Spyware programs

[tommymac]

Things got odd on my laptop last night. Some thing kept popping up saying my puter was being hacked and was trying to get into my FB acct and some others including things I dont even have. It came up on the yellow shield thing on the toolbar on the lower right part of the screen. But when I click on the bubble i ttakes me to a page for some spyware program I think it was called safe defense or something like that and spelled it defence???? wasnt sure if its legit or just some scam to get me to buy their program.

Sadly I bit on this once before with a program called spyhunter and cant get it off my computer. Thing is this is the laptop I go tfrom work and had I believ nortons antivirus on it but its the coporate edition so I need to bring it to work and have their geeks renew it. I had tried getting my of anti virus sofrware loaded (what I use for my other laptop and old desktop) and it would block the instalation because of the corprotate edition.

Anyone have any ideas a puter tard like me can do or i gotta bite the bullet and take it to work?

[Avatard]

You seem to be vulnerable to social engineering attacks.

Honestly, use either Ubuntu, or get a Mac.

[NONE_too_SOFT]

Originally Posted by Avatard

You seem to be vulnerable to social engineering attacks.

Honestly, use either Ubuntu, or get a Mac.

seriously, just dont click every link you see. I've never used spyware or antivirus on my machines and have never gotten virus's, but its more to do with the fact i know way too much about computers/the internet.

Getting rid of them is a real PITA. My dad got one within a month of me giving him my old laptop, and they're tricky as fuck. It was called vista something and looked legit to the naked eye. The fact of the matter is the virus's are coded to hog resources and say you're being hacked with prompts and constant, frustrating reminders. The programs install themselves through a trojan usually (can even be from a PDF file you've opened) in the dark corners of your harddrive in some random folder w/ an obscure file name, and often have multiple paths. They're also programed to launch on start up and after you manually close them, so theres really no way to turn it off.

Unfortunately, they are also written to not allow you to install REAL software that may eliminate them.

The best bet is to try a system restore and roll your CPU back a week or two to before you had the virus.

The next bet is to do a search for the specific program name that is popping up constantly and see what other people have specifically done to get rid of it.

[Switch]

Originally Posted by Avatard

You seem to be vulnerable to social engineering attacks.

Honestly, use either Ubuntu, or get a Mac.

LOL.

Cause Macs can never be hacked. They are a secure fortress.

[NONE_too_SOFT]

Originally Posted by Bonesaw

LOL.

Cause Macs can never be hacked. They are a secure fortress.

They're like a fortress built at the bottom of a hill in a swamp, nobody WANTS to get in there.

[Papa_Complex]

It's a trojan that downloads through compromised web pages, and it's the most common clean-up that I do these days. You want to download Malwarebytes and Spybot, then reboot in safe mode with networking. Install, update, and run them (Malwarebytes first, then reboot and run Spybot in safe mode with networking also).

You may need to run something like Hijack This first, before you can get to the updates for those programmes. If so, be very careful what you remove with it.

The best defence that I've found for this is AVG's safe search. It seemed to block all of the infected pages that I've run across plus it lets you know, whne you do a Google search, if it thinks that any of the pages might be infected.

My advice is to disable System Restore. It frequently causes reinfection of the system, after it has been cleaned.

[NONE_too_SOFT]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

It's a trojan that downloads through compromised web pages, and it's the most common clean-up that I do these days. You want to download Malwarebytes and Spybot, then reboot in safe mode with networking. Install, update, and run them (Malwarebytes first, then reboot and run Spybot in safe mode with networking also).

You may need to run something like Hijack This first, before you can get to the updates for those programmes. If so, be very careful what you remove with it.

The best defence that I've found for this is AVG's safe search. It seemed to block all of the infected pages that I've run across plus it lets you know, whne you do a Google search, if it thinks that any of the pages might be infected.

My advice is to disable System Restore. It frequently causes reinfection of the system, after it has been cleaned.

Yes to this. Great programs, and freeware. Unfortunately many virus's wont let you install these programs directly to your hard drive, even in safe mode, so you may have to install it to a usb drive and run it from there. And even then some virus put the kaibosh on that.

as far as the system restore, if that DOES work, be sure to install malwarebytes to prevent a reinfection. The restore is probobly the easiest route to go if it'll work.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

It's a trojan that downloads through compromised web pages, and it's the most common clean-up that I do these days. You want to download Malwarebytes and Spybot, then reboot in safe mode with networking. Install, update, and run them (Malwarebytes first, then reboot and run Spybot in safe mode with networking also).

This. I picked up some malware clicking on a link that was posted by someone on this site about a month ago. Booted up in safe mode and was able to DL both programs. Run Malwarebytes first, it cleans up almost everything. Good luck, it was a pain in my a$$.

[caveman]

Do a Google search for Avast. It has a free download for like 15 days. When the 15 days expires it will ask you to register the product. Click the free one year registration button. It is not an active internet security, but as long as you dont visit the overly questionable sites it stops most trojans, malware, spyware and Key loggers.

Once registered it is free for one year then rinse and repeat every year.

[Gas Man]

If you have comcast cable you can have free virus scan.

To get rid of spyware...

get spybot - search and destroy

Also adware is good