Motherfucking spyware/adware/virus bullshit

[LadyShea]

So, for the second time in 2 months, all I did was click on a website from Yahoo search and get totally fucking infected with all manner of shit...popups and dialers and you fucking name it. My work computer was easily disinfected, but my home computer is a total loss. You know what the website was this morning? Dog rescue groups in the UK.

I miss the days when you had to actually fucking DOWNLOAD or CLICK something to get infected.

[livius drusus]

Oh man... I feel your pain. I spent hours on the phone yesterday (and another 15 minutes today) trying to help my dad clear a monster spyware infection from the laptop I gave them. Needless to say, it was an excercise in utter futility so I'm having him ship it to me overnight so I can beat the shit out the registry and then frontload it with firewalls and immunization.

P.S. - Great title for the titles and username thread, btw. :D

[LadyShea]

Dude, I am so pissed. I have been on the 'net since 92 or 93 or some shit and have never gotten a virus because I am all careful. To have this shit happen from simply opening a website is just too much. I have a firewall at work too...looks like that time the execute was linked to the pop up close button, cuz as soon as I hit that is when the shitstorm started.

Here's the best part...my home computer is shit anyway and we were going to replace it when we moved, but I have some stuff on there I need and I can't connect to the Internet on it now. So I can't upload my files to web storage or email them to myself...and the CD burner is packed. Nope I have to fricking DISK SAVE all my shit.

I am so pissed.

Oh and an added bonus, I just found out I start working from home March 1....which means a visit from that computer guy some of you may remember. Yeah him...in my house...while it's for sale and we may have to show it on an hour's notice.

[Ymir's blood]

What browser are you using?

[LadyShea]

What browser are you using?

Can't use any browser at all now, as soon as I open it it starts downloading shit and goes to all different URLs't ....Spybot S&D can't fix a couple of different files so even if we get it clean, as soon as the modem is plugged in it goes crazy. I was using IE when this happened because my Mozilla suddenly stopped opening couple months ago. The computer was shit to start with, and had once been at work with NT on it. Never been the same since we installed Windows 2000.

[Ymir's blood]

Perhaps you could take the hard drive out of the current computer and put it as a second drive in the new one. If it is safe to so (I'm not sure) then you could access all the files that way. It doesn't seem likely that doing it like that would activate the spyware/virus, but I'm not a computer expert.

[ApostateAbe]

No one spyware cleaner cleans everything. I use five different freeware cleaning programs, primarily Adaware, Spybot, and X-Cleaner. Download those zipped programs on a clean computer, save them to a disk, transfer them to your infected comp, install them, and clean up. Even after you do a deep cleaning with three programs, there may be a few trojans that were missed. Download Process Explorer (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml), which is like Windows task manager only more structured and detailed. It will tell you what programs are running to help you identify what may be popping up ads. Identify the suspicious running processes and do a Google search for them. If you find any trojans, then download an appropriate program (or follow a set of instructions) to finally get your system clean once and for all. To keep it clean, keep Adwatch (part of Adaware) running. And do deep cleans periodically as necessary.

[LadyShea]

Thanks Abe. I am moving my work computer to home Monday, so will probably just store the other one for awhile.

[viscousmemories]

Weird. I've never had any issues with spyware/adware, etc. I wonder if it's 'cause I've been using Win 2k and some manner of pop-up blocker for years... :chin:

I hope I don't start having problems now that I'm using Win XP for my desktop.

[LadyShea]

I use Win 2k as well, but don't have a pop up blocker because some of my work related sites use pop ups. The two problems I had were weird but identical (maybe a new trend?)...I went to the sites and it popped up one of those permission "Do you want to download such and such" things. When I clicked "No" or just the X to close it, the downloads started. This was seriously malicious code.

[Ari]

And here I get a little ticked when a site gets a popup past Safari's popup blocker.

This spyware stuff sounds like crap. You would think more people would get arrested for it. I mean if you write a virus that does something like this you are looking at a federal offense, but these companies seem to get away with it.

[ApostateAbe]

And here I get a little ticked when a site gets a popup past Safari's popup blocker.

This spyware stuff sounds like crap. You would think more people would get arrested for it. I mean if you write a virus that does something like this you are looking at a federal offense, but these companies seem to get away with it.You would think that the executives of such companies would go to prison, but they do not. Instead, they are appointed by the Department of Homeland Security to be members of the "Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee."

I kid you not (http://news.com.com/Adware+maker+joins+federal+privacy+board/2100-1028-5587653.html?part=dht&tag=ntop&tag=nl.e703).

[Ari]

Oh, how nice.
Although it's a method used with hackers, generally when they are caught they go to jail before they get a job. Some more famous hackers have done very minor amounts of damage compared to mal-ware yet they received jail time. I guess it's good to have enough money to keep a couple politicians in your back pocket, just incase.

[Dingfod]

At my workplace we have two workstations, with two people on a shift. We rotate desks only once per month. As a routine, I run MS Anti-Spyware (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx), Spybot Search and Destroy, Adaware and X-Cleaner (online) before I even start my shift. Adaware and MS Anti-Spyware have spyware protection, and Spybot S&D has what they call immunization, which blocks a list of known spyware and trojan horse programs, now over 24,000. I use Firefox for internet, so I don't have a problem with this, but the other 7 doofuses use IE and are constantly getting spyware and such on the computers.

I come in to work the other desk one day, the guy I relieve tells me the PC isn't working. He said the IT people said it has a virus and needs to be remapped. I said "What The Fuck?" sat down and ran my usual anti-spyware programs I mentioned, rebooted as Spybot S&D directed and voila, no problems. What virus? A trojan horse program had taken over the computer, they're not exactly a virus, but still insidious. I'm beginning to have the POV that these jerks that come up with this shit should get the death penalty for how much productivity they are costing the world. OTOH, they are creating a lot of jobs for people to get rid of the shit.

Everytime they get intervention from IT, Firefox is gone. They actually think it's the problem. Goll, friggin' idiots. *sigh*