Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/10/15

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Subject: [Leica] OT: A pox on all virus and malware writers
From: mark at whitedogs.co.uk (Mark Pope)
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:48:07 +0100
References: <4AD34702.7030809@whitedogs.co.uk> <c7c8cf880910142212o7d54f042k33af7b08ff0050e@mail.gmail.com>

Pasvorn,

sorry to hear you got caught too.  I was able to fix our system without 
reformatting the drive.  David Freedman pointed me at a couple of 
utilities that helped: Malwarebytes and something called Combofix (which 
I didn't need in the end).

I found that having loaded Kaspersky anti-virus 2010 and running 
Malwarebytes I was able to clean my system without reformatting.Dave 
also swears by Combofix, which he advises you run before Malwarebytes.

When we were attacked, the machine rebooted itself (or appeared to).  My 
wife was trying to upload pictures to photobucket at the time the attack 
happened.

Hope you're all sorted now.

Best wishes

Mark



Mark Pope,
Swindon, Wilts
UK

Homepage               http://www.monomagic.co.uk
Blog                   http://www.monomagic.co.uk/blog
Picture a week (2009)  http://www.monomagic.co.uk/index.php?gallery=paw/2009
                (2008) 
http://www.monomagic.co.uk/index.php?gallery=paw/2008


Pasvorn Boonmark wrote:
> Mark,
> 
> Sorry for a late reply.  I got the same thing on Friday 10/8.  My
> Spybot S&D pop up a message that something was trying to change Window
> registry.  AVG also complained about some virus.
> I made a mistake of rebooting a machine.  Some how the damage has been
> done and causing me a lot of problem.
> 
> I ended up reformat my drive and load a different OS since I was so pissed 
> off.
> Luckily, I back-up my data and restoring them was much easier than
> installing a OS.
> 
> -Pasvorn
> 
> On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 8:10 AM, Mark Pope <mark at whitedogs.co.uk> wrote:
>> Today started fairly well.  A spot of gentle exercise and then, as I 
>> stepped
>> out of the shower, a voice said "Avast has come up with a message saying
>> there's a problem"....
>>
>> There were also warning balloons appearing from an icon in the system tray
>> on our XP system as well as a also a very convincing dialogue box which 
>> said
>> that Anti Virus Pro 2010 had detected.  The dialogue box invited me to
>> download some software to remove the virii and trojans.
>>
>> I smelt a rat, not having loaded anything called Anti Virus Pro 2010 onto
>> the system.  At first I thought it was a Microsoft Utility, but on further
>> investigation, it turned out to be 'scareware'.
>>
>> So I have now spent the last five hours trying to clean my system and I'm
>> not there yet...Avast has now detected some sort of root kit virus and is
>> running yet another scan.  I estimate it will take at least another three 
>> or
>> four hours to complete the system scan and even then I don't know whether 
>> I
>> will have a clean computer.  So I am already resigning myself to a disk
>> reformat, OS and software reinstall - so that's tomorrow taken care of if 
>> I
>> have to do that!
>>
>> I have always been very careful with respect to the security of my 
>> systems -
>> apparently, I wasn't careful enough as it appears we have been the victim 
>> of
>> a "drive by" attack.  Lord knows how!
>>
>> So, I can't post my PAWs or process any pictures until I have finished 
>> this
>> activity.  To say I am unhappy, would be an understatement.  You have no
>> idea what I would like to do to these low-life if I could get my hands on
>> them...
>>
>> Good job I have Linux and Mac computers as well.
>>
>> Like I said - a pox (and a very nasty, painful one at that) on all virus 
>> and
>> malware writers.  I hate them with a passion.
>>
>> Mark
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>> Mark Pope,
>> Swindon, Wilts
>> UK
>>
>> Homepage               http://www.monomagic.co.uk
>> Blog                   http://www.monomagic.co.uk/blog
>> Picture a week (2009)  
>> http://www.monomagic.co.uk/index.php?gallery=paw/2009
>>               (2008) http://www.monomagic.co.uk/index.php?gallery=paw/2008
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


In reply to: Message from mark at whitedogs.co.uk (Mark Pope) ([Leica] OT: A pox on all virus and malware writers)
Message from pasvorn at boonmark.net (Pasvorn Boonmark) ([Leica] OT: A pox on all virus and malware writers)