Computer Woes

[kib]

I caught a computer virus a couple of days ago, the one that tells you your "version of Windows 7 Security 2012 is unregistered" and then goes on to tell you you have all sorts of viruses, security breaches and other horrifying things. (none of it true). It does get all over everything and makes using the computer an anxiety ridden nuisance, so I restored to a point a few days prior. This helped but then it was back again yesterday. So I decided to restore back to January, with a restore version stored on a separate hard drive. Unfortunately in the middle of the restore the computer lost power. Now it won't do much of anything, gets half booted up and then leaves me with a black screen with my cursor in the middle of it. I managed to get to the restore window one more time, but it just hung up and told me it was updating the registry for seven hours.

Does anyone
1. have some tips
2. know a useful free website for troubleshooting or
3. have a paid service or website they trust to walk me through a repair? :(

[Alan]

If you have your Windows 7 DVD, boot from it and choose the 'Repair' option. That probably won't have any affect on your virus problem, but it should at least get you back to a point where you can do another restore.

If the virus went away, but came back, after a restore, you need to consider where you're getting the problem from.

[Gina]

I had almost the exact same thing happen to me the past few days with "XP security 2012". On Friday I did one restore (had to get to that via a back-door manner) just acouple days back, and then yesterday it returned again. Did another restore just to earlier that day, and it seems to be gone again for now. When it is here, the computer is virtually unusable. I am not computer person at all, so I felt lucky to even have done the restore thing.

I vaguely recall before it started happening each time I was in hotmail email, and a window appeared that said Adobe was havin trouble reading something - totally inappropriate for that to appear IMO - I was just reading ordinary email. I don't know if that was coincidence or not. If it happens again, I guess I'll try to refresh back further, assuming I can get back into it again. I've done a full scan with my regular security, and it found nothing at all.

[kib]

Hey Gina, I found these instructions for getting rid of the virus, if i can get back to marginal functionality I'm giving it a try. Yes, I keep getting Adobe messages while in hotmail too, no idea if it's related.

I've also gotten a message from a friend that turned out to be gibberish when I opened it, so I'm wondering if this is traveling through hotmail address books or even facebook.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-security/vista-antispyware-2010-unregistered-version/1af58836-1c62-4393-a01b-4dec4c35d28c - it also talks about windows XP.

Thanks, Alan. I don't have any discs for this at all, but it looks like I may have found a backdoor into the recovery partition stored on the drive. Fingers crossed, it's currently doing a file restore.

[Alan]

I would consider un-installing the security product in question and then installing Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free here (http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/mse.aspx).

[kib]

I would consider un-installing the security product in question and then installing Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free here (http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/mse.aspx). I Actually have Microsoft Essentials installed, I really like it. This thingy isn't a security program at all, it's a virus that pretends it's a security program you need to register.

"Antivirus Vista 2010, Win 7 Antispyware 2010, and XP Internet Security 2010 are new rogues that are exactly the same program, but are shown with different names and interfaces depending on the version of Windows that it is run on. After I wrote this guide, I was told that this rogue goes under quite a few different names, which I have listed below:
· Antivirus Vista 2010
· Vista Antispyware 2010
· Vista Guardian
· Vista Antivirus Pro
· Vista Internet Security (http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistasecurity/thread/)
· Vista Internet Security 2010
· XP Guardian
· XP Antivirus Pro
· XP AntiSpyware 2010
· XP Internet Security
· XP Internet Security 2010
· Antivirus XP 2010
· Antivirus Win 7 2010
· Win7 Guardian
· Win 7 Antivirus Pro
· Win 7 Antispyware 2010
· Win 7 Internet Security
· Win 7 Internet Security 2010
" :sick:

Mine is actually Win 7 Antispyware 2012, so there are more of them than this guy even knows about.

[Alan]

We all need to be reminded occasionally of good computer security practices such as getting rid of Hotmail accounts and replace with GMail, never follow Facebook links even if they say someone close to you has answered a question about you, and never open an email or an attachment from someone you don't know.

I have a theory that all these problems are caused by Mac & Linux geeks sitting in a dark basement somewhere targeting Windows users so that they can then say "Na na na na na" on geeky discussion boards.

[kib]

Oh, you have no idea the epithets I reserve for these losers. For God's sake people, if you want anarchy, target Monsanto.

Seriously, do you feel gmail is more secure than hotmail? I wasn't sure that any of them were better than any other.

[Gina]

I don't do anything with Facebook, but did accidentally open a piece of spam last week from my main personal email (not hotmail). Hadn't done that for years. It was someone from Nigeria telling me I had won something or other.... If that was the source....Dang.

[Alan]

Seriously, do you feel gmail is more secure than hotmail? I wasn't sure that any of them were better than any other.

I think so. I use Gmail to host my personal domain email and have another standard gmail account for those times I don't want to use my regular account. They do a great job of flagging spam and making it go away before it ever hits your inbox. But even then, it's never a good idea to use web-based email clients. Instead you should use a dedicated email client such as Outlook since your personal anti-virus software can integrate with it. Google allows you to collect/send your mail via POP or IMAP for free, the last time I looked the other options would only allow that with an enhanced (pay) account.

In my opinion, Google did a great job with their product and both Hotmail and Yahoo have been doing their best to catch up ever since.

[kib]

Gina, mine was actually from a good friend and an email address I recognized, but when I opened it, Bob was going on about how "as my best girlfrind, he just knew I'd apprecate these tips on ackai berry piillss". mmm. Tank yu, Boob.

[kib]

Thanks, Alan. I've got so much complexity with hotmail I hate to kill it, but if it's where these problems are coming from, maybe I'll give gmail a whirl.

[Gina]

Kib, is your friend from Nigeria? ;) Both times mine started, at the time I definitely was in hotmail. And as best as I can recall, there was an Adobe pop-up just before 'it' started. Positively the last time. Pretty sure the first time.

Mine also had different names. Could have been different windows of them however. One was 'XP Security 2012', the other was 'XP Home Security 2012'. Not sure if those were different however. I was just cursing and trying to get rid of it at the time.

I tired GMail before going to hotmail, but didn't like it as much. Hotmail just is easier for me. ??? Might have to go back to Gmail however. I already have an old account or two there. I mainly didn't like how it hooks all the related emails together, and I couldnt figure out how to make them individual posts. I'm easily confused. :)

My plan is to stay with Hotmail unless 'it' happens again. Unless anyone thinks that's just too stupid.

[SoSimple]

Email is not the only source for malware - perfectly legitimate websites can be hijacked and malicious code inserted into them. In one of the simplest website hacks, you won't see anything different unless you look at the source code. When you do, it shows that the hacker has inserted a hidden frame into the webpage that goes out to the malicious website which promptly infects your computer.

I learned this the hard way - my own website was hacked just like this. Most embarrassing.

Anyway, a restoring to an earlier restore point won't necessarily remove malware from your computer. These folks are very, very, very good at hiding multiple copies of malware in all kinds of places.

IMHO, a better way to handle malware that Will Not Die is with backups. You can create an image (like a basic backup) of your computer when it's fresh and clean with all the software you want on it. This is better than having to reinstall every piece of software from scratch. You can then restore all your data from your separate data backups to the restored image.

If you do this, you will want to be sure to wipe your computer before restoring the image. Don't just delete everything - find DoD grade wiping software such as BCWipe. This will remove every bit of data on your computer (including - almost always - the malware) leaving it ready for the pristine image you created when you first got your laptop and put all the software you wanted on there.