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**wc2** · 14 August 2008, 23:04

Hijackthis

Superantispyware

Google em

I removed one the other day that blocked both these programs (Had to rename them prior to running)

**NickFitz** · 15 August 2008, 02:28

What wc2 said, but you may have to boot into "Safe Mode" to run them effectively - Google that, too.

If the nasties are making it hard to Google or download stuff (and they do) try installing Firefox or Opera and using that as your browser until you make it go away. A lot of malware and such will screw IE over to prevent you downloading the necessary fixes, but FF and Opera are usually beyond its reach.

(See, I got all the way through without mentioning OS X... ah, damn

)

**Diver** · 15 August 2008, 05:41

Originally posted by jim_craig43 View Post

My laptop has just been infected with something which keeps opening links to 3rd party sites and it's driving me nuts. Some of them are porno sites, the rest of them sites telling me my pc is infected with a virus. I'm sure you know the ones. I use AVG and it won't get rid of this damned thing which appears to be running as a service. Trouble is, I can no longer go into the services applet to stop said service - everything is disabled. Is there anything out there that is effective against this sort of thing? I'm just as concerned with preventing future attacks as I am getting rid of the current infection - it's just that AVG hasnt done its job (I always keep it up to date) and I avoid Norton like the plague. Any good non - intrusive utilities out there?

Superantispyware

As wc2 said, it's an excellent product with a free download. worth paying for as well, as when you use the free version you don't get auto updates and you have to update manually. full version has auto update and loads of extra's.

**Fred Bloggs** · 15 August 2008, 07:03

There must be some nasty stuff about now. Last night I had to reformat one of my laptops since Avast! caught up with some viruses and stuff, one of them it didn't know much about and said it would forward it to Avast! to look at. However, when I rebooted the PC I found my desktop had been hijacked and a large picture placed in the middle of it that said that the PC was infected with spyware and download something to remove it. I think Avast! had removed some of the infection since there was nothing "clicky" to download anything as you'd expect from such an infection holding you to ransome. The screensaver and wallpaper tabs were removed from the display properties and after several hours trying various malware tools that detected absolutely nothing I gave up and reformatted the thing. Worryingly, I have a hardware and a Windows firewalls and Abvast! updates almost daily, but my machine still got screwed up

**gadgetman** · 15 August 2008, 09:46

I recommend installing Process Explorer and Autoruns.

PE will let you see what is running at any time (can replace task manager) and Autoruns can show you how it is loading and allows you to disable it (including services).

Both are now owned by Microsoft I believe.

**voodooflux** · 15 August 2008, 10:25

Originally posted by gadgetman View Post

Both are now owned by Microsoft I believe.

Aye, they were developed by the SysInternals chaps (Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell) and now available on Technet:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb545027.aspx

Process Explorer is a great utility, especially for killing process trees.

**Incognito** · 15 August 2008, 12:50

And learn from experience. Get Virtual PC or VMWare Server and run a VM when you want to surf all your free porn or use bitorrent. Catch anything and just blow the VM away.

Use your real desktop for your normal day to day living.

**Fred Bloggs** · 15 August 2008, 17:38

Originally posted by Incognito View Post

And learn from experience. Get Virtual PC or VMWare Server and run a VM when you want to surf all your free porn or use bitorrent. Catch anything and just blow the VM away.

Use your real desktop for your normal day to day living.

Fair point about bit torrent I know the kids use it. Is that a real vulnerability?

**TykeMerc** · 15 August 2008, 18:27

Originally posted by Fred Bloggs View Post

Fair point about bit torrent I know the kids use it. Is that a real vulnerability?

The protocol isn't exactly perfect in security terms but the real issue is what people download and open/run, it's not like torrents come from trusted sources.

Torrents are a great way to deliver virii, spyware, rootkits and any other sort of malware you can think of and an awful lot of PC owners lack any decent protection.

At a bare minimum you need:-
Fully patched operating system
Completely up to date active scanning anti virus product with very frequent updates
Completely up to date active scanning anti spyware product with very frequent updates
Rootkit scanning on a frequent basis
Software firewall with sensibly secure rules
Hardware firewall at router level, again configured right

An advisable tool is a sandbox for running untrusted downloaded applications including codecs until you're sure how they perform and are safe to be let loose onto the actual system.

In addition a healthy dose of common sense is critical including not downloading loads of toolbars and addins for IE.

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