A question about viruses [Archive] - Cyber Tech Help Support Forums

rlprlp

August 27th, 2006, 04:54 PM

I don't want to post this in Cyber Safety, as there is too much important stuff going on there, and this is just a casual question. My wife thinks that there are viruses out there that are so nasty, that the only option is to throw the infected computer away... in the garbage... and buy a new one. I think that even if the entire computer has to be erased, losing all, and the OS has to be re-installed from scratch from a disk, nothing can turn a computer into garbage. Which of us is right? Again, just a question out of curiosity; our PC is fine. Thank you.

black mirror

August 27th, 2006, 04:59 PM

I am not an expert just a member:D
but i have not heard of a lone virus that could render a pc inoperable to the point of having to throw it away... but i may be proved wrong as more members add their comments:D and indeed there is such a virus....... lets hope i never meet it

I know of viruses that can make your computer inoperable on a certain date... but with weekly virus checks and spyware checks and a good firewall these hopefully can be prevented

Roadrunner777

August 27th, 2006, 05:12 PM

There was a virus called CIH that wrote garbage into the BIOS of certain computers, effectively trashing them permanently. But that was back in 1999 and effected only Windows 95/98 machines with certain motherboards.

Miz

August 27th, 2006, 05:25 PM

The choice of the word "virus" to describe software that disrupts computers is unfortunate because of the confusion it causes for some people. There are viruses that kill people but in the computer world, they're only software designed to disrupt other software.

As you said, wiping a computer's drive clean and starting over may be the only way to remove a computer virus but it will restore the computer to health. That approach isn't used on humans as far as I know. ;)

Even a BIOS-destroying virus doesn't necessarily mean the end of the computer. BIOS chips can be replaced, although that sort of repair is best left to the experts and may not be money well spent if the computer is worth less than the cost of the repair.

rlprlp

August 27th, 2006, 05:42 PM

Thanks, guys! So I guess in a way, depending on how you look at it, we're both right! I hope more comments will come, as I am finding this quite interesting...

black mirror

August 27th, 2006, 05:43 PM

Well i have just ran a bitdefender online scan and it has unearthered 2 DeepScan:Generic.PWStealer.3BB4BD75 i am quite worried. I thought i was quite well protected but it seems not:cry2:

rlprlp

August 27th, 2006, 08:11 PM

I hope you can kill it easily, black mirror. That's funny (NOT your virus)... I just finished running a bitdefender online scan myself not more than 30 minutes ago. I was more fortunate; mine came up clean. Good luck!!!

black mirror

August 27th, 2006, 08:14 PM

Rainbow32

August 27th, 2006, 08:20 PM

The new threat out there now is Rootkits. Your AV program won't necessarily stop them and most likely can't remove them.
This program can and is free, for now.:happy:
http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.html

rlprlp

August 27th, 2006, 08:27 PM

That web site left me a little confused, Rainbow32. Is it an AV that would conflict with an existing one (mine is Norton)? Or is it more of an "extra protection"?

black mirror

August 27th, 2006, 08:30 PM

It is only a 30 day trial as well.
I know nothing about rootkits but im about to find out

Rainbow32

August 27th, 2006, 08:42 PM

It's not an AV program and won't conflict with yours. It won't detect virus's, trojans, or malware, just RootKits. If you do have malware on your computer this is a tool to check and make sure a rootkit didn't install the malware. It's just another layer of protection in your arsenal aganist evil-doers.;)
Here's a link to explain this program.
http://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/7026.html

It is only a 30 day trial as well.
You on the same page as I'm on BM? It's free as stated on the website. Their AV program is a 30 day trail.

rlprlp

August 27th, 2006, 09:03 PM

Sounds good. I'll get the GUI version, because I don't know anything about that command line stuff, so I don't mess with it. Thank you for the tip, Rainbow32.

Rainbow32

August 27th, 2006, 09:06 PM

If you want to really load up on RootKit software see this site. I use several of the free one's. I figure what one doesn't catch another one will.
http://www.antirootkit.com/software.htm

rlprlp

August 28th, 2006, 02:39 AM

Wow, thank you Rainbow32. I will check some of those out. I will bookmark your link for now. Sidenote regarding "Grow Cube" in the Jokes Forum: How about that McAfee SiteAdvisor, black mirror? Pretty nifty, huh? P.S. to Rainbow32: I ran the Sophos Anti-Rootkit scan; I'm happy to report that the results were clean.

black mirror

August 28th, 2006, 05:22 PM

Pi rules

August 28th, 2006, 06:20 PM

The trick with malware is to prevent it from installing in the first place. A good hardware firewall will block some of the malicious stuff coming in, but I'd really recommend a software firewall and at least the XP SP2 one. Safe browsing really makes the difference; if you don't go around on bad sites you likely won't get any malware.

I use Novatix Cyberhawk (http://www.novatix.com/Cyberhawk/) as a proactive defense that alerts me whenever a program makes a possibly suspicious change, and I really like it so far. However, I have seen some incompatibilities, so backup first just in case if you install it.

SpywareBlaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html) is also a good defense that helps prevent malware from getting on your computer in the first place. I also use the extension Adblock in Firefox to block ads and malicious scripts.

rlprlp

August 30th, 2006, 01:50 PM

I hear that, Pi rules. I've got stuff coming out of my ears: Firefox with Adblock and NoScript; WinPatrol Plus; AdAware; Spybot S&D; SpywareBlaster; Spy Sweeper; 2 Anti-Rootkits (thanks again, Rainbow32!); 5 online scanners in IE Favorites (the ONLY thing I use IE for); McAfee SiteAdvisor; ZoneAlarm; I won't tell you which AV, because I got tired of hearing it get bashed (although that WAS in another forum), and I happen to be happy with it. Okay; a hint: It starts with "N". They all seem to play well together, and as long as they do, I say "You can never have too many"!!

Archangel122184

August 30th, 2006, 03:36 PM

"You can never have too many"!!

Just wait till two of those 9 scanners go after the same file at the same time... No to mention all of the memory and processing cycles you are wasting letting them all run. At very least remove Spybot S&D and SpywareBlaster, they are the most impotent peices of software and their active scanners are quite easy to bypass... its one thing if you want to waste resources on multiple programs the all have the same level of protection... but don't do it on software that doesn't work.

Edit: BTW Norton isn't terrible. The only software I would personally rate above it for pure AV active scanning is PandaSoft since it has heuristics for unknowns.

rlprlp

August 30th, 2006, 03:52 PM

Archangel122184: I have never once performed a task, operation, or whatever you want to call it, on my PC that wasn't plenty fast enough for my satisfaction. Everybody has opinions; thank you for sharing yours.

Pi rules

August 30th, 2006, 09:39 PM

I wouldn't recommend removing SpywareBlaster at all. It's prevention software, it doesn't scan real-time or on-demand so it doesn't really take up any resources; it just blocks certain known malware.

Spybot isn't the best out there (I'd say Spy Sweeper [which I own] and/or Spyware Doctor are best), but it's free. If you don't have Tea Timer on then it won't take up many system resources either. Usually there are no problems with mulitple antispyware programs installed as long as there is at most 1 with real-time protection enabled. Virus scanners are another story...

For virus scanning BitDefender, Nod32, and Kaspersky are best, although Panda is good. Norton AV is good, but since it is so popular it is targeted by malware creators.

rlprlp

August 30th, 2006, 10:06 PM

Personally, when it comes to choosing security programs, I prefer the recommendations of professional, widely known organizations, rather than those of individuals on forums. And that's not ALWAYS my standing; thanks again to Rainbow32 for the anti-rootkit site. I heard that BitDefender was best, too, but I'm not going to throw out a valid subscription. By the way, I agree with your points, Pi rules. I just chose not to reply. BitDefender, Zone Labs, and Kaspersky are supposed to be the best 3 AV programs, with Norton at 4. And that's not my opinion; That's the test results of an EXTREMELY well established organization.

Archangel122184

August 30th, 2006, 10:13 PM

Very respectable decision rlprlp. You really have no way of knowing this or being asured of it, but at CTH many of the posters are actually industry experts working for large networks the employ the technologies that they post on. My network is 20000+ workstations with roughly 14000 being online at any given time and around 4500 servers... My recomendation and comment isn't out of haphazzard use of programs, its from enterprise testing, diagnosis, and deployment.

rlprlp

August 30th, 2006, 11:04 PM

Thanks, Archangel, I appreciate that. Truth be told, it's not that hard to even find expert organizations that disagree. We all just have to try to make our best informed decisions... Someday, I may need help that can't be found in a magazine; and if you choose to help, I will be ALL ears...

dammit

August 30th, 2006, 11:34 PM

I have had a zillion (ok, again I go over the top)) problems since installing SP2. Virus's, worms, can't get to windows update (still can't but found another source to download all patches)

I have AVG which sadly I found lacking with these problems. Did online scans with Bitdefender (which couldn't "cure" my problems so deleted entire files which rendered a lot of programs useless, so had to reinstall them)

Panda (which found the problems but couldn't disinfect)

Kaspersky (which again cured nothing, just produced a log)

Trend Micro removed all the virus's/worms after a VERY long scan (11 hours)
I found a stange problem with Trend though, it seemed to not respond and after a while I thought OK I have had enough of this so I right clicked it in the taskbar to end it, and as soon as I did that it started running at a rate of knots. Go figure. :dizzy:

Strange thing is, I had NO problems with an unpatched system for years.