Computer Hijacking

[CyberGoth]

yes absolutely, keep your anti-spyware and anti-virus tools up to date.

AVG anti virus is very good and well behaved, and spybot is pretty good too!

should I perhaps post a basic checklist of settings for win2k/xp for hardening systems against attack????

just a thought.
happy new year.

 

[Snake Pliskin]

I downloaded Ad-aware 6.0 (free), and it found 7 files to delete. But it hasn't changed my issue re: homepage. I find that I also am getting intermittent pop ups.

I don't have any desire to change from IE. If I delete IE, and reinstall, will that likely fix the problem?

 

[Snake Pliskin]

Even though I just downloaded Ad-aware, I noticed it needed an update. After I updated and scanned, it found a whopping 36 files!!!

After deleting them, and rebooting, it screwed up my dual monitor setup, but it only took a few minutes to correct that. Things look good for now.

Thanks for the help everyone!

Snake

 

[Toad]

Do a search on browser hijack and you'll find some solutions.

 

[Sasha Jones]

Funny how you never hear us Mac people complaining about virus problems or open ports or security hole or having the computer hijacked.

that is because there is only like 10 of you

Trust me if there were even half as many MAC users as there are windows users, you guys would be complaining about $hit like this too. So keep touting your MAC it will only be a matter of time before you convert enough of the windows users over to make it worthwhile for the "hackers" to attck you too.

edit..... ooooh dual procs and dual monitors, you guys have been copying me haven't you!

 

[Average Joe]

All right!!! Sasha is back!!!

 

[CyberGoth]

all systems can be hacked and broken, its just a matter of time and interest.

mac's, DEC vaxen, IBM mainframes, amigas, everything... every system has its own vulnerabilities and tweaks and things.

dual monitors are very nice tho.

 

[Stumpy]

One of our employees had the same problem with his home system. We installed Ad-Aware, deleted his cookies & his temporary internet files (under TOOLS-OPTIONS) and then deleted the wonderful bookmarks that kept appearing as if by magic. Also reset his home page to what he wanted, and has been fine for the past 7 days.

P.S. Reading through the thread, it's a) nice to see Sasha's back & b) was thinking very much the same way. I mean, why launch an attack on the minority when the fun can be shared by so many more?

 

[canucklehead]

Last virus i had was 7 dust virus in 93. I think i got it from floppies LMAO...... i have not had any from the web on any of my macs or any i admin.
Sasha with the Mac being a UNIX box and so many UNIX boxes on the NET you don't hear near the number of horror stories about UNIX or Linux. Also since so many Windows people actually have true hatred towards the MAc i guess they are not bright enough to make a virus for the Mac.
Also last years hack and web site deface contest had 1 point for hacking a windows box and 5 points for hacking a 2000 box and 10 points for either a linux or unix box and 15 for hacking a OSX box.
Now originally i thought of the lack of OSX boxes and UNIXLinux boxes being out there but then i remembered a stat from www.alistapart.com about the web sites out there being hosted by almost 65% all UNIX/Apache boxes.
I don't think the fact that because there are more windows boxes on the planet they are hacked more i feel it is the inherent poorly designed and thought out os. I wonder why Xbox is moving to PPC? these are just MHO.

 

[CyberGoth]

PClones, Macs, Mainframes... its all the same under unix.

I bought a Mac G4 to learn about OS-X and the unit came with a dual headed display adapter. so I plugged in 2 monitors.


very nice. it just works.

the toolkits for porting linux apps to OSX are very useful and powerful.

best of all worlds.

these days, MAC is basically Berkley Systems Distribution UNIX with a nice front end and is the most usable commercial grade unix I've ever seen.

so guess what happens when one plugs the first port into a monitor and the second video port into a digital projector. [and suitable piece of wall for a display? ]

lots of fun.

 

[Snake Pliskin]

edit..... ooooh dual procs and dual monitors, you guys have been copying me haven't you!

I had to get a second monitor when I wanted to check out Jenn's boobs....they wouldn't fit on one monitor!!

What motivated you to go dual monitor, Sasha?

 

[canucklehead]

Cinema display 23 and cinema display 19 both LCD and an old Lacie 21 for prepress work.
Even using my Macbeth colour collaboration system seems to work best on the CRT.

 

[pico]

Forgot to add this to my previous post...

If you want to do research on what is taking over your pc, check out www.pchell.com. It's a good resource to learn about viruses, parasites, etc.

Also, never use Kazaa - if you must file share, use Kazaa Lite instead (if you can find it). Kazaa lite doesn't install spyware on your pc in order to function.

p

 

[Keebler Elf]

Funny how you never hear us Mac people complaining about virus problems or open ports or security hole or having the computer hijacked.

That's cuz no one uses MACs, including the hackers!

 

[massman]

Agree with this. I've had real problems in the past with these hijackers / trojans. Solved them with spybot, and to fix the real tough ones with hijack this. Can be downloaded free from a variety of sites, and most of these sites have discussion boards where computer geeks (sorry experts who saved my ass) hang out and tell you what to do with the results of running these programs. I'm also using zonealarm, but not really sure it does much.
I've said this before, but someone should start a class action suit against these companies that do this.