Spyware...worns and trojans.... Whew!..what a last 30 hours for me...

[Rabbitrunner51]

Is this bound to happen?? Who the heck knows.. I mean you got a very good malware spyware program running and onliine protected, A very good AV program updated and running and then i go and do somethiing kind of stupid... but human.

Last night or early am I cisisted an adult site ( i know.. please don't bother ), and all of a sudden i am getting these mad mad flurrry of AV popup warnings.... about this worm and that trojan installing or trying to... and to make this clear...; There were like fifteen going on all at once..

If this wan't bad enough... ,at the same time this and my spyware program are running thier scans..simultaneously, and giving me warning and what to do, the MS security warning sysbol ops in my startup saying i'm infected.
Now... follow this if you will:

Suddenly.., this one program for spyware ( some sort of spyware itself it turns out ) automatically installs on my computer..and proceeds to keep running its own thing,without so much as any approval or action by me,and i cannot stop the darn thing. I kept going into processes and deleting it..and it just kept coming back. I then removed it in my runnning startup processes after it stated on reboot twice.
I go into C: drives and notice some odd porgram installed ( symbol only there ) and it won't delete. I used 'MoveonBoot" to get rid of it and ..finally it was no longer there. Problem is as with alot of things.. its still embedded in the registry.

For my actions throughout and most of today.. i have been running all my spyware programs ...;ADAware., my other programs... SpywareBeGone, and also my main AV to get rid of all the things and virues or signs of...

progress ??? yeah it did its job and no effections left.. but all this day i kept noticng from running my computer, something was still not right as some operations like just opeing from desktop would do some freezing etc..ect..

I then was not satisfied still, so just now i ran an update and total system check with Spybot S & D . >>> it found like nine things...and major ones at that overall and I just fixed them. Five of these had a connection to Firefox and spy rogrms embeddede in thier install. Are you kidding me?? I jhust upgraded to version 2.0.

Three of these concerned me greatly. They had one that disabled windows firewall. One that had to do with settings and the overall MS current version run,and another similar. One of those programs or trojans initially affecting from above... just enterd ,disabled my fierwall, and ran its thing atg will.

Alot of this may or may not have to do with me..but i have very adequate portection as even in the security for MS tells me so. I run my programs all the time...
From my vantage point... MS and its system and security are still very much suspect... Seems, anything can enter..and obviously its not very hard.

Anybody else have any little or big porblems this weekend?? Winter sets in and all the thiefs and culprits come out of the woodwork...

Just because its what i do over time.... I might do another clean install of the OS in the future just to clean things out...including any unknown corrupted things embedded. LOL

[MJCfromCT]

This stuff happens when you visit shady websites...

If I remember correctly, you use Internet Explorer, right?

Stop using Internet Explorer and start using Firefox, and you will be much better off.

[BipolarBill]

They do not get in "by themselves". You gotta be kidding. YOU download them. I do all that you do with a PC and much more and *never* pick up this stuff. I use IE6 exclusively with default security settings.

You may fool yourself about this stuff, but you ain't fooling me. Reduce your AV and spyware programs to 4 or less known good ones. Downloading and "testing" unknown security programs is the best way to mess up your PC because many of these programs are PHONY. At the very least, they will conflict and report that the other programs are nasties.

BitDefender is cheap and includes spyware protection. Rip everything else out (including MS Windows Defender) and use it alone. It may use more resources than other AV programs, but it's all that you need. Buy a 2 year license.

Most importantly, uninstall all P2P software like Limewire and use BitTorrent instead. Stop cruising shady web sites like MySpace, porn and warez.

[Rabbitrunner51]

Thats funny as five of the things in spybot refered to Firefox... That whole night was strange because ii never had that happen like that for a long time.. yeah.. maybe one or two...but mostly ,since i have good protection.. this never happens...

Also, i think i reset some of my Internet options so more can possibly get in... I get so confused anymore about the settings.. I mean.. active X controls..,MS controllling evrything,then your programs all trying to get along...

As bad as this all sounds.. I do very well. I hardly if at all ever get anything even being poped up by my AV program.. I use AntiVir and it updateds and works ectremely well. So does my spyware programs. (they did catch all of these right away ++ )

In all honesty.. , i like IE just fine and its worked fine... I have like four major browsers..and yes..FireFox 2.0 also.
I know you are a mod but unless you've been keeping up on the latest scoop and tech info, many have found alot of loopholes in Firefox also...esp. as of late. Problem is they all have to go through the MS system. That should give a clue...

To be honest.. i haven't visited those site or similar for a long time and never do much if at all... I'm very cautious by nature.

I did not download the program either Bill. I haven't tryed anything new for a long time. I got two basic tings runnning in my system and they are setup correctly. One is AntiVir and the other is SpywareBeGone. Very good programs In Internet optins ..I overroad the default settings the other day...trying to get the stupid Adobe Fllash player to load onto my computer.. Some things are open for ActiveX..

lessons learned... Just life under the internet communities.... LOL

[BipolarBill]

I've heard about the Firefox problems, but it's a moot point - I don't use it. I keep it simple and that's the real message here. A house with fewer doors is not necessarily safer than one with many, but it's sure easier to protect.

[Rabbitrunner51]

I agree with you.. totally... From past experiences.... and from others like yourself , Try hard to keep it to the minimum. Very good analogy there Bill. Amen to that!

[herosrest]

A moot point and from a slightly broader angle.....
These sites.. shady or not, attract a good percentage of web traffic and are a form of education for youngsters. A register of 'safe' sax sites would be helpful.
Sax is part and parcel of our lives, an everyday thing.
Funny how screwed up people get about it.

[rwest]

Not to long ago I did the exact same thing. What I noticed was spybot also asked me about a change Nod32 was going to to. And vice-versa! I had to move the windows around some to be able to ascociate the registry changes to the program wanting to make the change. You're right about how fast things popped up on the screen it was kinda fun to watch the protection programs work. You saw it, that was fast! I wanted to just click no to everything, but I caught myself and took my time by reading each warning carefully.

When it was all over, I ran nod 32 one more time and it found two or three not critical threats. I removed those and all is fine.

The speed at which it happens is what scares ya. Especially when you see the threat loading!

I think what happens is the executable files go to a temporary folder and start executing from there, as each one is started one or both protection programs are kicking in. Once in a while a threat may get ahead of the protection programs, but then your protection still comes back and kicks booty.

Its like a fist fight, you may get hit a little but for every punch that's thrown at ya, your bodygaurds slam em' to the ground.

[kevrob1]

A moot point and from a slightly broader angle.....
These sites.. shady or not, attract a good percentage of web traffic and are a form of education for youngsters. A register of 'safe' sax sites would be helpful.
Sax is part and parcel of our lives, an everyday thing.
Funny how screwed up people get about it.

You can't be serious... LOL

[Rabbitrunner51]

K 1 ... Amen to that too. Just what kind of education is visiting those sites??

Forgive me for saying so , but herosrest... PLEASE! are you sort of perverted or what??

Even though i did that in a space in time, i have very high morals... that whole industry has gotten wayyyy out of control.. Its an ongoing debate with congress and our first amendment rights.. As with most of those sorts of things..., our protection laws are hurting the masses there... Thats no kind of education of any kind. LOL

[herosrest]

Pretty much every individual on the planet has an ongoing interest in sax.
Overtly, covertly, privately, publicly. People make money from sax, people enjoy it, people hate it, it is a personal thing. lt gets out of hand - there is exploitation - but that is because people make money from it.
T'is a quandry to expect elected or judicial representatives to offer common sense on the issues sax raises because of their own issues with public probity.

Not much point dragging on, in essence, what is required is a much larger carpet than the one everything is swept under at the moment.

[intimidator]

Rabbit, you need to surf with a sandbox........you are a prime candidate!

This prog is for you:

http://www.sandboxie.com/

[Rabbitrunner51]

Yeah.. i'll check that out.

Want to convey some other things of late. Ever since i originally had this or other issues...of late, I first decided to change my antivirus program once again to check out Bill's offer to get Bitdefender. For some odd reason I had some sort of problem which occured either after install or after it ran and found some things. I kept getting the program saying there is a problem and needs ot close..,along with thier send report to them menu box.
I finally got fed up wiht it and did not like the meny interface or personal controls, which were none at all ,other than going in and right clicking on some files to check or?
I re-installed AntiVir and do love that alot.. Also, for spyware. i had been using one tool with resident management..called SpywareBeGone. I then decided to check on this forums recommendations in the forum here, and noticed a place to see which are possibly fakes or not fully warranted by the industry.
That one had a asterisk and read up and they were not vry warranted from issues in the past.
So.. I looked up one of the four best they made recommendations on,and went with AGV 7.5 Antispayware. Pepole her should check that out. It is by far the best one i've used so far and has the highest ratings overeall... Great antispyware program and does indeed do a thorough job of catching things that others do not. Very nice meny interface and program engine. Five star.