I got another darn virus!

[Faustus]

After all these years (10) of not having a single virus I now have my 2nd virus in only two months. First that stupid blaster that got me with 5 min of signing onto the internet and now this....

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qhosts.html

I knew something was up when my computer couldn't reach google...

[Drakng]

Lucky fella, 2 virus in 10 years!!! Are you kidding? Did you mothballed your pc for 9 years?

[Gees]

For a computer to become infected, you would have to open an HTML page that contains code, which allows it to open a viral HTML file on the target computer, so that the script can create and run the malicious executable.

I think that's the sneakiest type of all. Compared to email attachments, which we all know how to deal with.

I hope the fix sorted it for you, Flaystus.

[Faustus]

Will not know until sunday, is the computer I leave at a friends house. We've been troubleshooting for a network issue in XP since Monday. *doh*

anyway I found that even without a virus scanner I've been pretty safe with a little know how. These new virus are just to sneaky. I think I'll install AVG on all my machines now.

[vitualis]

I've been SENT viruses on a fairly regular basis but I haven't actually been infected with one for at least 7 or 8 years (last time in high school by one of those damn boot sector viruses)...

Regards.

[g_shocker182]

Virus free for 5 years.

[BJ_M]

After all these years (10) of not having a single virus I now have my 2nd virus in only two months. First that stupid blaster that got me with 5 min of signing onto the internet and now this....

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qhosts.html

I knew something was up when my computer couldn't reach google...

one of my kids got that one also this week - i didnt even know it was a troj. but did fix it by cleaning the hosts file and reg//

thanks for this info .. !

[Red96TA]

I got that damned Blaster virus and since then I've made sure that I have my firewall turned on to stop any of that junk...oh, and updated my virus-scan.

Have you SEEN the garbage that port scans your computer every 5 seconds? Everyone NEEDS to get a good reliable firewall.

[The village idiot]

Have you SEEN the garbage that port scans your computer every 5 seconds? Everyone NEEDS to get a good reliable firewall.

No I haven't, my firewall keeps it out

[galactica]

Virus free for 5 years.

virus free for hmmmm forever
gotta love macs

[Faustus]

Virus free for 5 years.

virus free for hmmmm forever
gotta love macs

Never got Autostart? Stupid autostart.
Just imagine how bad it wold be if someone made a mac virus to take over the disc burner built into OSX. It adds the virus to every disc it burns. Autostart 2.0!

[ChrisX]

I received a couple of strange messages last week, which was supposed to be from Microsoft on an undeliverable e-mail I send. Both got large .scr attachments into my Hotmail address.

I did not send any message to Microsoft recently at all and the title of the infected messages goes like this: “Mail: user unknown”. It was W32.Sobig virus.

I don’t know why got them and I managed to delete them on Hotmail’s mail server, the attachment not opened and not downloaded into my computer.

I also blocked them from coming into my Hotmail address as well.

My advice on a POP3: Never open any attachment unknown to you, never delete the message yourself and let the anti-virus program fix it for you.

The Nimba worm got me last year very similar, via an infected HTML or network shares. Never put your computer in someone else’s unsafe network and Internet connection.

You must update your anti-virus program couple of times a week. Get a firewall to protect you and always use Windows Update every week or when notified by a Microsoft on critical security alerts.

[Faustus]

Actually I'm quite aware how to protect myself from a Virus. If you read the entire message you'd see I'm about 10 years in computers. My main point was that the makers are getting much more clever when just good surfing habits are not good enough any longer. Sad really...

On another note my iMac has never had a virus ever.

[BJ_M]

virus writers don't bother to write virus's for computers which are only 2.5% of the number of pc's .. whats the point ? though there a few nasty mac virus around .. its rare to see one as they don't spread to easily ..

[VCDHunter]

I've had a few of those .scr virus in my hotmail inbox under the guise of some microssoft message or summat - there not there long enough for me to take much notice of them

We did get hit bad by the blaster virus in work - a week with constant crashes and slooowwwww machines. At least I remained untouched at home

[galactica]

Never got Autostart? Stupid autostart.
Just imagine how bad it wold be if someone made a mac virus to take over the disc burner built into OSX. It adds the virus to every disc it burns. Autostart 2.0!

Nope. how long ago did you get this?!?

[ChrisX]

Actually I'm quite aware how to protect myself from a Virus. If you read the entire message you'd see I'm about 10 years in computers. My main point was that the makers are getting much more clever when just good surfing habits are not good enough any longer. Sad really...

Yes, they get more clever and getting more tricky too and I'll have to update the version of my anti-virus and firewall for this reason soon as expiry is near.

Version 2001 is too old now and I recently bought a 2003 version which should get my computer network a much better security.

[ChrisX]

I've had a few of those .scr virus in my hotmail inbox under the guise of some microssoft message or summat - there not there long enough for me to take much notice of them

So, I am not alone in getting these strange .scr virus messages. There must be lots of Hotmail users who got the same thing. Lucky for me, only two.

[Craig Tucker]

My mum recently got the W32.swen virus, which apparently can be activated by simply previewing the email in outlook, you dont even have to open the attachment. Bit of a bugger to get rid of as it stops you running most of the programs from within windows, so you have to edit the registry from the command prompt. It is delivers in the guise of a security update from microsoft but although she deleted the emails (or so she tells me ) her PC still got infected. Regular updating of virus definitions is a must.

[Gees]

Yes. And everyone should disable preview in Outlook too - especially if they have no anti-virus s/w yet.

Seems to have the same effect as opening the mail.

[Faustus]

Well I removed the virus and changed all my settings back. So everything is fixed now. Sadly I still could not get to google. I needed to format anyway so problems go bye bye.

I am now running AVG (Actually doing on both my PCs what I preach for once.) As well as Adaware Pro which I've ran for a while now.

Nope. how long ago did you get this?!?

Do you mean the PC virus? About a week and a half ago I think.
If you mean autostart I never had it myself, but when I first started doing mac support we would get a few lingering calls on it with people on old macs that never updated. Autostart 2.0 is does not exist, and I'm thankful for that...

[BJ_M]

to bad you reformated -- the fake host file is hiding in winnt/help which has higher priority than the real host file ... just delete the fake one and you can get back to google ..

[Faustus]

It all works out. I reformat about every 6mo anyway. I love that clean system feeling. MS products tend to bloat if left along to long.