Beware what you download, peeps. Last night, I went through my main puter and cleaned out old stuff, organized my files and folders with the intention of defragging and burning a backup cd. I normally do this once a month, but had let it go for several months now. During this time, I have accumulated graphics, photos, PN stuff, etc... Well, anyway, for some reason, I waited to burn the cd and decided to venture into Phenomenal Women of the Web, (I'm a member there.) They have a new profile thingee and I wanted to see if my site was in there. So, I click on it and I get a pop-up that says you need to download this to do that. I saw the word "Flash" and figured it was a macromedia download. The download went without a problem, but I noticed there was a big red "X" over my antivirus icon. I know sometimes the antivirus has to be disabled to install certain programs, so I'm like ok... After the installation, a window came up and I see that I have installed Flash Talk. It's some kind of chat program. So, I'm like nuh uh...why didn't I read that more carefully? I went to my control panel and removed it. Well, here's where the fun started. I rebooted my pc, and Norton Systems Works comes up with an internal error, telling me to reinstall Norton. So...I do that and halfway through, it says no no no, you can't do that, another internal error. So... I'm like, Uh Ohhhhhhh, I got hit with a nasty virus of some kind. It obviously targets the antivirus. I run liveupdate once a week, to update my antivirus protection and it still got me. Not only does Norton not work, neither did my Media Player, and several other things. Then I go to search for files and folders and there was no such thing left on my puter. Grrrrrrrr, I won't say the four-letter word that followed. Anyway, it gets better... I ran WinDoc and Norton Utilities from the cd, it found a lot of probs, fixed them and had to restart. Now the pc won't restart, keeps trying to over and over again. So, I get miffed and cut the main power off to it at the back of the tower and sit there a minute, my blood pressure rising. I turned the pc back on, and wonderful...now it's in Net Bios saying I have the wrong CPU speed and make sure it's right, cause it's making puter hang up when it tries to boot. Well, ARRRGGHHHH... the CPU speed was fine. Now...I have to reinstall WInXP, reformat, reinstall all my software and programs, lost a lot of my stuff and I'm downright P'O'd. I'm glad I saved my emails, so I still have the EVP's from you, Starlou. It's just a big pain in the So, besides venting, I'm warning yall to be careful, even if you're on a trusted site. I slipped up, because normally I read things thoroughly before I d/l anything, but I was tired and thought I needed this to view that. I'm lucky enough to have more than one pc, and to know how to reformat and have a nephew who is a puter whiz. Still, I'm so angry, that I lost the new blinkies I made, and I had taken so much time to organize my files, and that this happened when I keep my virus protection updated. I'm even more mad at myself for being so careless.

Big Sigh...
Poor Lil Patey

[ January 10, 2005, 07:08 AM: Message edited by: SavannahSilkie ]

Pate,
Does winXP have restore on it. I had problems along time ago with one of those chat programs. It sets everything up to work with it. Maybe restore will take it back to what you had.
Starlou

Aww Pate this really bites I'm sorry this happened to you. ((hugs)).

I had a virus on my last puter that did much of what your describing. Restore would not work for me and it got to the point that even the puter whizzes were unable to repair it so I gave up and sent it to the pasture. I also had a chat room suddenly appear on this puter awhile back and it took a bit to trace the source and eliminate it but it didn't have a virus attached like the one that came with yours.

I don't recall having a download request I disable my anti-virus first, thank-you for giving us all the heads up on this and the warning to be certain you know what you are downloading especially if your disabling your protection. Since my last crash I've been a chicken to download and usualy click cancel if a window pops up telling me I need to download something to view the site/item. I figure if it can't be viewed via the normal progs most sites use I don't need it.

I sure hope you are able to fix things, I wish you much luck with that. Am also sorry that you lost some of your work. =( I imagine this site is unaware that they have this virus download thing attached to it. Not being a puter whiz, can they kill this virus once they are aware it is there?

Hugs, Cat

If it's really a virus or trojan horse (malicious software that doesn't spread like a virus), chances are they'll take it off the site if they're made aware of it. The real bad stuff out there nowadays aren't viruses, it's all that spyware stuff. It's so prevalent nowadays, and a lot of those target antivirus programs and firewalls as well too. Because they're spyware and not viruses, most AV programs don't detect them, a nice loophole for nastyware writers.

I'll bet that 9 out of 10 Windows computers have some sort of spyware on them. I know everytime I have to check out someone's computer, it's almost always infested with something. I clean it off, and a month later it's infested all over again.

There are steps you can take to help prevent future attacks. When you reinstall XP, stay off the internet until you put a firewall up (ideally, try to get a copy of Service Pack 2 on a CD, and install that before going online). Worst case, turn on the XP firewall after installing XP but before plugging your network cable in. If not, you can get hit with Blaster, Sasser, or any of a number of spam-bot worms that turn your computer into a spam zombie or underground pr0n site or something equally dasterdly.

Whether via download or CD, get Service Pack 2 on there, and the subsequent updates via Windows Update. Install an anti-virus program (I don't recommend Norton anymore, I have my reasons. I like Computer Associates eTrust, or NOD32, or AVG Free Edition), and a decent firewall such as ZoneAlarm, Sygate or Kerio. As for anti-spyware, I tend to lean toward the free programs such as AdAware SE Personal and Spybot Search & Destroy. There is also a few others such as Spyware Blaster that I hear good things about but I've never tried so I can't make a specific recommendation on them. Microsoft recently acquired Giant Software and is now offering a beta of their anti-spyware under the Microsoft name. It's worth a try, and (at least before MS took them over) it was a decent anti-spyware program.

Last but certainly not least, I recommend downloading and using a browser other than Internet Exploiter. My personal favorite is Mozilla Firefox, which can be downloaded from mozilla.org. I also hear good things about Opera. I only use IE for Windows Updates and for the rare site that doesn't work correctly in Firefox. Since Firefox doesn't support ActiveX, and doesn't have all the security holes IE has, surfing is a lot safer with Firefox. Plus it has a built-in pop-up ad blocker.

Hiya Kev

Whew, I'm cooled off now. I got it back up and running smooth. I went ahead and put my Norton Systems Works 2005 on here. I had adaware before, and I put it back on. I've got Spybot Search and Destroy, which I didn't have before. This was definitely maliciousware, it went right for my antivirus and shut it down. From then on, I was a goner. It got worse and worse. My nephew recommended the AVG Free, also. Gee whiz, it's getting where you need an armory to protect your puter. No matter what they come up with to detect and protect, someone is going to be smart enough to get around it with something nasty. As far as Mozilla Firefox, I had it on my puter, but I just couldn't get used to it. I'd go to sites and couldn't see the pics or the pages were not displayed the way they were meant to be. Some of the pages on my website aren't displayed correctly either on Firefox, partly because I have some older html in them. Looks like I'm going to have get busy and redo them with css. And what is the deal with java and Firefox? I had probs with my javascripts and Firefox. I guess I really don't know enough about it. I know more and more people are using other browsers in lieu of IE.

Cat and Starlou: Thank you, I'm feeling much better now. I'm glad I had a cd from August where I had a lot of my graphics and pics and music and stuff. I'm also an email saver, if they have attachments, which was great, because I had a lot of pics, and some evps and stuff there too. Also, I have pics in my VillagePhotos and Photobucket, which is cool too. I was smart enough to save my investigation pics from different places on cd's. I did try system restore, but I'd get nothing but a blank window. I got my Adobe Audition up and running. So, I'm almost fully functional again.

I didn't realize how much I wrote, I was really venting. Thanks yall for reading and giving me some advice and support.



Hugs,
Pate

[ January 10, 2005, 07:54 AM: Message edited by: SavannahSilkie ]

What a nasty mess that was, Pate! Gosh, that is so aggravating to have something so sinister happen to your system, all because you d/l something that appears to be "needed" to view something. I am careful about not downloading things from a source that has no name recognition... like the recognized software brands, etc. For instance, needing a reader for something... if it isn't well known like Adobe PDF, or RealPlayer, for example. For those kinds of things, I go to the main website and find their downloads. If I needed a Flash Player, I would go to the Macromedia site directly. If it's some crazy name that I haven't heard, I won't d/l. Curses on those who use their expertise to cause other's trouble! I hate things like that!! Why can't they turn their knowledge to something good, instead of being so evil? They are

Sorry that you went through all of this, Pate. Thanks for giving us all a little reminder to be careful at all times when surfing the internet. We cannot let our guard down, lest we become some idiot's next victim!

Mare

Pate, I'm so sorry. I know how it feels. I seriously contemplated throwing my computer out of the window over a stupid toolbar that did not have permission to be on my computer and that refused to get off, I was seriously worried that I might pop a blood vessel the two times I had to reformat a couple of years ago. So go ahead and vent all you want, it sure is better than beating your head on the wall. I'm glad things are better now.

I have Spybot S&E and SpywareBlaster. I definately recomend downloading SpywareBlaster. You don't have to do anything with that program, the only time you have to open it up is when you want to update, you never even know it's running, all it does is block stuff and it's good at it. At the moment SpywareBlaster is blocking 3,348 nasties. We do need an armory for our computers now-a-days, besides my anti spyware programs I have McAffee antivirus, firewall, and quickclean, and the google toolbar for those rotten pop-ups. I use the Quickclean shredder at least once a day to get rid of my website history, temporary internet files and cookies and Spybot about once a week to wipe out all the usage tracks, oh can't forget -I do the backup c/d too. I'm starting to call all of this my daily "Operation- Protect the Computer Protocol". Yeesh!

[ January 10, 2005, 10:33 AM: Message edited by: Renee ]