Virus

[Amorok]

Caught one and had to reformat. Thank God I had a copy of windows 7, the recovery disks windows made weren't worth a fuck.

[101lifts2]

Ever since I started using Anti-Virus programs, I have never had this issue. What are you using now? I use Microsoft Security Essentials, which is 100% free (though they prolly give all of my data to whomever, but hey).

[Avatard]

Last 3 infections I got were polymorphic, horrendous, and untouchable using any ONE type of software.

In the end, it required an average of 2 or 3 basic anti-malware tools, and 2 or 3 days of just hacking it out of various places that it had deployed to, on the HD, in the browsers, and in various places the registry, in order to get it all out.

Not one anti-virus package even recognized the threat, let alone touched it.

['73 H1 Triple]

I got a trojan from a trusted friend's hacked email.

I couldn't restore to an earlier date, restore to last known good setting or even boot in safe mod. I ended up giving my PC to friend so he could format my hard drive in HIS computer since the trojan had taken over so many settings, I couldn't even do that.

[Rangerscott]

Putting a router between your pc and modem is the easiest and one of the best ways to fight against hackers/viruses/trojans. Even if you don't need one, it's best to have one.

[Avatard]

I have a professional lever router with a firewall.

Shit gets in via browser exploits.

[Rangerscott]

Most viruses/trojans get in from the user clicking on stuff. I get a laugh when someone freaks out thinking that someone is trying to hack them.

['73 H1 Triple]

Most viruses/trojans get in from the user clicking on stuff. I get a laugh when someone freaks out thinking that someone is trying to hack them.

That's what happened to me. The girl who had her email hacked is in charge of the sunday school at the UCC church we went to. Later I got an email from her titled " my email was hacked--don't open it "

All kinds of my security warnings/alarms went off ( freaking RED "danger" pop ups everywhere :willy: ) and I literally shut it off by unplugging the breaker bar.

But it was too late, the damage was done.

I'll like to take an icepick and slowly run it into the ears of all the soul less assholes that write this crap. :gofurslf:

[Rangerscott]

Don't turn your pc off if you get something, that's just going to hurt it. Just unplug the cat5 cable and find the virus.

[Avatard]

Most viruses/trojans get in from the user clicking on stuff. I get a laugh when someone freaks out thinking that someone is trying to hack them.

Sometimes we all have to go to some of the shadier places on the internets, and well...you know about those dark alleys.

[Rangerscott]

I don't go in them if there's puss.

[dReWpY]

Mac ftw

[derf]

Caught one and had to reformat. Thank God I had a copy of windows 7, the recovery disks windows made weren't worth a fuck.

Damn and I thought you were gonna say that you caught one, and had to get a penecillian shot

[Avatard]

Mac ftw

Mac is only safe until it's the MORE popular platform (soon), then there will just as many viruses.

[Amorok]

I was using avira, and I have a router. The damn thing started telling me I had a virus and trying to make me buy some scam AV program, which I'm sure would have ass raped my bank account. It locked out all my restore/backup stuff, wouldn't let me run any programs, and kept me from using spybot or any of the antivirus I had. Formatting took care of it. I'm pretty much fully restored to what I had before.

[Rangerscott]

I was using avira, and I have a router. The damn thing started telling me I had a virus and trying to make me buy some scam AV program, which I'm sure would have ass raped my bank account. It locked out all my restore/backup stuff, wouldn't let me run any programs, and kept me from using spybot or any of the antivirus I had. Formatting took care of it. I'm pretty much fully restored to what I had before.


Anytime you get one of those pop ups on your web browser, just pull up task manager and end process your browser.

[LeeNetworX]

I caught some shit from my wife (lots of sick kids in her class and she had something) and I was bleeding like crazy from my swollen, infected sinuses, but the Amox took care of it.

[Porkchop]

I was using avira, and I have a router. The damn thing started telling me I had a virus and trying to make me buy some scam AV program, which I'm sure would have ass raped my bank account. It locked out all my restore/backup stuff, wouldn't let me run any programs, and kept me from using spybot or any of the antivirus I had. Formatting took care of it. I'm pretty much fully restored to what I had before.

Security Tool, Security Sheild, Windows Secuity Center, etc etc etc. I've had a couple of these fake security center virus' before. I have gotten 3 from school research alone. :lol: There are a couple ways of attacking these. System restores dont always fully remove the files. I did that and the same fake Java installer hit me. Because these virus' will shut down any antivirus program, and dont allow you to access task manager, the way to best remove them is to enter safe mode with networking if you dont have a copy of Malwarebytes Antimalware. Run Malwarebytes and quarentine the items. Malwarebytes will then restart the computer. At that point run your normal antivirus and malwarebytes again under normal operating.

I'll like to take an icepick and slowly run it into the ears of all the soul less assholes that write this crap. :gofurslf:

Motherfuckingthis.

[Amorok]

Yeah. Formatting gets rid of it as well, but it's the nuclear option. I haven't had any problems until today, my laptop is completely restored but a game I'd made a massive amount of progress with on my phone is completely wiped out. It makes me sad inside. Not to worry though, scrapegoat is a programmer, he's gonna hack it for me tomorrow.

[Rangerscott]

I'm having problems with Win7 updater. Keeps telling me I have updates, I download them, and they fail to install.

[Cory]

Security Tool, Security Sheild, Windows Secuity Center, etc etc etc. I've had a couple of these fake security center virus' before. I have gotten 3 from school research alone. :lol: There are a couple ways of attacking these. System restores dont always fully remove the files. I did that and the same fake Java installer hit me. Because these virus' will shut down any antivirus program, and dont allow you to access task manager, the way to best remove them is to enter safe mode with networking if you dont have a copy of Malwarebytes Antimalware. Run Malwarebytes and quarentine the items. Malwarebytes will then restart the computer. At that point run your normal antivirus and malwarebytes again under normal operating.

I had the same crap happen after clicking a link on THIS site a few months back :skep: but Malwarebytes took care it

[Papa_Complex]

My advice, as someone who deals with viruses on virtually a daily basis:

- Turn System Restore OFF. It's a nice idea, in theory, but it more frequently breaks something or just reinstalls a virus, that you just removed.

- Turn off "hide extensions of known file types" in Tools\Folder Options\View. Sometimes viral files will have a double extension, like "picture.jpg.exe", and the second extension that indicates an executable file would be hidden.

- Enable "show hidden files and folders" in Tools\Folder Options\View. It will help you find things that really don't belong, once you get used to seeing what SHOULD be there.

- Make sure that you keep up with the Windows Updates. I used to believe that 'if it's not broke you don't fix it', but these days you never really know what's 'broke.'

- Use a browser, like Firefox, that blocks reported attack sites and forgeries. You'll still need to use IE on occasion, for sites that are specifically written for the MS proprietary crap, but minimize your exposure.

- Use a good antivirus, that has a browser and email plug-in, and know what it looks like when it reports a virus. Make sure that you keep it up to date. The worst of the viruses, these days, try to look like an antivirus report. If you know what yours looks like, you're less likely to mindlessly click on everything that pops up while you're browsing. I recommend AVG which also has a safe search plug-in for your browsers, and ties into Firefox.

- If you get what looks like a fake antivirus report, REBOOT IMMEDIATELY. You may well interrupt its installation attempt, and your antivirus will have a better chance of killing it after a reboot. Additionally many of these web-based infections have no easy way to close them. They may lock your task manager or simply be one big 'button', so even clicking on the "X" to close the window may well further infect your system.

- Never reply to emails, even official looking ones, that request your username and password. EVER. Organizations, like banks or your ISP, never do this sort of thing. It's ALWAYS a fake.

- Don't click on links, in emails, that direct you to Facebook, PayPal, eBay, etc.. The link may be bogus. If you get a notification from such a site, go directly to the site.

- Don't open attachments directly from your emails. Save the attached file to a temporary folder on your computer, first, so that your antivirus gets a good shot at checking them.

- Install one or more anti-spyware programmes, update them, and actually USE THEM on a regular basis. I recommend Malwarebytes and Spybot Search and Destroy, but don't install the TeaTimer add-on for Spybot. It's more trouble than it's worth.

If you follow these recommendations, your odds of not having this sort of problem go up exponentially. The best way to handle a virus is not to get one, in the first place.

[Porkchop]

My advice, as someone who deals with viruses on virtually a daily basis:

- Turn System Restore OFF. It's a nice idea, in theory, but it more frequently breaks something or just reinstalls a virus, that you just removed.

- Turn off "hide extensions of known file types" in Tools\Folder Options\View. Sometimes viral files will have a double extension, like "picture.jpg.exe", and the second extension that indicates an executable file would be hidden.

- Enable "show hidden files and folders" in Tools\Folder Options\View. It will help you find things that really don't belong, once you get used to seeing what SHOULD be there.

- Make sure that you keep up with the Windows Updates. I used to believe that 'if it's not broke you don't fix it', but these days you never really know what's 'broke.'

- Use a browser, like Firefox, that blocks reported attack sites and forgeries. You'll still need to use IE on occasion, for sites that are specifically written for the MS proprietary crap, but minimize your exposure.

- Use a good antivirus, that has a browser and email plug-in, and know what it looks like when it reports a virus. Make sure that you keep it up to date. The worst of the viruses, these days, try to look like an antivirus report. If you know what yours looks like, you're less likely to mindlessly click on everything that pops up while you're browsing. I recommend AVG which also has a safe search plug-in for your browsers, and ties into Firefox.

- If you get what looks like a fake antivirus report, REBOOT IMMEDIATELY. You may well interrupt its installation attempt, and your antivirus will have a better chance of killing it after a reboot. Additionally many of these web-based infections have no easy way to close them. They may lock your task manager or simply be one big 'button', so even clicking on the "X" to close the window may well further infect your system.
- Never reply to emails, even official looking ones, that request your username and password. EVER. Organizations, like banks or your ISP, never do this sort of thing. It's ALWAYS a fake.

- Don't click on links, in emails, that direct you to Facebook, PayPal, eBay, etc.. The link may be bogus. If you get a notification from such a site, go directly to the site.

- Don't open attachments directly from your emails. Save the attached file to a temporary folder on your computer, first, so that your antivirus gets a good shot at checking them.

- Install one or more anti-spyware programmes, update them, and actually USE THEM on a regular basis. I recommend Malwarebytes and Spybot Search and Destroy, but don't install the TeaTimer add-on for Spybot. It's more trouble than it's worth.

If you follow these recommendations, your odds of not having this sort of problem go up exponentially. The best way to handle a virus is not to get one, in the first place.

I got one a couple years back in florida. I went to reboot the system and when it turned back on the virus had changed my desktop background to something that said somethign along the lines of "your computer is affected by a VIRUS. Hackers can see any files on your computer even when you delete them. Please run *said program* to remove them." It was all scary looking. It even put an icon on my desktop. This was before I knew how to deal with them. I battled that fucker for like 2 hours. I was ready to maim and murder the fuckers that wrote that shit by the time that I got rid of it.

[Papa_Complex]

I've seen far worse than that one, which is relatively easy to remove. I generally didn't need a utility, in order to completely remove that. Just MSConfig and Regedit.