Daugher's PC has new Malware/Virus that can't be detected.

[Timothian]

Just following up on this.

I did manage to successfully remove all the bad stuff off my daughter's PC, and did most of it manualy via searches and deleting stuff out of the registry, file searches, etc. Google searches, looking at network activity (logs from wireshark), examining windows prefetch (and clearing it.). After slash and burn deleting, needed to restore registry file and fix a few things, but got it working. Over all, very painful and rebuilding PC would of been faster, easier, but machine seems solid now, no weird stuff.

I found the lag in virus signature updates interesting. Obvious symptoms appeared on a Thursday, Mcafee found some things that weekend, but I found stuff executing on the machine Tuesday and Wednesday of the following week that never got found by the virus checker or AdAware. I would update AdAware and Mcafee everyday and run scans. A full week later, Thursday and Friday both, Mcafee finally did find a few suspicious .dll files and deleted them that I believe were byproducts of the infestation, but no longer executing on the machine.

[Bogagar]

a fact is evry 5th windows pc is hacked
my 3 firewalls blocking stuffs non stop, and even with this is my virus scaner having to do with stuffs i didnt download activly last week i found 2 trojans in my volume information folder on my terabyte-harddrive that im only using for backups
the problem is there is no perfekt firewall and no perfect virus scaner at least not for the scurity cheese windows
im close to only using linux since i got everquest running under ubuntu8.10

[kasantitz]

a fact is evry 5th windows pc is hacked

So if I have 4 desktop machines and 1 server, all running windows, in my house, none of them have ever been on the internet and no one but me has ever used them, at least 1 of them is hacked/infected?


I think not....


Lol, I am just messing with you Bogagar, because there are some loopholes to your "fact".
But yes I do agree that no firewall/anti-spyware/anti-spam/anti-virus program/device can catch everything out there, mainly because they are all maintained by people and people make mistakes and miss things.

How does that old saying go? "83% of all statistics are fake!"


Kas

[Timothian]

The numbers I hear regarding zombie PCs (hacked and being used as bots), is amazing.

The best defense is being anonymous, minimizing surfing, and being paranoid about clicking and opening. Any system can be hacked regardless of firewalls, virus scanners etc.. Each layer of defense just reduces the probability.

[kasantitz]

Agreed....
The internet is like the government; you can do everything possible to protect yourself from it, but you will still never be safe...

[Succuba]

I have WINXP Pro. I have used WINXP System Restore, to fix my computer from random crap picked up from surfing, successfully. If you find the problem early, i.e. the spyware has not been lurking on your computer for months. Just keep system restoring it back to earlier date until the problem is removed. You may undo winxp updates or virus scanner updates and other legitimate file changes so you still should back up data files you have been working with. In general, data files like music, text, pictures cannot pass viruses. It is executable programs like *.exe, *.com, *.batch that contain/install viruses. Word and Excel files are generally ok but if they have embedded macros can infect your computer. The problem with surfing is that everytime you click on something, you are practically giving permisson for the site to access your computer by either writing cookies or other b*llsh*t. If a website requires you to download crap programs to access its information, this is a huge clue to not download their crap. Most if not all legitimate downloads can be read with common programs like Adobe Acrobat, MSWord(no-macros), MS Media Player. Also, those funnies you get in your email...avoid clicking them at all costs because this is where many viruses are transfered.