I just got infected

[commandlinegamer]

I had a laugh last week when a website tried to infect my Slackware box. Just love it when a dodgy piece of Javascript tries to tell me my Linux system's C drive has 137 viruses.

 

[Beanbag]

But most likely your machine got some little less obvious piece of malware that the Personal Antvirus latched onto.

Other common exploits are freeware versions of software, like DivX, if you download it from the main page, it is most likely fine, if you download it somewhere else not so fine.

So I try to download freeware only from Majorgeeks, C-net and places like that.

There are also some great flash exploits which is how most of the 'less savory' places will get you.(Hopefully Adobe got those last month)

Ah! Suddenly it makes a little more sense. I downloaded a few drivers from other than the OEM site. That's one possibility I hadn't considered.

I also hit one of those sites where you get the "Do You Really Want To Navigate Away From This Site?" dialog boxes. Usually, I go straight to the Task Manager and shut down the browser there, since the dialog box won't let the focus leave itself, but that time I had a tab open that I didn't want to lose.

Frankly, I think Windows (or any OS) should have an absolute, no questions asked shutdown button for any running application that bypasses the application code and kills it without having to reboot. It wasn't such a problem in DOS days (either Ctrl-Alt-Del or shaking hands with the Reset button).

Beanbag

 

[Ducky]

Ah! Suddenly it makes a little more sense. I downloaded a few drivers from other than the OEM site. That's one possibility I hadn't considered.

I also hit one of those sites where you get the "Do You Really Want To Navigate Away From This Site?" dialog boxes. Usually, I go straight to the Task Manager and shut down the browser there, since the dialog box won't let the focus leave itself, but that time I had a tab open that I didn't want to lose.

Frankly, I think Windows (or any OS) should have an absolute, no questions asked shutdown button for any running application that bypasses the application code and kills it without having to reboot. It wasn't such a problem in DOS days (either Ctrl-Alt-Del or shaking hands with the Reset button).

Beanbag

kill -9.

Can be adapted to a script called from a button in the taskbar.

That covers any OS other than windows, I guess. Even then I'd bet there's a powershell equivalent.

 

[Rat]

I've never had any problem just quitting processes in Task Manager. I imagine it could be scripted, but I've never had the need. Unless your life really moves that quickly, I don't think I've ever had a situation where "right-click/task manager/end process" wasn't fast enough.

 

[Soapy Sam]

Replacing Task Manager with Sysinternals "Process Explorer" might be worth considering.

 

[Beanbag]

kill -9.

Can be adapted to a script called from a button in the taskbar.

That covers any OS other than windows, I guess. Even then I'd bet there's a powershell equivalent.

Okay, I'm having trouble parsing this. Does this mean it DOESN'T work with Windows, or that it does?

Plus, my keyboard doesn't have a kill-9 button. Do you enter it on the command line or what?

(remember, I have a degree in fixing watches, NOT computers)

Beanbag

 

[Blue Mountain]

Okay, I'm having trouble parsing this. Does this mean it DOESN'T work with Windows, or that it does?

Plus, my keyboard doesn't have a kill-9 button. Do you enter it on the command line or what?

(remember, I have a degree in fixing watches, NOT computers)

Unfortunately, Ducky wasn't really being helpful. BSD, Linux and Mac OS X, all being descended from Unix, have a command called "kill", which sends something call a "signal" to a program. Usually the signal is TERM, which is a polite request from the OS for the program to clean things up and exit gracefully. "kill -9" is what you asked about; it basically says "Die! Now!"

Using the Task Manger to kill a process in Windows the equivalent to the Unix "kill -9" command. Soapy Sam's suggestion of using sysinternals is a good one, too.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Here's the security toolkit I have installed on my WinXP machines:

- AVG antivirus (free version)
- Malwarebytes' Anti-malware (free version)
- Spybot (free)
- Comodo Firewall (free)
- Chrome instead of IE (Used to have Firefox as my main browser, but it has become too slow and buggy lately, so now using Chrome).

PS. I also use CCleaner (free) every so often, especially after installing or removing any software, to clean up the registry.

And here's the security software that I have on my machine, that makes it more secure than yours:

- MacOS X

 

[Rat]

And here's the security software that I have on my machine, that makes it more secure than yours:

- MacOS X

This somewhat predictable trolling is getting tedious. I seem to recall that OS X did about as well as Windows at pwn2own the last couple of years, at least.

 

[Bill Thompson]

Al Qaeda is working on a virus that can transfer from computer to human. It works by hiding in the sound file, either an mp3 or wave file. It gets transfered by the inner ear and works on dismantling data in your brain. A version that goes from pixels to eye is also in the works.

Hey, it is no more absurd than the other stuff posted here. By the way, is that discussion thread still going that full of people insisting that Pi has an ending or repeats?

 

[Roadtoad]

Al Qaeda is working on a virus that can transfer from computer to human. It works by hiding in the sound file, either an mp3 or wave file. It gets transfered by the inner ear and works on dismantling data in your brain. A version that goes from pixels to eye is also in the works.

Oh my Great Taco In The Sky, NO! You mean... Al Quaeda is re-releasing all of Tiffany's old albums!?!?!

We're DOOMED, I tell you! DOOMED! What next? Debbie Gibson!?!?!

 

[rjh01]

Al Qaeda is working on a virus that can transfer from computer to human. It works by hiding in the sound file, either an mp3 or wave file. It gets transfered by the inner ear and works on dismantling data in your brain. A version that goes from pixels to eye is also in the works.
<snip>

What you are describing is called propaganda. This is something that has been known about for 1000s of years. May not work the way you describe though.

 

[Ducky]

This somewhat predictable trolling is getting tedious. I seem to recall that OS X did about as well as Windows at pwn2own the last couple of years, at least.

I've repeatedly posted several links to white papers on OS X not being anywhere near as secure as is presented by frothing fanboys.

 

[Beanbag]

I've repeatedly posted several links to white papers on OS X not being anywhere near as secure as is presented by frothing fanboys.

The problem (as always) is getting them to read them.

Beanbag

 

[Beanbag]

Oh my Great Taco In The Sky, NO! You mean... Al Quaeda is re-releasing all of Tiffany's old albums!?!?!

We're DOOMED, I tell you! DOOMED! What next? Debbie Gibson!?!?!

Pia Zadora's greatest hits. Beanbag

 

[dtugg]

Apple Fans Are Clueless About Security, Hacker Says

"...they try to market themselves as more secure than the PC, that you don't have to worry about viruses, etc. Anytime there's been a hacking contest, within a few hours someone's found a new Apple vulnerability. If they were taking it seriously, they wouldn't claim to be more secure than Microsoft because they are very much not. And the Apple community is pretty ignorant to the risks that are out there as it relates to Apple. The reason we don't see more attacks out there compared to Microsoft is because their market share isn't near what Microsoft's is."

"I think Microsoft does a better job with their code auditing than folks like Apple do. We've only seen a scratching of the surface as far as Apple vulnerabilities because nobody cares to find them. There's nothing inherent with Apple themselves and their development. The only reason Apple gets little increase in security is because they're running on top of a Unix-based operating system and they can take advantage of some of the things that have been done for them."

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I'm pretty sure that, "The reason we don't see more attacks out there compared to Microsoft is because their market share isn't near what Microsoft's is," is indeed the main reason for Mac users feeling Macs are safer.

 

[dtugg]

I am pretty sure that most Mac users believe that Macs are inherently safer.

 

[tyr_13]

I've never had any problem just quitting processes in Task Manager. I imagine it could be scripted, but I've never had the need. Unless your life really moves that quickly, I don't think I've ever had a situation where "right-click/task manager/end process" wasn't fast enough.

The fake anti-virus on my mother's machine disabled the task manager, AVG, Ad-aware, Spybot, and Safe Mode. That's right, I could no longer boot her old HP into safe mode. It was crazy. The harder I worked, the more locked down the machine got. I hadn't been that frustrated with a virus for long ass time. Hell, I hadn't had to fight off a virus for a long ass time. It didn't disable Malwarebytes, but Malwarebytes couldn't remove it all either. Oh, and I couldn't get the regedit to run. It would crash the computer.

Nuked it, it works fine now.

I got a netbook returned with a different version of the fake anti-virus as well. This one had also disabled the task manager, though not as completely. Still, I don't get paid to remove that crap, so it's going back to Dell for full restore.

 

[GreNME]

kill -9.

Can be adapted to a script called from a button in the taskbar.

That covers any OS other than windows, I guess. Even then I'd bet there's a powershell equivalent.

Heck, there's a cmd.exe equivalent, though if I recall correctly it may not be available on "Home" editions or lower. But yeah, I still catch myself typing kill -9 in a Windows command line and don't always catch myself before hitting enter and getting the no-such-thing message. Makes my Windows-only friend who is also a tech laugh when I do it.

-----

I am pretty sure that most Mac users believe that Macs are inherently safer.

Almost every one I know insists on it. Nevermind the few times I've caught them carrying a virus'd file (or macro-virus'd Office doc). It's like an HIV-infected patient pitying the full-blown-AIDS patient for being so sick.

Me, I like running both. At the same time, even. I recently discovered the coolness that is Parallels (Cohesion), but before that I'd been switching VMs back and forth between my Mac notebook and PC desktop running VirtualBox on both (cross-platform FTW).

Beanbag, I have a somewhat academic question for you: what version of Windows are you running, and do you think you got the virus from a website or while installing something else? I have a running debate with a Windows-centric associate and I'm just curious what you think the circumstances were.