NAsty Message

My wife just turned on her computer and up popped a window stating "You need
to download XXX to clean up your computer. You have visited adult sites."
Of course we did not download.

Now a) I don't use my wifes computer, and b) I don't visit A sites.

My wife is PO'd

We run Norton AV (always up to date), Trend Micro anti spyware and
Ad-Subtract plus firewall, so I am curious, what got through and how?

What do I need to do, am running a full AV scan?

Martin

Quercus Robur

Quercus Robur wrote:

> My wife just turned on her computer and up popped a window stating "You need
> to download XXX to clean up your computer. You have visited adult sites."
> Of course we did not download.

> Now a) I don't use my wifes computer, and b) I don't visit A sites.

Why do you think this would be related anyway?

> We run Norton AV (always up to date), Trend Micro anti spyware and
> Ad-Subtract plus firewall, so I am curious, what got through and how?

Why do you think this software could have changed anything?

> What do I need to do, am running a full AV scan?

You need to do what everyone would have to do: restore from the last
uncompromised backup. Or flatten and rebuild.

Why do you think an AV scan could reliably clean the system?

Sebastian Gottschalk

Sebastian Gottschalk wrote:
> Quercus Robur wrote:
>
>> My wife just turned on her computer and up popped a window stating "You need
>> to download XXX to clean up your computer. You have visited adult sites."
>> Of course we did not download.
>
>> Now a) I don't use my wifes computer, and b) I don't visit A sites.
>
> Why do you think this would be related anyway?
>
>> We run Norton AV (always up to date), Trend Micro anti spyware and
>> Ad-Subtract plus firewall, so I am curious, what got through and how?
>
> Why do you think this software could have changed anything?
>
>> What do I need to do, am running a full AV scan?
>
> You need to do what everyone would have to do: restore from the last
> uncompromised backup. Or flatten and rebuild.
>
> Why do you think an AV scan could reliably clean the system?

Spyware S&D might be an easier solution.

Wayne.

Wayne. wrote:

>> You need to do what everyone would have to do: restore from the last
>> uncompromised backup. Or flatten and rebuild.
>>
>> Why do you think an AV scan could reliably clean the system?
>
> Spyware S&D might be an easier solution.

Or might not, since it's trivially no solution at all.

Sebastian Gottschalk

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:41:09 +0100, Sebastian Gottschalk
<> wrote:

>>> Why do you think an AV scan could reliably clean the system?
>>
>> Spyware S&D might be an easier solution.
>
>Or might not, since it's trivially no solution at all.

You're sure a big ball of encouragement, aren't you. I rarely see you
offer much in the form of a solution, but you are sure good at
criticizing others for their attempts at solutions.

From what I gather, you would only be happy if one installed only new,
shrink wrapped software on a brand new, freshly built system; never
connected to the Internet or any network; never loaded anyone else's
files to your system; and never left your system unattended for any
reason... ever! Then, you might reasonably expect to remain virus and
spyware free. Where's the fun in that? LOL.

Looking on the bright side of that solution. You'd never need to get
security updates, use an anti virus/spyware program or firewall....

--
Zilbandy

Zilbandy

"Quercus Robur" <> wrote in
news:7aHMh.2050$:

> You have
> visited adult sites."
>
> Now a) I don't use my wifes computer, and b) I don't visit A sites.

c) Obviously your wife does.

JD in TX

Zilbandy wrote:

> On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:41:09 +0100, Sebastian Gottschalk
> <> wrote:
>
>>>> Why do you think an AV scan could reliably clean the system?
>>>
>>> Spyware S&D might be an easier solution.
>>
>>Or might not, since it's trivially no solution at all.
>
> You're sure a big ball of encouragement, aren't you.

How exactly should there be any encouragement in telling you that your
claimed solution simply is none?

> I rarely see you offer much in the form of a solution,

Maybe you should track back this thread then.

> but you are sure good at criticizing others for their attempts at solutions.

Right. Your point being? Ah, I guess you'd even bring this nonsensical
argument when no solutions exists...

> From what I gather, you would only be happy if one installed only new,
> shrink wrapped software on a brand new, freshly built system; never
> connected to the Internet or any network; never loaded anyone else's
> files to your system; and never left your system unattended for any
> reason... ever! Then, you might reasonably expect to remain virus and
> spyware free. Where's the fun in that? LOL.

There is no fun in you drawing totally wrong conclusions.

> Looking on the bright side of that solution. You'd never need to get
> security updates, use an anti virus/spyware program or firewall....

And even that's wrong.

Sebastian Gottschalk

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:33:06 +0100, Sebastian Gottschalk
<> wrote:

>There is no fun in you drawing totally wrong conclusions.
>
>> Looking on the bright side of that solution. You'd never need to get
>> security updates, use an anti virus/spyware program or firewall....
>
>And even that's wrong.

You've explained it so well! I stand corrected... I guess. :/ Anyway,
it's been fun here.

--
Zilbandy

Zilbandy

Zilbandy wrote:

> On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:33:06 +0100, Sebastian Gottschalk
> <> wrote:
>
>>There is no fun in you drawing totally wrong conclusions.
>>
>>> Looking on the bright side of that solution. You'd never need to get
>>> security updates, use an anti virus/spyware program or firewall....
>>
>>And even that's wrong.
>
> You've explained it so well!

Sorry, I thought it's kinda obvious: Exploits can be carried with data.
Just give the user a CD full of JPEG pr0n, and his Windows XP with SP1 is
hosed.

Thus, you should really qualify in which way a non-networked workstation is
interchanging data.

Sebastian Gottschalk

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007, in the Usenet newsgroup alt.computer.security, in article
<7aHMh.2050$>, Quercus Robur wrote:

>My wife just turned on her computer and up popped a window stating "You need
>to download XXX to clean up your computer. You have visited adult sites."
>Of course we did not download.

What rock have you been hiding under? This problem has only been around
for at least 6 years.

>Now a) I don't use my wifes computer, and b) I don't visit A sites.

c. Neither one of you have a clue about computers

>My wife is PO'd

Glad to hear it. Maybe it will give you some incentive to learn how to
configure your computer and disable unwanted services.

>We run Norton AV (always up to date), Trend Micro anti spyware and
>Ad-Subtract plus firewall, so I am curious, what got through and how?

You are running windoze, and microsoft thought this service might be
useful (in spite of the fact that the original service that has been
available on UNIX for several decades earlier - and was routinely
disabled just for this reason). They realize it's to hard for a dumb
user to figure out how to enable this crap if needed, so they enabled
it for you. Aren't you lucky.

>What do I need to do, am running a full AV scan?

Google for "messenger spam" and how to disable the service. It's some
item on a pull-down menu somewhere - you don't need third party software
to disable it.

Old guy

Moe Trin