Adware

[Erelyes]

The brute force approach... reinstall windows.

This.

Format / reinstall.

Anything else, and you'll never know if you got rid of it completely, or what other shit might be on there.

[Gremlin]

Like I always say to my friends, computers don't "just" catch virus by themselves.

I love how when they ask me to help fix their computer and say "suddenly it caught a spyware/malware/virus!" or "I didn't do anything"

Try a client... same computer infected by same user 2 Friday's in a row. Worst part was that it was CryptoLocker. It encrypted network files as well... took a while to dig through the directories and restore backups where required. Still holding a backup prior to infection for the situation 6 months from now.

Then a few weeks later... another user got CryptoLocker. Fuck I hate that little bastard. It had free run over a weekend (it works in the background before announcing itself) and ended up being a complete roll back of the network drive on Tuesday morning once I'd spoken to staff and dealt with the initial problem on Monday. Very weird feeling wiping a network drive...

Use Malwarebytes, not much it doesn't catch... and if you're one of those "victims" that's always catching something, consider paying for it's realtime licence.

[EJK]

Try a client... same computer infected by same user 2 Friday's in a row. Worst part was that it was CryptoLocker. It encrypted network files as well... took a while to dig through the directories and restore backups where required. Still holding a backup prior to infection for the situation 6 months from now.

Then a few weeks later... another user got CryptoLocker. Fuck I hate that little bastard. It had free run over a weekend (it works in the background before announcing itself) and ended up being a complete roll back of the network drive on Tuesday morning once I'd spoken to staff and dealt with the initial problem on Monday. Very weird feeling wiping a network drive...

Use Malwarebytes, not much it doesn't catch... and if you're one of those "victims" that's always catching something, consider paying for it's realtime licence.

Atleast they pay you. Mates don't even pay!

[Gremlin]

Atleast they pay you. Mates don't even pay!

Flat rate support contract and I'm on salary. I had better things to do those 2 weekends, than get a PC back in and operational by Sunday night...

[EJK]

Flat rate support contract and I'm on salary. I had better things to do those 2 weekends, than get a PC back in and operational by Sunday night...

Looks like somebody really wanted those viagras online...

Next time maybe you can prevent future problems by just buying them some

[slofox]

Malwarebytes dug out a bunch of stuff that Spybot missed. I'll see what happens now.

[kevfromcoro]

i was running Norton,, but it has just expired.
is this dangerous to run with no antivirus?
is malwarebytes worth downloading.

[BoristheBiter]

i was running Norton,, but it has just expired.
is this dangerous to run with no antivirus?
is malwarebytes worth downloading.

Yes. malwarebytes, spyhuter or the like will pickup a shit load more than norton, as norton tries to stop it getting onto your computer where MB/SH removes it once it is already there.

[Blackbird]

Yes. malwarebytes, spyhuter or the like will pickup a shit load more than norton, as norton tries to stop it getting onto your computer where MB/SH removes it once it is already there.

I originally had Spyhunter and it kept identifying a particular piece of potential spyware which I'm pretty certain came with a free software download. It said it had removed it but on the next re-boot, it was there again. Ended up doing a bit of research and there's a fair amount of criticism about Spyhunter on the web. I changed to the commercial version of Malwarebytes and it immediately fixed the problem - not expensive either.

[Tazz]

i was running Norton,, but it has just expired.
is this dangerous to run with no antivirus?
is malwarebytes worth downloading.

Nortons pretty much is a virus. You'll discover that if you decide you want to uninstall it =/

If you're somewhat computer literate, it is generally ok to run without one. Just don't open obvious spam emails with attachments, stay away from the dodgy pr0n websites, and any software that is free, usually comes with strings so be wary of some of that too and you should be sweet as.

It's basically a commonsense and slight luck thing. If you're sharing a computer it's better to use protection.

[BoristheBiter]

I originally had Spyhunter and it kept identifying a particular piece of potential spyware which I'm pretty certain came with a free software download. It said it had removed it but on the next re-boot, it was there again. Ended up doing a bit of research and there's a fair amount of criticism about Spyhunter on the web. I changed to the commercial version of Malwarebytes and it immediately fixed the problem - not expensive either.

I have SH 4 and it seems to be really good but then I only use it once a while to clean the computer up.
I think the biggest thing is people using it as an antivirus as it doesn't scan emails and you can't scan removable HDD or flash drives.

[Gremlin]

Looks like somebody really wanted those viagras online...

Next time maybe you can prevent future problems by just buying them some

Highly probably CryptoLocker was coming through in zipped files as something like a .pdf.exe . We used to let through zipped exe's as some needed it, but after some thinking, we closed that off as well. Considering we run private mail servers for our clients and ourselves only, we're comfortably blocking double digit numbers of zipped exes every day. Well worth blocking the potential pain.

is this dangerous to run with no antivirus?
is malwarebytes worth downloading.

As one said, if you know what you're doing, no, you don't need anti-virus. However, most don't know what they're doing, and for some that try really hard, even having the protection doesn't guarantee you'll be safe. Yes, Malwarebytes is worth it... it doesn't miss much.

[kevfromcoro]

just lately I have been trying to enter a few sites, but I canot enter my password, will not accept it.
asked to reset, and send me a link, but there is no link. its driving me mad. is there something I have o uninstall?

[Gremlin]

just lately I have been trying to enter a few sites, but I canot enter my password, will not accept it.
asked to reset, and send me a link, but there is no link. its driving me mad. is there something I have o uninstall?

If there is no link in the password reset email, check however you're receiving the emails (lot of different ways, methods etc). Often the links are removed for safety, but you can still copy the long URL into your web browser and it will work.

[george formby]

Bin usin malwarebytes for quite awhile now. I like. If it cannot uninstall / kill, it I just copy & paste the problem file(s) into google & get the solution. Touch wood it's been simple so far. My only issue has been downloading software for editing & the like. Some dodgy stuff that looks totally kosher. The merest hint of Eastern Europe and I'm out of there.