mylanta
03-23-2006, 03:53 PM
Well folks I just survived a full frontal spyware and virus attack, the likes of which I haven't ever seen. I was on a site trying to play a music file (don't worry I never frequent Kazaa or Limewire and the like) and I was told I needed a codec to play it. Using Sea MOnkey browser I am used to these kinds of requests so I did it. Not only did the mpeg still not play, a little while later Win Patrol is signalling browser change, and all kinds of attempted startup and file association changes. Needless to say online scanners were tough to get through because browser was overrun with attempted screen to sell me their spyware prvention "junkola".
Here is the purpose of my writing all this. I have been using Pest Patrol and Windows Defender lately and had gotten away from Spywareblaster and Spybot, because they eat my cookies all the time and I'm sick of it. Well Defender reported the intruders, but rendered it useless to stop them. Nod32 repelled it's virus, but found nothing else. Ewido online scanner found tons of hijackers and spyware cookies, but could not remove them and I could not delete the active processes once I realized where they were.
Realize that anytime I could have restored back to an image file I made yesterday, so I was in no danger, but I wanted to fight this as if I had no backup to see what users go through.Pest patrol removed a few problems, but could not touch the hijackers so I downloaded hijackthis. This found the problem but failed to remove it and remember Win Patrol is going off every 30 seconds so I am working against time here.
I finally went back to old times and downloaded Spybot and installed and updated it.In seeing what Spybot pulled up I noticed "Vcodec"and the source of the problem became known to me for the first time. It removed most of the problems, and then rebooted to take out the rest but through all of this I learned something and that is that running Spywareblaster in the background and Spybot to scan, is still the most thorough approach to these situations, so I am back in the fold, restoring cookies now and then, but using Spywareblaster and Spybot as my main "front lines".
Here is the purpose of my writing all this. I have been using Pest Patrol and Windows Defender lately and had gotten away from Spywareblaster and Spybot, because they eat my cookies all the time and I'm sick of it. Well Defender reported the intruders, but rendered it useless to stop them. Nod32 repelled it's virus, but found nothing else. Ewido online scanner found tons of hijackers and spyware cookies, but could not remove them and I could not delete the active processes once I realized where they were.
Realize that anytime I could have restored back to an image file I made yesterday, so I was in no danger, but I wanted to fight this as if I had no backup to see what users go through.Pest patrol removed a few problems, but could not touch the hijackers so I downloaded hijackthis. This found the problem but failed to remove it and remember Win Patrol is going off every 30 seconds so I am working against time here.
I finally went back to old times and downloaded Spybot and installed and updated it.In seeing what Spybot pulled up I noticed "Vcodec"and the source of the problem became known to me for the first time. It removed most of the problems, and then rebooted to take out the rest but through all of this I learned something and that is that running Spywareblaster in the background and Spybot to scan, is still the most thorough approach to these situations, so I am back in the fold, restoring cookies now and then, but using Spywareblaster and Spybot as my main "front lines".