially removed it, reboot your machine and Run the program again; alot of malicious files will try to reinstall upon reboot, so you need to be 100% certain it has actually got rid of the threat by scanning again.
One of the good things about Norton/Symantec AV is that it runs in Windows Safe mode- you can remove alot of viruses and spyware in safeware effectively. I always keep an install of this handy just for this purpose.
One of the good things about Norton/Symantec AV is that it runs in Windows Safe mode- you can remove alot of viruses and spyware in safeware effectively. I always keep an install of this handy just for this purpose.
Saabyfox said:
Best advice with all viruses and spyware removal tools- once it has detected something and potentially removed it, reboot your machine and Run the program again; alot of malicious files will try to reinstall upon reboot, so you need to be 100% certain it has actually got rid of the threat by scanning again.
One of the good things about Norton/Symantec AV is that it runs in Windows Safe mode- you can remove alot of viruses and spyware in safeware effectively. I always keep an install of this handy just for this purpose.
One of the good things about Norton/Symantec AV is that it runs in Windows Safe mode- you can remove alot of viruses and spyware in safeware effectively. I always keep an install of this handy just for this purpose.
I'm sorry but Norton is CRAP! end of story.
AVG is Good, but I have found NOD32(free) to very good aswell.
Vaguely related, I was reading about a new type of virus (one of these "written to prove viability" type), knwon as Blue Pill, for reasons that will become clear. The designers were publicising it (by presenting their paper on the same day Microsoft explained how secure Vista is going to be) to get software companies to buy their designs, rather than them being malicious hackers.
It works on any 64 bit system, including Mac OSX, Vista and Unix flavours, and uses the emulation hardware being built into Intel chips (and perhaps others). Once on your machine, it sits between the hardware and software, and puts your entire OS into emulation mode. Your Windows (or other OS), seems to work fine, but every single command goes through the virus, which can decide whether to accpet, reject or modify it. Its existence is almost indetectable, and it has total control of when and how it introduces its malicious part. As a result, it can be designed to do almost anything, and has the potential to do it without you realising until its far too late.
Which I find scary, but pretty cool.
It works on any 64 bit system, including Mac OSX, Vista and Unix flavours, and uses the emulation hardware being built into Intel chips (and perhaps others). Once on your machine, it sits between the hardware and software, and puts your entire OS into emulation mode. Your Windows (or other OS), seems to work fine, but every single command goes through the virus, which can decide whether to accpet, reject or modify it. Its existence is almost indetectable, and it has total control of when and how it introduces its malicious part. As a result, it can be designed to do almost anything, and has the potential to do it without you realising until its far too late.
Which I find scary, but pretty cool.
HiRich said:
Vaguely related, I was reading about a new type of virus (one of these "written to prove viability" type), knwon as Blue Pill, for reasons that will become clear. The designers were publicising it (by presenting their paper on the same day Microsoft explained how secure Vista is going to be) to get software companies to buy their designs, rather than them being malicious hackers.
It works on any 64 bit system, including Mac OSX, Vista and Unix flavours, and uses the emulation hardware being built into Intel chips (and perhaps others). Once on your machine, it sits between the hardware and software, and puts your entire OS into emulation mode. Your Windows (or other OS), seems to work fine, but every single command goes through the virus, which can decide whether to accpet, reject or modify it. Its existence is almost indetectable, and it has total control of when and how it introduces its malicious part. As a result, it can be designed to do almost anything, and has the potential to do it without you realising until its far too late.
Which I find scary, but pretty cool.
It works on any 64 bit system, including Mac OSX, Vista and Unix flavours, and uses the emulation hardware being built into Intel chips (and perhaps others). Once on your machine, it sits between the hardware and software, and puts your entire OS into emulation mode. Your Windows (or other OS), seems to work fine, but every single command goes through the virus, which can decide whether to accpet, reject or modify it. Its existence is almost indetectable, and it has total control of when and how it introduces its malicious part. As a result, it can be designed to do almost anything, and has the potential to do it without you realising until its far too late.
Which I find scary, but pretty cool.
That was starting to lose me about a third of the way in, lost me completely for a couple of sentences and then gathered me all up together for the end!
annodomini2 said:
Saabyfox said:
Best advice with all viruses and spyware removal tools- once it has detected something and potentially removed it, reboot your machine and Run the program again; alot of malicious files will try to reinstall upon reboot, so you need to be 100% certain it has actually got rid of the threat by scanning again.
One of the good things about Norton/Symantec AV is that it runs in Windows Safe mode- you can remove alot of viruses and spyware in safeware effectively. I always keep an install of this handy just for this purpose.
One of the good things about Norton/Symantec AV is that it runs in Windows Safe mode- you can remove alot of viruses and spyware in safeware effectively. I always keep an install of this handy just for this purpose.
I'm sorry but Norton is CRAP! end of story.
AVG is Good, but I have found NOD32(free) to very good aswell.
Stop making generalisations- Its not crap. - Nortons engine is excellent- maybe the Home user interface is poor, and the corporate version is slower than some competitors, but properly configured it is excellent. Symantec has the corporate market dominance due to its deployment capabilities, client management and solid virus detection techniques.
I use a combination of Sophos , Kaspersky and Symantec for my work laptop- AVG is good for the home user. Also try Avira AV.
What i was mentioning is that Norton is one of the few AV engines that will run in windows safe mode. This is a lifesaver at times when you have a virus or spyware integrated into the windows shell. Install Norton on an infected machine, update the patterns, reboot in safe mode and run a scan, and it will detect and remove viruses that other AV /s[pyware tools cannot. Then uninstall it, and update your existing AV.
Most virus outbreaks that i have dealt with over the years has been down to 2 things; Poorly configured AV polices, and client software that has not been updated. Human IT admin errors, not usually the fault of the software at all.
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