Another monitoring virus was caught by Kaspersky today
whiteoxe
Posts: 794
I have been almost scammed by a microsoft service/help service. Today while running win 7 Kas[ersky cleaned it straight away but it got through the free anti virus that ms essentialls i downloaded.
It was some win monitor virus, so thats scary. I think ms antivirus updates weekly but kaspersky updates daily ?...
It was some win monitor virus, so thats scary. I think ms antivirus updates weekly but kaspersky updates daily ?...
Comments
But don't ask me how to install it. It may require installing Samba and having an NTFS partition.
I've always had doubts about Free AV software and I also have had my doubts about AV software introductions that always seem to find something that others missed. In this programible world, their introductory analysis might just pretend to find something and fix it ... just to get you to purchase.
These days, when I get an attempt for an automated download of a .exe file; it is obvious that the browser has been overpowered by a Windows virus. But since .exe files are useless in Linux, I just smile and delete them.
Today i downloaded a file , program i thought was a web cam, kaspersky started telling me it was a trojan so i deleted it, but now i keep getting multiple pages with a load annocment about buying penny shares, someone has taken The Wolf of Wall street too seriously.
The multi pages is very annoying, must be some kind of malwhere not sure what to do.
Try Spybot Search and Destroy (free!) - it's almost as good as Gigantor at destroying ne'er-do-wells!
Ross.
Symantec claims that all AV software is ineffective, only catching viruses about 45% of the time. This is something I have suspected for a long time and part of why I feel safer with Linux. Still, even Motzilla is not a particularly safe broswer unless you use some sense about what you allow to happen.
AV software is a subscription business. So they keep on claiming new and better to get you to renew your subscription. Maybe more snake oil that real value.
http://www.itpro.co.uk/antivirus/22185/symantec-anti-virus-software-is-no-moneymaker
Stop downloading and installing random programs. The internet is not a safe place and anti-virus programs can't think for you. If the internet is used intelligently and with discretion an anti-virus program is not really necessary. Most problems are malware, not viruses, and are easily avoided.
Problem is, to surf the internet, we general have to use a browser, and in Windows the default browser automatically downloads stuff automagically, and runs it for you automatically as a convenience, since we are assume to be too stupid to control stuff like that ourselves.
On top of that, windows is chock full of exceptions and violations of their own stated rules. Its basically a mess of bugs waiting to be exploited. (Or at least it was when I started using,and when I stopped using it. And there seems to be no indication anything has changed since, except the price).
We can be fairly secure behind a firewall, and exercising cmmon sense, but that will only get one so far. The only real solution is to get rid of the root cause, which is windows itself. Without that vector, few viruses and most malware won't get started.
As I said, " If the internet is used intelligently and with discretion an anti-virus program is not really necessary."
However, the built in browser is a piece of garbage and should be avoided.
Not really correct, Windows doesn't go out and get stuff on its own. The real problem is the users, and most have no idea how things really work.
When we access any give URL, the page can also loads a bunch of Smile in addition to the content we want. By Smile I mean ads and animations and activex whatever that play without user intervention. Some of this is deliberate from the target website, and some of it is google ads or yahoo ads, etc. THAT mechanism is used by malware to access your machine, and cannot be avoided using IExplorer, and is built into windows explorer. If yahoo can run stuff on my machine that I cannot stop, just by visiting the web site, then anyone can do the same.
Firefox + Adblock + noscript can close off this particular vector for the most part, but this requires the user to manually enable only those scripts that do "good" stuff, every time on every page. Even so, windows still allows stuff we wouldn't want. Windows 7 is worse than WXP in this respect. By what ever mechanism, windows accumulates Smile, by design. The file explorer and the internet browser are too closely integrated to have affective separation.
Linux on the other hand, does not appear to be affected by these design "features", and Firefox + Adblock + noscript has stopped all unwanted junk, on my linux rig.
This is correct and is the stupidest thing ever to be claimed as a "feature". However, it isn't a function of the operating system. Whether the browser is running on Linux or Windows makes no difference.
I agree, it's ridiculous that users have to add all these things just to make the browser work as it should by default.
I don't think so, but when it comes to Windows everything is debatable. At least with Windows 7 you can uninstall Internet Explorer, along with some other "features" Microsoft used to claim weren't removable in XP. There are a few things that don't work exactly right without it, but nothing most people would notice.
Win7 allows total removal of IExplorer. I remember when I heard about M$ acting after being told not to be such an ***, which interestingly started around the time the US investigation got lidded - I tried it out on a couple of Win7 display PCs just to make sure and IExplorer really seemed to be gone.
IExplorer was never in any way a required program except that M$ forced it that way with WinXP. Which makes WinXP the only release of Windoze that has IExplorer forced.
The ongoing spankings:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3563697.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4552214.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4919990.stm
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-06-277_en.htm?locale=en
Unfortunately, No, this is not true in all case. At my office, in their infinite wisdom, IT security does not allow the use of any browser except internet explorer.
I guess IT security is just the name, like "dollar rent a car", nobody expects the car rental to be a dollar, and nobody should rely on any measure of security.
So while its possible because a capability might exist, it is not possible in practice.
Luckily, I have a cooperative IT dept that is happy to install Firefox as well. So I use Firefox with all the plugins I like and manually set Firefox's proxy to the company setting while, and it surprised me I could change this one, at the same time set the system proxy to 127.0.0.1.
Just a small thing to add to this:
Everyone should stop using download.cnet.com as they end up inserting the same trash programs littering the webpage into the setup.exe installer.
Unfortunately, that means you are infected - time to clean up. I have to do it all the time on my kid's computers. Article here on virus vs malware and some good comparisons. http://lifehacker.com/the-difference-between-antivirus-and-anti-malware-and-1176942277
I run free malwarebytes to check for browser hijacks. My wife likes the paid Norton 360.
+1 to that. They used to be a good site years ago, but it is now almost impossible to find the actual download in amongst the bigger "download this browser hijack" buttons. And the install programs trick you unless you are very careful. Ideally, download things from the company that wrote the software, not a third party site.
Update: Thumbs up on MB v2. It revived my old Vista drive that had the nasty US Courts virus which shut it down since last Labor Day. No other free AV software worked on it. It took 3+ hours to scan with the rootkit option, but it worked. Using that drive & Vista now, it's like having an old friend back. That drive virus is what really forced me to switch full-time to Win8, which works fine. Now it's nice to have the option.
Yeah, I know. I'm the only guy here who likes Vista & Win8.
but i use ubuntu a lot now for surfing and its much sweeter browsing
20 minutes? You must be making a drive image to restore it so fast. I find re-installing any Windows OS is relatively quick & easy, but downloading all the updates takes forever...
The computer does have an SSD and a SATA DVD drive, so that probably helps. Almost all software is on a different drive and runs in portable mode, so there's not a lot that has to be reinstalled. VLC, 7-Zip, Eraser, TrueCrypt and Steam are usually about all that I actually "install", and I didn't really count Steam in the 20 minutes. All the basic drivers needed are on a USB 3.0 flash drive, so installing those is pretty quick.
In reality, all things included, it probably takes more like 30 minutes.