[SamanthaReygan25j]

How likely is it that I could have infected with my computer with something bad by visiting sketchy or adult websites with Google Chrome on Windows 7 without downloading anything (simply browsing and watching videos)?

I feel like my computer is running a little more slowly after having done so (though not by a lot, if at all - it could just be my imagination and paranoia).

[LiveBrianD]

Adult websites are notorious for having malware. It is possible that you have a drive-by download.

Here's what I'd do:
Run CCleaner
Run Malwarebytes Antimalware and do a full scan

Google Chrome is certainly more secure than IE though.

[SamanthaReygan25j]

I've run full-scans with Norton Antivirus, Spybot, and Microsoft Security Essentials without detecting anything.

Also I thought drive-by downloads weren't possible with Chrome.

This post has been edited by SamanthaReygan25j: 08 June 2011 - 02:04 PM

[LiveBrianD]

SamanthaReygan25j, on 08 June 2011 - 01:56 PM, said:

I've run full-scans with Norton Antivirus, Spybot, and Microsoft Security Essentials without detecting anything.

Also I thought drive-by downloads weren't possible with Chrome.

I imagine it still has security holes, even if far fewer of them.

Did you try malwarebytes? It's a great tool for finding and removing malware that's already there.

Also, try CCleaner. It removes things like temp crap and browser cache junk that could be slowing you down.

[SamanthaReygan25j]

I'm not even sure that my computer has anything..more paranoia than anything else.

[coastie65]

SamanthaReygan25j, on 08 June 2011 - 03:50 PM, said:

I'm not even sure that my computer has anything..more paranoia than anything else.

Hi and welcome to the forums. Can't hurt to run www.malwarebytes.org . It is Free, just download, update and do a full scan. As has been stated, old files can cause a slowdown, and can be cleaned out using www.CCleaner.com , also FREE. Once that is done, and it is still slow, then we can look into possible hardware issues.

[Flashorn]

SamanthaReygan25j, on 08 June 2011 - 03:50 PM, said:

I'm not even sure that my computer has anything..more paranoia than anything else.

IF you are running two antivirus applications at once in real time then, your PC will
suffer slow downs.

Norton is notorious (as well as MSE ) for not working well with other security software.

As for Spybot, if you have enabled the TeaTimer module, I would suggest you Disable it
as it too, will slow your PC.

Once you have ascertained that no infections are present after scanning with MBAM
and run CCleaner then, you might think of doing a defrag.

I use Auslogic defrag for this purpose. http://www.auslogics...efrag/download/

Just a note on browsers. I am not a proponent of IE but, I have to say that the new version
of IE (IE9) is just as safe as the others.



FLASHORN.

[LincolnSpector]

SamanthaReygan25j, on 08 June 2011 - 01:10 PM, said:

How likely is it that I could have infected with my computer with something bad by visiting sketchy or adult websites with Google Chrome on Windows 7 without downloading anything (simply browsing and watching videos)?

I feel like my computer is running a little more slowly after having done so (though not by a lot, if at all - it could just be my imagination and paranoia).

Hi, Samantha, and welcome to the forums.

As Brian recommended, you should try Malwarebytes. Here are a couple of others you should try:

SUPERAntiSpyware Portable Scanner: Download this, preferably on another computer. Save it to a flash drive. Boot your PC into Safe Mode, and run this program (which won't need updating) from there.

AVG Rescue CD: You can use this to create a bootable CD or a bootable flash drive. Either way, boot it and follow the prompts.


If all three of these programs find nothing, I think you can be reasonably sure that your PC is clean.


Lincoln

[SamanthaReygan25j]

I'm really more interested/concerned about what the chances are of becoming infected through something like this as opposed to how to remove malware if it did happen.

[latinlightning]

Here's a good word of advice: Stop visiting adult websites to avoid having paranoia or even worse have an unworkable computer!

[LiveBrianD]

That's really hard to say - it depends on the website. Again, adult websites are known for being sources of malware.

[SamanthaReygan25j]

latinlightning, on 09 June 2011 - 12:52 PM, said:

Here's a good word of advice: Stop visiting adult websites to avoid having paranoia or even worse have an unworkable computer!

My computer is not any slower than it was before and I only did it this one time. I don't plan on it again.

Isn't Chrome Sandboxing supposed to prevent drive-by infections?

This post has been edited by SamanthaReygan25j: 09 June 2011 - 03:43 PM

[LiveBrianD]

SamanthaReygan25j, on 09 June 2011 - 03:44 PM, said:

latinlightning, on 09 June 2011 - 12:52 PM, said:

Here's a good word of advice: Stop visiting adult websites to avoid having paranoia or even worse have an unworkable computer!

My computer is not any slower than it was before and I only did it this one time. I don't plan on it again.

Isn't Chrome Sandboxing supposed to prevent drive-by infections?

Do you mean incognito? All that does is it doesn't save cookies and history to the computer, preventing anyone who looks at your history from seeing where you've been. However, if there's a security hole in it, that mode will not prevent it from being exploited. It's like using a different firefox profile - cookies and history are gone, but exploits that were used on the old profile to infect the system are still infecting it. Does that make sense?

If you really want to be sure, install Linux in a VM, enable the undo changes feature, and use a web browser in there. Then, whenever you shut it down, revert back to the previous version. That makes your chances of being infected VERY slim.

[SamanthaReygan25j]

LiveBrianD, on 09 June 2011 - 04:11 PM, said:

SamanthaReygan25j, on 09 June 2011 - 03:44 PM, said:

latinlightning, on 09 June 2011 - 12:52 PM, said:

Here's a good word of advice: Stop visiting adult websites to avoid having paranoia or even worse have an unworkable computer!

My computer is not any slower than it was before and I only did it this one time. I don't plan on it again.

Isn't Chrome Sandboxing supposed to prevent drive-by infections?

Do you mean incognito? All that does is it doesn't save cookies and history to the computer, preventing anyone who looks at your history from seeing where you've been. However, if there's a security hole in it, that mode will not prevent it from being exploited. It's like using a different firefox profile - cookies and history are gone, but exploits that were used on the old profile to infect the system are still infecting it. Does that make sense?

Chrome Sandboxing is not the same as Incognito mode.

[Flashorn]

SamanthaReygan25j, on 09 June 2011 - 12:22 PM, said:

I'm really more interested/concerned about what the chances are of becoming infected through something like this as opposed to how to remove malware if it did happen.

The repercussions of a drive by would be that, you could have Rogue antivirus installed or a redirect of your browser's searches.
All of which are hard to either detect or eradicate.

IF you are to visit such sites either willingly or by accident , I can suggest a couple of ways to help you determine if you really want to visit or stay on those sites.

First, click on my sig and install the add-on (for IE , FF or Chrome) Web of Trust. Adjust the way you are warned by the add-on and your done.

IF you are still concerned about landing on bad sites by mistake then, install Sandboxie. This will sandbox your default browser and restrict whatever is downloaded
to your PC to a special space on your HDD which will be deleted once your browsing session is over. Compatible with both 32 and 64bit PCs.

http://www.sandboxie.com/



FLASHORN.

[LiveBrianD]

Oh whoops my bad.

Btw if you run into a malware site, open task manager, then find the instances of chrome.exe and kill them. It's iexplore.exe for ie and firefox.exe for you know what. When you start the browser again, do NOT have it restore your session.

[cyberknight]

SamanthaReygan25j, on 08 June 2011 - 01:56 PM, said:

I've run full-scans with Norton Antivirus, Spybot, and Microsoft Security Essentials without detecting anything.
Also I thought drive-by downloads weren't possible with Chrome.

Looks to me like u are running both Norton & MSE, both of which have real-time shield. This could explain about the slow down. Choose any one primary anti-virus, possibly MSE. By the way chrome is secure, to quite an extent than IE or FireFox, the reason being it is'nt as widely used as IE. Exploiters design malware so that it would affect the largest section of web browsers; and IE still holds the highest share.
Like others suggested u can begin with CCleaner, to clear out all the crap the Chrome has accumulated over time. Then there are several free tools availiable like MalwareBytes, SuperAntiSpyware, HijackThis, etc. Scan & clean up your registry. If u are not running Win7 then u can use Smart Defrag 2 or Auslogic Disk Defrag 3.2 for defragmenting your HDD. Smart defrags boot time feature can be used to defragment files that can't be otherwise moved while the system is running.