[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Microsoft Warns of File-Trashing Worm here

[WinTard]

Excellent article, thank you.

Another non-issue, since I'm six days late in the dreaded 3rd of the month...

>Excerpt from article:
>"In fact, several security researchers believe that the Nyxem threat has been overstated. "There's been way more attention given it in the media than it deserves," said Russ Cooper, a senior information security analyst at Cybertrust in Herndon, Virginia. The dramatic nature of this worm's behavior, with its file-destroying instructions, and inflated reports of infections have helped fuel media interest, he said."

Anyone using sensible precautions with any operating system, will rarely get infected if ever. Even on Windows platforms, contrary to all the FUD and crap spewed out by willful malcontents...

[coastie65]

Hey Win, I agree. All you need to to is take the necessary precautions and you should be fine. I inadvertantly got infected doing some research on XP. The site had been hijacked and I ended up with a handful of Vundo stuff as well as a Zlob downloader. The Vundo stuff hijacked my wallpaper as well as several tabs in Display. Fortunately, they never got deeply rooted in here and were easily removed for the most part. I did have to manuely remove one entry in the registry and two in processes. All in all, mostly a big nuisance. coastie

[WinTard]

Hi coastie65,

Were you administrator at the time?

I find a wonderful tool to remove malware is the free: http://www.malwarebytes.org/

And if there were any lessons learned, please share them with us for instance, how did it happen? Did you have to click yes on anything? Which browser were you using? Which anti-virus? And the like...

Also the freeware CCleaner registry cleaner works wonder and is entirely safe IMHO: http://www.ccleaner.com/ (over 250 million free downloads to date!)

Good luck!

[coastie65]

Hi Win, [ sheepish grin] The admin is the only account I have set up at the moment. Keep meaning to set a second account but haven't as yet. :p

[WinTard]

Oh I forgot, when something like this happens, it is advisable to perform a reset if you use IE:

If interested, please go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced Tab > Reset Button to reinitialize IE to its factory defaults. You can try that in both versions, 32 and 64 bit.



It is always good to start from a known reference state.

Oh also make sure you know all your passwords, because regardless, it's good to know...

All the best and cheers!

[coastie65]

:D I tend to forget passwords on sites that I don't visit all that often. Gets a bit frustrating. I didn't experience any problems with IE after I did the clean up, and have no problems with pop ups. This thing is humming along nicely. Guess I will set up a user account though, to be on the safe side. Just have to remember that when doing updates. :)

[WinTard]

You also can use the 'Run As' under the regular user, and simply put the password to the admin account, so you don't have to exit the regular non-privileged ID when updating... Exactly like using 'su' under Apple, Linux and Unix.

Yes, simply by cruising the Internet as a regular user, will cut down 92% of all Windows vulnerabilities, as per a recent official study.

Also I highly recommend running malwarebytes even on a 'clean' system, it is an eye opener! What's the harm? Do it just before you go to bed, and perform a full-scan.

That's what I meant by:
>Anyone using sensible precautions with any operating system, will rarely get infected if ever. Even on Windows platforms, contrary to all the FUD and crap spewed out by willful malcontents...

Nobody in the Unix world would think to run as superuser, unless doing admin tasks, hence explaining the 'robustness'. Yet Unix isn't immune to 'rootkits' either, they started there! Hence the term 'root'.

And most people using administrator to run their machines are probably using older versions of applications that do not understand the multi-user security model of Windows. As far as I am concerned, any application requiring admin to run, is crap. Except of course, when the purpose is to administer the system... And the blame lies squarely on the incompetence of the application software ISV... Technically the problem is their flat view of user rights and profiles in the registry. A properly designed application, understands the nuances. For instance, Office 2007 must be installed by an administrator, but maintains different profiles for each user in the registry and the file system. Thus can run perfectly as a regular user, each individually protected from each other. Yes, it's just bad lame programming when you require administrator equivalent rights just to run. And is the root cause to why people use admin all the time. Their applications sucks. They didn't go for the apps that are Windows XP or Vista certified. But of course, most people are too cheap to upgrade whatever 'works'.

~~~~~~~~~~
Men trip not on mountains they trip on molehills.
{Chinese Proverb}
... And then blame the mole for their own incompetence...

PS: Hey I don't mean you coastie65! You are a knowledgeable Windows user. This is directed to those who 'Must Use Admin' without realizing their choices of lame applications is THE problem.
Hence my reiterating: 99.99% of all computer problems usually sits between the chair and keyboard.

Fix: Simple! Just trash any application programs requiring admin rights to run. And replace them with real programs.

[coastie65]

Hey Win, I had thought about it sometime back, and it got lost in the shuffle. I saw that study and it brought it back to the top again. Having a sick dog that eventually died, kept me busy and it got shoved on the back burner and forgotten. Doesn't take much to take care of that so guess I'll make a note and do it. Right now the forum is smoking and keeping me busy.

[WinTard]

I am sorry for your irreplaceable loss. Please remember and enjoy all the good memories you and your buddy shared together over the years. I'm sure he would have wanted so, just to make you happy!

~~~~~~~~~~
Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
~ Dr. Seuss

The only truly dead are those who have been forgotten.
{Jewish Proverb}

[coastie65]

Yeah, he came up short of his 8th birthday. Way too soon. He is really missed. He was a Shar Pei and as near as i can tell had a hereditary genetic disorder called Shar Pei Fever that went undiagnosed. His Pictures are up in the Doggie Thread in General topics.