So angry I could cry
As if we haven’t had enough computer problems lately, I’m writing this on my laptop, while I run a full computer scan on the Hubby’s desktop computer. It was infected with a virus today. A pretty nasty, horrible trojan horse from the looks of it. I won’t mention the name of this lovely trojan horse, as every time you look for information of it, you’ll receive bogus anti-spy software offers, which lead to guess what? MORE TROJAN HORSES!
Around the time Little Dude was born, my laptop got a nasty virus, which I’m happy to say I fixed – it only took several weeks to make certain I got it all, many hours of reading and researching, and some minor computer geekery skills of which I don’t claim to be a master, and did I mention the tons of time and energy that went into it?
Do I sound like I have time or energy lately to deal with this again? Especially after all of the computer issues as of late? Especially since the Hubby is extremely upset as his computer is basically unusable?
The part that makes me angriest, is that I believe I know where the virus came from. I know which Web site probably initiated the problem. And I’ve asked everyone who uses our computer to stay away from that Web site. I rarely go near it myself anymore, for fear of clicking on the wrong thing.
Yet, as I’ve been searching for all bits of the virus in our temporary Web files, guess what I’ve found? Our computer was on that Web site for almost more than three hours total today! (By the way parents, I just discovered a way to check out what has been accessed on your computer recently. It is time-consuming and difficult to sort through, but it is free and already part of the programming. Let me know if you want to know more…)
The Hubby is angry and I’m upset and tired just to think what it may take to clean out this computer.
It might be best to stay far, far away from our household for the weekend.
Oh, the only somewhat good news at this point (although we might have considered it bad news any other time)? It is supposed to rain cats and dogs, so we are postponing the start of the rummage sale until Saturday.
So in between working and taking care of Little Dude tomorrow, I can hopefully keep running fun and exciting anti-spy software on the Hubby’s computer. I’m hoping not to have to access any areas of the computer where I have to manually remove things piece by piece, with the fear that I’ll delete the wrong file.
Anyone want to come over and finish pricing my rummage sale items, though, since it looks like my plan to do that tonight isn’t going to happen, now that I have a computer to try and fix?
Ugh.
(Note to parents, guardians or anyone that allows teenagers into their home: Keep them away from myspace – or rather the sharing/opening of ANY files on myspace. Facebook seems to be okay, thus far, from what I’ve experienced. Thank you.)
OK … I’m going to get all Geek-Paranoia on you again.
There is very little point in attempting to sanitise an infected computer, as viruses are too advanced now-a-days.
1) All but the mildest virus is likely to have put hooks into the kernel making it virtually impossible to remove without damaging the OS.
2) Even the mildest of viruses is likely to have “invited” other potentially less gentle beings to share your computer.
3) Painstakingly removing each of the infected items will take longer than re-installing.
4) Without pulling the drive and scanning from another machine it is impossible to know whether you have got everything. As a simple root kit will hid the worst of the problems. You are using the infected computer to see if it is OK now … what if it is lying.
The simple truth is that you will never trust a “Cleaned” PC. For example entering credit card information online, passwords etc. The only safe way forward is to “rebuild on scorched earth”. Format and reinstall. After all … after our last little talk, everything is backed up now right … right?
OK Paranoia over … sorry to bring more bad news … but ID theft would be far worse!
How Frustrating!
Sounds like a nightmare to me!!!
I HATE myspace! HATE HATE HATE IT! I’m curious about additional info though
I had to do that once. I finally gave up and reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled the operating system. From scratch.
And all the drivers. And … oh, the horror of it.
I feel your pain my dear.
A reformat is the easier way out, but if you’d rather take some time and try to fix, all is not lost…
1. Use Hijack This! to dig up everything unwanted that’s parked on your HDD. It catches what standard anti-virus/anti-spyware works wont. You’ll need to visit their forums and do some Googling to weed out the good and bad – it lists registry processes too, not something you want to blindly mess around with – but it’s saved me a couple of times.
After you’ve cleaned up with HT, then run regular AdAware/Norton-type programs to “detail” your system.
2. Use Firefox, get the NoScript add-on. I know there are ways to delete IE, but I hear that’s hellacious. Delete the desktop shortcuts to it. Make sure FF is your default browser.
Make profiles for different users so you can track where visiting users have been, making your life easier. You may even be able to restrict which sites they visit.
3. Profit!
I am so sorry you are dealing with such crappy computer issues. I have to say that is one great thing of having a Mac owned by my employer. It’s a brick wall against all that stuff. I’ve never had a problem. I hope your issues can be cleared up. The comments above didn’t sound too positive though. Best of luck, friend!
Okay, that’s more than you need right now. Hope it fixes quickly and simply.