Serving the greater Bangor area with, Computer repair, hardware & software - PC Recycling and removal - Virus removal - Data recovery.
Adobe.com
Nope. The media has it wrong and the political fanatics on both sides could care less.
CNet has an article here http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10466044-245.html about a potential threat “served” by The DrudgeReport. Political views aside, there some important things to know about this incident.
1.The Drudge Report did not serve the malware in question, one of its random advertisers did. This kind of thing happens all the time, on big sites like Drudge and small ones alike.
2. As to whether or not it actually did come while a visitor was at Drudge Report, the answer is most likely yes. I can attest to the fact that one of Drudge Reports advertisers had an ad come through that was designed to infect viewers with a virus. I was on the site at the same time as the person in the article.
3. The proper way to handle this kind of a situation is through education and not avoidance.
I kick myself now for not taking a screen capture of the site when I went, but, it would have looked exactly like the one in the article at CNet. I saw the same thing.
This is important because this kind of viral attack can happen at any website, regardless of content or political affiliation. What is important for you, my loyal and faithful customers is that you know what to do when it happens. If while on a website, you get a pop up warning of “potential threats” or “security warnings” here’s a few tips.
1. Don’t click the red “x” or anything at all on the ad. While that might seem like the correct course of action, the window is not a window, clicking actually installs the application.
2. Learn to use Ctrl Alt Delete. Control, Alt, Delete, pressed in that order opens up the task manager, with that, you can stop certain processes that are currently in operation. In this case you would want to stop “Iexplorer.exe” NOT “explorer.exe” look for that “I”
3. If you’re unsure about using ctr alt del, try pressing Alt and F4, that will close down the open windows, keep pressing until they are gone.
4. Still unsure? Power down your pc and restart. Once restarted, do a history wipe in your browser to make sure nothing is in your temp files.
5. Still, still unsure? Call me!
With the increase in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, comes the increase in viral activity.
Koobface (anagram of facebook) is the most common, and potentially dangerous you’re likely to see. The ultimate goal of Koobface is to hijack your account, potentially gather information and proliferate itself to your friends list. Luckily, Koobface is easy to spot, and easy to avoid.
Here is how it works.
1. A friend messages to you from your friends list claiming a “funny video” or “Video of you” is posted on the web and attached is a link.
2. Clicking on the link (at this point, don’t click the link) would take you to a 3rd party site that “looks” like a video hosting site.
3. When you get to the bogus site, you are prompted to “download a codec” or update “adobe flash player”.
That last one should be the final red flag. If you did download the file (in this case, the Trojan holding the virus) it would then plant it self in your system and send itself to your friends list when you returned to your account. Shortly after your friends will no doubt let you know in full force you’ve got a problem. The always do don’t they?
If you happen to get this file, all is not lost! It’s a routine removal and we can have you back socializing, farming, chatting and whatever else you’d like!
One final note, only Windows based computers are open to this particular attack.
One of the more common virus’ we’ve seen lately is the “rogue spyware” type of intrusion. In a nutshell, you pick up a trojan that delivers a payload, in this case a fake spyware application that quickly forces your antivirus software to turn a blind eye to it’s existance. While it looks like a legit program, it’s definitely not. This rogue spyware then starts showing you shocking scans and dire warnings of doom and destruction! Problem is, the program isn’t doing anything at all. It will recommend you upgrade to the full version to remove these unwanted viruses. That full version costs anywhere from 50 to 80 dollars. The full version doesn’t do anything either, and your cash is long gone. Below is a sample screen shot of one of these rogue spyware applications in action. There are many variants of this, here are some other names to look for. System Antivirus 2008, Ultimate Antivirus 2008, Vista Antivirus 2008, XP Antivirus 2008 etc. If you suspect you have this type of virus on your computer, don’t wait to remedy the situation! The longer you wait, the worse things can get.
You’ve started your PC and something just isn’t right… Perhaps it’s obvious, your desktop has been hijacked, it’s flashing warnings of a virus infecting your computer. May be it’s more subtle…When you connect to the internet you can hear your hard drive thrashing away, your connection is grinding to a halt. You suspect something is wrong, and you’re probably right! If you use your computer every day, nobody knows it better than you. Now it’s time to get professional help, it just so happens…that’s us.
