Micro Mart Forum / Security & Virus Issues / Technical Forums

Mac has only 7 out of 230,000 viruses

Spedley — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:21:58 GMT

A little snippet in this weeks mag said that of the 230,000 viruses/malware only 7 infected Mac's.

They said it was probably down to the large market share of windows but I'm not so sure.
I think it is the other way around and it's the small number of Macs for two reasons.
1) There must be a certain threshold at which there are enough computers to spread an infection, i.e. if your Mac is only in contact with PC's the virus wouldn't spread.
2) I expect that PC virsus scanners also detect Mac viruses (i.e. files with incorrect sizes/attributes etc) which means that the vast majority of Mac viruses should be caught by a PC (which is probably immune to the infection) long before they ever reach a Mac.

My [simple] conclusion is that Macs are largely immune to viruses because there are so many PCs and not because Macs are better.

Steganography / Encryption Software

Geof_i — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:44:18 GMT

Ok I know in a way my request is self defeating on the security front but I'll try anyway.

I'm after some encryption / Steganoraphy software to create a small secure partion on removable drive (usb etc). That's the easy bit found plenty of this.

HOWEVER I would like the file (partition) to be able to be accessed without need for software on the host system and be editable and when closed re-encrypted. Ideally i dont want to run exe's on the host system although I am aware this may be the need.

In short I'm after a self decrypting / encrypting file / partition area on a USB drive with minimal need for exe's to run on the host.

I appreciaite holding the decryption / encryption key within the file presents a risk but the information is being protected mainly to prevent the casual individual getting to it. But it does require a little more protection than a standard file file password would afford.

Hope someone can help.

TT

Some counterstrike 10% chance reset my computer

Vendetta — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:12:04 GMT

Basically l dont no what to hell this is some servers l play or use to play often like for instance l used to play UK Wildfire clan 1 server often and sometimes wen l went on it 2,5 times a day cos it changed map my computer would reset completely boot down and up agen to log on menu not sure if it is a virus but hopefully someone will know:)

secure connection failed?

mems — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:03:09 GMT

Hi , last couple of days when i try to connect to sites ,like ebuyer and parcelforce,or anything really, i keep getting a pop up saying secure connection failed,then it offers me to add an exception,i want to pay a bill so i am a bit worried why this is happenning ,last thing i did to the computer was reved the motherboard battery and re installed it i dont think this should have caused any problems ?.
Any ideas please.(says the certificate has expired, and the new one not active till a couple of months later.)
Thanks Mems

Another Option

CaptainCAD — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:21:07 GMT

I know China is not really in most people's good books right now and can be known for supplying nasties as opposed to fixing them but I really do think that RISING Antivirus 2008 Free Edition is worth a second look.

In my opinion it performs better than AVGs offering, and if you don't like looking at or hiding AntiVir's notifier window is a very worthwhile low resource addition to your security software collections.

I hope you like it, I'm sure I'll hear from all those who don't…

mywebsearch, yay or nay?

MartenReed — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:14:07 GMT

Hello peeps :D

Was watching the mother play games on Facebook, and I noticed the "mywebsearch" toolbar. In me noggin, I have it flagged as "get rid off ASAP". Is it as bad as I think, and should I get rid of it ASAP?

Thankee :D

Avast alarm going off every 30 secs when on ineternet

leenuttall33 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:10:33 GMT

Hi all, i've got avast install on my windows vista business latpop, running firefox 3 & thunderbird, vista is fully update with sp1 and all my spyware, antivirus & firewall is fully up 2 date aswell, i work from home but just use the laptop to send email / check website's when on the road. but for the past couple of days avast has been popping up with a box and blaring the alarm @ me saying about spfjxa.exe (everytime it sounds the alarm, the names keep changing) i.e djvwgf.exe spfjxa.exe , bhutfds.exe and the likes, I click on delete to delete them from the machine but 30 or so secs, avast pop's up the alarm to say i've got another infection :-( doing my nut in as i need the laptop fixed so i can send email's to clients and other things. is there a better antiruses scanner then avast what i could use and something better then zonealarm thx

Spybot not fully immunized XP. Interesing problem?

biff of biff — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:17:53 GMT

I use Webroot firewall (free) and spybot S & D for Malware, and Avast for Antivirus, I noticed today that when i updated Spybot, it would not immunize over a 100 items, so I updated the programme and it crashed Webroot, (not that unusual if you know the programme,) after various attempts, it got worse, now it is reading 21,000 things it won't immunize.

After looking at the log file it seems that it does not cover the web browser, Flock.

It's Webroot that crashes at the drop of the hat.

Any ideas of a plan to immunize said computer, with flock on it?

Thanks in advance.

Oh dear, oh dear.

bigdaddy — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:35:37 GMT

Oh how are the mighty fallen.:D
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5saf2z

Can anyone recommend a good free spamkiller

bombus — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:48:40 GMT

I've never used one, but my spam is reaching biblical proportions so I think it's time. If I have to buy one so be it, but if there any good free ones even better!

Ta muchly,

Bombus

do I realy need windows defender?

maticus2 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:19:28 GMT

I have AVG 8.0 and spybot. they both do there job pretty well so I got to thinking do I realy need defender? with the exception of of the software explorer I hardly use it.

All the same would It be foolish to uninstall it?

Kismet / GPSDrive

Tom Morton — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:27:05 GMT

Ok this is a long shot but you never know who hangs out here :P

Has anyone had any luck running GPSDrive with Kismet? For wireless network mapping?

I'm running an Ubiquiti WLAN card under Backtrack 3 (link: [url]http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack.html[/url]) and I have Kismet working fine (and dumping the GPS stuff correctly too).

What I need is an easy way to plot that data on a map.. currently we are transferring the data to a windows laptop and running KNSGEM to create some Google Earth files. Which is fine BUT KNSGEM is annoyingly buggy and plots the maps badly (and also doesn't label the SSID's, just the mac addresses).

I installed GPSDrive from an rpm but it wouldn't start.

Compiling it from source doesn't work either because the kernel is missing some pre-requisites.

I have a version that starts but it doesn't recognise Kismet running so doesn't plot anything. Any ideas??

If not does anyone know how to get WiCrawl working? It sniffs stuff out fine (on the same system) but as soon as I try to start it wit hthe GPS plugin enabled it errors (some kind of userenv error or somethign on the command line).

Any ideas? cheers! :D

IEXLORER.exe crashing on close

dj-toonz — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:01:24 GMT

Hi all, hope somebody know's what's going on with my system, i dont know if i've got a virus or malware problem, what it is everytime i goto close internet explorer 6 using windows 2k pro, a box appears with IEXPLORER.EXE has generated errors and will be closed down by Windows, you will need to restart the program. An error log is being generated, but never tells me the error or what's caused it. it's only just started doing it, the Secuirty programs that i've got installed are avast,zonealarm,Sybot search & destory & spam filter, also using googletool bar for popup blocker. i have done a virus & spyware scan but cant see anything out of the blue, i havent tried using highjack this as i dont understand how the program work's and how to fix the problems if it does find anything. the system runs normall everyday, just the problem of iexplorer.exe carshing on closedown thx

Cannot receive Wireless

Fixtheleek? — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:20:27 GMT

Yesterday I removed PCTools Firewall from sons PC and replaced it with Online Armor. Worked fine all day after install, full internet access. After boot up this morning, he had no wireless reception, normally pickup nine or ten home networks including mine, none at all but found this in Device Manager:

Network Adapters.
802,11g Wireless PCIcard No.2.
Yellow ! 802,11g Wireless PCIcard No.2-PCTools Driver.
Yellow ! SIS 900-Based PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter-PCTools Driver.
VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter.
Yellow ! VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter PCTools Driver.
Yellow ! WAN Miniport [IP]-PCTools Driver.

Normally looks like this:
802,11g Wireless PCIcard No.2.
VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
PCIcard and Ethernet Adapter are enabled and working.
When attempting to delete Yellow ! receive this
‘Failed to uninstall the device. The device may be required to boot up the computer.’
Laptop picks up network fine in same bedroom.
New one on me, any input would be much appreciated.

AVG problem

cheyworth — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:59:34 GMT

if you have a problem look here http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.php?showtopic=159752

i updated by downloading the update files and doing it manually.

Problem with AV8

Sparks — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:07:29 GMT

Hi folks

running AV8 on w xp pro. I run the programme very frequently deleting all search and report scamware that is shown, I do a full scan and I am bang up to date on updates. Over the last two days whenever I switched on the tray icon shows a red blob that implies that a reboot is required. (thats what I understand it to mean, in the past when that red blob appeared it was alway after an update) I have tried reloading AV but after two/three minutes it reapears. I have searched through the history file but there is nothing that stands out. there is however no update schedule shown when viewing the advanced settings in the tools menue.

The update manager on the interface also tells me that '' update managet short state text check failed''

any thought on the problem would be appreciated

Which Online Virus Scanner?

Speedee1 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:15:10 GMT

Hi all

I was thinking about using an on-line scanner to check for viruses and wondered which one you would recommend?

Thanks, Speedee :)

HELP! Strange contact on messenger

Muttzcuttz — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:31:36 GMT

So I was signed into messenger, everything seemed normal.
All of a sudden, a contact "Signed in", sent me a message, then instantly signed out. No trace left of it. Seems suspicious. This is the screenshot I got, address is very suspicious

[IMG]http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f300/jonread1983/forums/sheree.jpg[/IMG]

But what is it? Virus / spyware etc scans have come back clean.....

Any ideas? :ermm:

Help on a Friend's PC

marc.knuckle — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:04:28 GMT

my mom's friend at work has told her that she cannot even get onto the internet and believed it to be a virus stopping her. from what my mom said she mentioned, i would be surprised if she has ANY anti-virus/spyware protection and it sounds bad. i put avira, spyware terminator, superantispyware and malwarebytes on cd so she could extract them to her pc and run them but has told my mom that it doesn't seem to let her install the programs???

i have now asked my mom to get the pc and i would have a go.

my questions are...

firstly, any recommendations?

secondly, is there any way of getting superantispyware and malwarebytes to run from usb as i can only find them in NON-portable versions which if she is correct about not letting the programs install may not help.

is this simply chain mail or a back door to a virus

maticus2 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 23:33:56 GMT

I just got an e-mail of my brother. witch my instincts tell me is BS or at worst a back door to a virus (I didn't follow the link and i suggest you don't too) can you confirm my suspicions? a copy of the text is bellow

zek_73@hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:19:07 +0000

>
This is true:
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

Subject: FW: BIG VIRUS COMING!!!!

>

Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up

for this virus!

I checked Snopes (URL above:), and it is for real!!

Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any

message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,'

regardless of who sent it to you.

It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the

whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail

address in his/her contact list.

This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your

contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to

receive the virus and open it.

If you receive mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you

by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified

by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no

repair yet for this kind of virus.

This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc,

where the vital information is kept.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER:

IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US

Regards
Barry Rostron
(Diesel Doc)

mailto:rbazzel5@hotmail.com

Avast

Red_Breast — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:26:34 GMT

Hi all.
This is ongoing from what started in my locked thread and also the Rising "another option" thread but if I posted there it's going off topic. I didn't want to start a new thread but...
So I uninstalled AVG and now I have Avast. Didn't like the default skin but the other it ships with is sweet.
Been fine for the day that I've had it. Task manager shows less memory usage. Also Firefox now uses around 90Mb instead of the 150 it was using with AVG. Probably that link scanner plug-in.
Anyone with Avast use the "Virus Recovery database" that I think is turned on by default? Also how about the "test of memory and start up" which begins when you open the interface. I have a gig of RAM and it takes about 20 seconds odd before the full interface opens.

Spyware Terminator, is it anygood?

mattyspurs — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:54:09 GMT

I installed this last night, 1st impressions were good. anybody else use this? whats it like? Ive nver used it before

UIPOPUPHIDDEN

darkone — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:28:09 GMT

When shutting down my P.C. I sometimes get an end program dialogue box telling me " UIPOPUPHIDDEN is not responding". Am I right in thinking this has something to do with PCGuard ( Virgin Broadbands own security software)?
Or is it a trojan/virus of some sort?

Cheers

Clam AV

FreakShow! — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:03:46 GMT

I've been trialling NOD32 for a bit and have parted ways with it.

So I was installing Spyware Terminator while waiting for AVG to download and I notice that it has ClamAV. So I thought I'd give that a shot.

I can't find much info on how good it is as an AV (useful links please). My other problem with is that Windows keeps saying there is no AV running. Is ClamAV just a scanner and not a real time antivirus?

Is it worth leaving or shall I ditch it and get back to AVG?

TIA :)

Antivirus and Antispyware List

marc.knuckle — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:04:44 GMT

can anyone point me in the direction of an up-to-date list that compares and rates antivirus software and antispyware software?

cheers

AVG8 Free scanning problem

Red_Breast — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:34:11 GMT

After reading about the problems with AVG8 free in this week's magazine by A.French, the Ask Aaron page, I thought I'd check the forum. I get the mag every week but rarely visit the forum.
I thought I'd have a look to see if anybody had the same problem as me but there are quite a few threads to look through. I checked a few but no joy. So I thought I'd make my own.
I also tried to make a thread on the AVGfree forum. I ended up going in circles. Me trying to log-on, emailing I couldn't and getting the reply -If you have problems please use the AVGfree forum.

So the problem is:- Occassionally, for no reason I can understand, I get a second system tray icon pop up with a white forward arrow in the middle. Right-click and I get 2 options. Continue all scans and Stop all scans. Click any of these and nothing seems to happen. Open up the AVG interface and no scanning is taking place. I disabled scanning anyway after installing. I never see the point in it personally.
I have tried opening Windows Task Manager but as I don't know the difference between what was there before this so called scan started and once it has started it's hard to tell.
Next time it happens that's it. I'll try Avast or something.
There is a thread in the AVGfree forum with the same problem. No replies.

[url]http://freeforum.avg.com/read.php?15,138119,backpage=,sv=[/url]

not a virus scanner more the opposite

10p_to_continue — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:01:07 GMT

just randomly surfing when a popup came up telling me i needed a virus scan
i clicked no
and immediately an animated screen went through the process of pretending to scan my drive

i think it was xponlinescan (i dont even want to mention them(
its just getting ridiculous how these companies are xploiting peoples vulnerabilities its xtrmly annoying

zone alarm update

trike — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:41:41 GMT

I have had the notice about the "critical update" 5 times now and have updated it (just the once)...whats going on?

Advanced/Windows/Ultimate Antivirus 2008 problems

laurieg — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:18:50 GMT

I have been given a friends workmate's laptop to look at. This person is from the far east, working over here, (legally), and uses the laptop to keep in touch with home. She had not AV package on it originally and ended up with pop-ups saying that she was infected and needed to purchase the first of these 3. That did not work so she followed instructions and got the 2nd, then the third!!!! I think you see where we are going. £200 later I have the machine to try and help out.

I believe these to be very bad Malware/Trojans. A quick Google seems to confirm that but I have never heard of them. Before I try and remove them does anyone know of these and any recommendations for actually doing so without a clean install?

I intend to install AVG and Spybot later.

Cheers

AVG Query!

peter4076 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:36:16 GMT

I have AVG 8 on all 4 of my computers (not on all at the same time)When I update the computer I use 75% of the time, all is well, but 3 days later for instance I will boot up my laptop and go for the AVG update and get the "no new updates available" how does this work, because I know that it is not the latest ( according to Grisoft ), so it doesn't scan your computer to seek out your updates, all advice gratefully received.

anti spyware/virus disk.

compaq2 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:32:29 GMT

trying to get together some programs to burn to cd to use as a pc cleanup tool.

any of you guys have suggestions what to add? all suggestions welcomed.

thankyou

spyware terminator findings

marc.knuckle — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:21:49 GMT

i downloaded and used crossloop after a recommendation. it is a fine piece of software to allow remote access to other pc's very simply.

spyware terminator though doesn't seem to like it.

any ideas if i should be worried?

Ad-Aware 2008 just borked on me...

MartenReed — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:53:03 GMT

Put 07 on, updated it and it said it can update to 08 for me. So it uninstalled 07 and installed 08. And it borked from then on. So I've now uninstalled it!

Should I download it again, or is there something similar that's just as good?

Zone Alarm Users Take Note

Davo1 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:33:41 GMT

MS Update up to its tricks again, this will affect all ZA users see link
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/09/ms_dns_patch_zonealarm_woes/

Possible Virus, possible hardware problem...

theBishopp — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:37:31 GMT

...or, in fact, possible anti-virus problem!

I tried to upgrade to AVG 8 from 7.5, and the whole process seemed to be going smoothly, including AVG 8 uninstalling AVG7.5, however half way through this process, it died. Just stopped. Task manager showed it as not responding, and I could not do anything with it, so I left it for some time (approx 105 minutes, the Germany/Portugal mach including half-time) in the hopes it was just working extra hard and would eventually complete. No such joy. I ended up killing the process in task manager, at which point things went wrong...

Everything stopped partway through working, with "not responding" being the only comment from Task manager on the matter. FF froze part-way through loading webpages, I think I tested around 3 different bits of software which all stopped responding part-way through, including uninstalling AVG, and trying to install Avast!

In the end I had to reboot the PC several times, as each time it would function fine for a short-while, but anytime I tried to do anything with AVG everything again kept stopping partway through working. Only this morning, after switching it off overnight, was I able to download and install Avira anti-virus, which is runnign fine. I used CCleaner several times to clean up the registry, but am still unable to remove AVG free (it now shows as AVG 8 when opened, but only one compnent is working, the other simply refuse).

To cap it all, the HDD started making some funny noises during operation, similar to a low, quiet growl or grind, although not constantly.

Now, it seems like it was AVG that cause the problem, but could the HDD be the root of the problem? Am I looking at a reformat and re-install of XP? (Me I hope not with the ridiculous amount of updates first time around)...

If this is the case, can someone advise on which (if there is one) free imaging software would be good to back up everything?

many thanks in advance...

Portable Safe

Eggs — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:35:03 GMT

I am looking for an easy to use program which can make password protected encrypted CDs - I seem to recall Steganos Portable Safe was the sort of thing I want - but need a free program.

Comodo Firewall

-Wiz!- — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:03:54 GMT

After the link in an other thread I have downloaded it with the intent to replace Zone Alarm. Before I commit I thought I would see if anyone else is using it and what are the pro's and con's. :)

Which free AV?

Tippon — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:42:23 GMT

Ok, I've been using Kaspersky for a while, but the firewall is less than useless and needs me to hold its hand if anything even looks like it wants to do something. As a result, it's being ditched for a freebie, but I'm not sure which one to go for.

I've always used AVG, but the reports of possibly thousands of false positives are putting me off. Is there an AV that will just sit there doing its thing without bugging me at all? If it can do scheduled updates and scans too, that's even better.

Cheers dears :)

AVG 8 is no more.

Fixtheleek? — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:09:46 GMT

While doing its thing at 12.00 o’clock it came up with a large selection of baddies, chiefly something called ‘Zlob Downloader’.
Turned to Google, to find what I had, got to Google Page Web 1-10 when I was notified by AVG Free that I had a virus [I-WORM/BRONTOK.KO] this happened three time in 3 seconds [three virus in total].
I then got a pop-up to tell me that AVG Pro, after scanning without my say so, had found 35 critical Spyware and Viruses that could not be removed unless I bought said AVG Pro.:angry:
I tried to remove the three unhealed infections to no avail.
Managed, in between the disappearing desktop icons and rebooting, to scan with Spybot which picked up quite a number of infections, including Fraud. Antivirus 2008 and Virtumonde.dll.
HDD has been scrubbed with Vim and soaked in Domestos.:D

My backup drive is now in use till I do a clean install, no e-mails, documents or photographs were lost in the process.
AVG is history, have they sold out to Norton?

To top of my week, my 3Com Wireless Modem died, luckily still inside the 3 year warranty, I am on my trusty SpeedTouch until it is resolved.:Whistling:

Edit; to apologise for suject title:blush: I've fixed that for you - CaptainCAD
THank you.

AntiVir.

Phitore — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:40:36 GMT

Days of a slow and freezing PC made me give up on AVG 8.
It's been a nightmare since i installed it on two PC's.

Installed AntiVir and all is O.K. seems quite good.

The scanner is amusingly named "Luke Filewalker" :hehe: :hehe:
Never used it before so i never knew this.