Perhaps I'm just behind the curve, but I ran into a new (for me) "fake antivirus" with a twist--a fake drive scanning utility.
Like the "fake antivirus" that jumps up and tell you it's just scanned your 2 terabyte harddrive in 3 seconds and found you are infected with 23 viruses, 12 rookits, and 4 trojans, this one jumps up and tells you that 30 percent of your drive is unusable, your MBR is damaged, and so is your fat allocation table--BUY ME!
I suppose it was only a matter of time that the fake antimalware writers would come up with another scare tactic as people were becoming savvy too the fake antivirus, but this one really freaked out someone who called me today that their computer was about to die.
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Simple enough to remove--drop into safe mode, delete 4 or 5 files in the c:\documents and settings\all users\application data folder, but you have to give them props for original thinking I guess....
Anyone else see this yet?
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Star Forge Quaggan's Creed Redux!
In my part-time job, I see these on college freshmen laptops all the time. They all freak out too. Sigh...
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fake antivirus, yes, but fake drive scan utilities?
Wow, I am out of it. That is the first one I've seen. I haven't even read about these before. Again, same trick different game, but I haven't seen one. -
These are becoming more and more common, the funny thing is that anyone unfortunate enough to not know what they are doing and follow the malware instructions will have a hell of a time removing the things it leaves behind. The last one I had to remove from a client left behind 14 copies of itself to run, all renamed different things, in various folders.
On the plus side, these things are caught almost immediately by anyone in the field and submitted right away - MSE has been doing an excellent job and has been catching newer ones quickly.
Unfortunately they are kind of hard to prevent from even being seen, short of installing noscript, and let's face it people who have noscript installed wouldn't fall for these anyway -
Star Forge Quaggan's Creed Redux!
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davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate
I'm considering creating such an app that just spits obvious crap (like, obvious even to my mom and dad). i bet i'd still find people who pay..
it's ridiculous, such stuff, it really is. the only scary thing is, it works well enough.. sad world, sad world.
reminds me a bit of the iamrich app from the iphone, and those that complained that after they bought it, it was just useless, and cost tons of money. well.. duh.. that's the idea.. -
those are awful, surely if your pc really had those problems it probably wouldn't even boot lol....
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those pop ups are definitely getting annoying. I was on google images looking for something and I got this windows security alert pop up saying my computer was infected!
too bad I was running linux (mint 10) at the time.
It was strange because all i did was mouse over the image and it redirected the browser to that site. -
My response was, "Windows is telling you that? You can actually get into windows with that kind of damage? OK, slow down, what exactly are you seeing...." -
They are REALLY epic when you get them under Linux.
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My sister's laptop got infected by this same thing the day it came out, so it wasn't yet picked up by MWB or any other utilities. It was a pretty frustrating manual removal as the filenames are random gibberish and changed on each boot.
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I just call these basic IQ tests lol
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usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate
Firefox + NoScript + Adblock Plus = smooth sailing for years now.
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Like I said though, whoever is running those wouldn't be fooled by these things. As much as I'd love to put noscript on triggerhappy friends or the grandparents' computers, I suspect they'd be phoning more to ask why they can't watch the latest "funny video" forwarded by their friends. I know noscript has whitelists but there has to be a better happy medium :/
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I believe i typed imageshack.com into IE 8 (win 7) and hit enter. A pop up box came up and I clicked the red X to close (only other option was OK)
Then the dreaded bogus scan started. MSE (latest version) did not warn me at all...
I was able to kill all my browser windows within 30 seconds,and shutdown Win 7.
Is it best to start a new thread to get some further advice? I did get a screen shot of the pop up window, then I threw up!
Thanks for the help. I booted to safe mode and only found a hosts file in the download folder, that I deleted (when ever I download I use D drive). I then scanned with MB and MSE - nothing was found!! -
Hah, yeah it's retarded that there is even an option in jscript to make all the prompts essentially say "bend me over", even if they are red x's or no's. When I do find a site like that and the popup js prompt comes up, i simply do nothing and end the ff process 3 times (so it will say "oops firefox crashed... which tabs to restore?"), so I don't lose whatever else I was tabbed into.
If the "scan" started (it's just a javascript with pretty images, or somtimes flash) it doesn't do anything except either download an .exe into your dl folder, or try and run the .exe directly via the browser, which newer browsers simply won't allow. Go to your dl folder and MSE will go detect the file, if it was even downloaded in the first place.
Usually these malware .exe's are named something "important sounding", like update1234_56.exe, or upgrade.exe or whatever. Just be aware of what you've downloaded yourself and (if MSE fails to detect/remove anything) delete whatever you don't remember dl'ing. -
davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate
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I have all M$ updates, reset IE 8 via internet options, upgraded to IE 9 beta in safe mode, reverted back to IE 8. The issue persist, .png files show as a red X. Apppreciate any pointers on this, upgrade to Win 7 is not a good option for me.... -
download the reg fix
PNG images are not displayed on Web sites in Internet Explorer
The vista one will work on Win7 -
The main problem is some of you guys are using Internet Explorer - THE most unsecure web browser ever!
Use Firefox w/
- AdBlockPlus
- NoScript
- WOT
- McAfee Site Advisor
...KeyScrambler is another nifty tool if you do alot of online banking, etc.
...and get a 1 year AVG subscription (make sure it's "AVG Internet Security") from Purplus for 19$ (or like 25$ for 3 computers)...and a MalwareBytes subscription.
Problem solved. I guarantee you, unless you're not very bright, that you will NEVER, EVER get a virus/trojan again
This imo, is the best security combo ever. The only way you will get penetrated is if you download torrents (non-VIP) [not promoting torrents, I use them for games I purchased from stores but lost/scratched the discs].
The IE users sound like my brother - Always has a virus/trojan but never switches browsers -
Star Forge Quaggan's Creed Redux!
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Ever since I started using AVG (as well as the other tools), I've been 100% safe. Many reviews put AVG/Kapeski ontop as well (that I've read).
AVG Internet Security 2011 Offers:
- Anti Virus
- Firewall
- Anti Spyware
- Link Scanner (works like McAfee Site Advisor and WOT)
- E Mail Scanner
- Web Shield
- Anti Spam
- Anti Rootkit
- Identity Protection
- Residential Sheild
But ...this is just my opinion on the matterEveryone has their own "combos" of security tools. As long as it works
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Star Forge Quaggan's Creed Redux!
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Rest I have been quite safe with Avast free edition n Malwarebytes for years.
No need to buy AV .. at least worked out for me so far. Debatable though -
I'm not disputing your contention that your package of software and strategies keeps you safe, but you don't even do the research to back up your claims.
I have NO antivirus and no anti-malware program and only the firewall built into windows on my computers and have not been infected with a virus since the early 1990s when someone put an infected floppy in my work computer.
All the software in the world will not save you but common sense will. -
I am merely sharing my opinion on the matter of internet security and here you come out of nowhere with a hostile post instigating an argument.
Good for you ...you've been able to avoid being a victim of trojans/viruses, however just because you've managed to evade being "hit" doesn't mean the rest of the internet population has been as lucky.
You have to factor in that a large portion of internet users use torrents, social networking sites, etc., which are the prime targets of malicious attacks. Hell - even innocently doing homework can get you "hit".
For example, I was doing a WW2 Power Point presentation last night, gathering data on the axis of powers naval strength. A couple websites attempted to hack/infect me. Even if you "play it safe", there is always a threat. Luckily, I was saved from the malicious attack because of the software I use. There is always a threat.
You can "play it safe" as much as possible. It's only a matter of time until you get nuked by malicious trojans/viruses. -
Conclusion: Feel free to use, or not use, whatever browser you like, but lack of security is certainly no reason to not use IE. -
But, yeah, I agree, if you're not very bright, nothing and nobody can save you... -
My point was that AVG Free has real-time security and when you say it doesn't --and it's such an easy thing to check--it makes me wonder where you are coming from with the rest of your post.
Listen, I am not recommending that people go "commando" with their PC security. In fact it comes across pretty arrogant when I say I do. I have 7 computers in the house and four of them have some sort of security software on it.
My point is twofold--a) common sense is better, and b) any one who goes around saying a+b+c is the best there is and d is no good because I read it somewhere or I think it has or does not have a feature is asking for trouble. -
But yeah, I agree that common sense wins for the most part, however there are a few isolated cases that warrant the over-protectiveness.
Popular sites such as Myspace for example have attackers who use scripts that they insert into comments where it attacks users who are stopping by to give the artist a listen. Sure it can be avoidable by not visiting Myspace, but for users who don't have their "street smarts" on the web, it can be difficult to differentiate between good and bad.
I've always believed in "better safe then sorry" method of approach
We all have different ways of handling our internet browsing experience, so if it works and keeps you safe, then that's great -
No disrespect, but alot of things have changed over the last two decades. We have more users than ever using the internet and attackers are getting alot smarter.
Fun Fact:
- Hackers are responsible for 57,000 malicious websites per week
(source: maximumpc)
- 48% of 22 million computers scanned are infected by malware
(source: zdnet)
Having Firefox addons such as Adblock and NoScript will significantly decrease users from being one of the infected/attacked compared to IE in my opinion (we're all sharing opinions - remember) -
I run No Script end of story, never see this crap unless I want to.
Same old scam by a different name
Discussion in 'Security and Anti-Virus Software' started by gerryf19, Jan 31, 2011.