Spam Antivirus

I logged onto PB last night and AVG stopped something downloading. Sounds as if I was lucky.

Seems to be clear now.

It's a bit disappointingly that their security doesn't catch things like this.

I did not have a clue where it came from as our house is like an internet cafe at times.I use AVG,Zone Alarm and Spybot but it still managed to get through.
John

I only use Photobucket for posting photos here. Looks like I'll have to remove them and put them on our website. And then get my other half to allow hotlinking from it (he has that disabled at the moment).

One reason I am reluctant to use our website is because of the ease with which anyone can see who we are and where we live - full address, because we own the domain name.

so use a service that's not so well known, like 23hq.

ABP and NoScript are a stunning combo. No ads, no popups. Nice.

Those who say "Advertising pays for the web!" - yeah, well, you also steal my bandwidth, especially on a slow connection.

Bret

DOIK wrote:
Oh....now I understand. You were referring to the spam virus and not to Flickr. Sorry

I don't understand why we have to use PB or Flickr upload images in to threads or "Your Photo's" when we can upload images straight into the weekly comp.

The weekly competition forms part of the gallery, which is separate to the forum.

The program is "MALWARE" it is a scram I did remove it from a friends computer recentley. If I can find the instructions will post here.

There are some instructions on the net, I was lucky that I could use a differant computer to locate the removal instructions, then follow them.

Not only linked to Photobucket, but other sites as well.

Run your browser in Sandboxie, that way your safe.

Benefits of the Isolated Sandbox

* Secure Web Browsing: Running your Web browser under the protection of Sandboxie means that all malicious software downloaded by the browser is trapped in the sandbox and can be discarded trivially.

* Enhanced Privacy: Browsing history, cookies, and cached temporary files collected while Web browsing stay in the sandbox and don't leak into Windows.

* Secure E-mail: Viruses and other malicious software that might be hiding in your email can't break out of the sandbox and can't infect your real system.

* Windows Stays Lean: Prevent wear-and-tear in Windows by installing software into an isolated sandbox.

Download Sandboxie now and give it a try!

Well I just went to Photobucket and had no problems with it. Nothing screamed at me. Not Windows 7, not ABP, nor Avast, certainly not said malware. So I guess I am safe for now.

Not that I will ever need it, but out of interest........ Doesn't Sandboxie slow the browsing speed down, or is that negligible ?

There are a few of these about. I think most IT staff would suggest burial in an anthill as a fair punishment for the scam artists behind them!

This is just one of the many varients on a theme that has been doing the rounds for the last year or so.

In the 'industry' we refer to them as 'Scareware' infections, as they are trying to scare you into buying a product you don't need to fix problems you don't have, and to get back control of your computer from their own programme.

The problem is, that they are incredibly profitable for the scammers, netting the organisations at the head of the pyramid tens of thousands of dollars a month. Essentially, rather then rying key-logging, etc, they scare you into paying from the privilige of giving them your credit/debit card details.

As such, there are new varients coming out almsot weekly, and each variant has to be recognised by any security software you run, and as they can only defend once they've identified the infection, you're always at potential risk.

Facebook seems to be one of the primary infection routes via fake or infected invites and apps. Other websites may be directly infected, or carrying the infection via a banner ad unwittingly.

Windows 7 seems more resilient, but Vista and XP machines are both very vulnerable to these infections.

Removal is possible, but the infections know about most of the removal tools. Malwarebytes is one of the most effective programmes used in the removal. A PC mag ran an article on these infections last year, and the guy writing it said at one point 'After 4 hours trying to remove it, if I wasn't doing this for the article, I'd have just wiped and reinstalled the system by now..."

If you are able to get into your accounts, in my experience, the infection isn't a virus,. and as such, doesn't infect other files, so backing up personal data is possible. Sometimes, the infection can be temporarily aborted via the Task Manager, and then launch a new task for 'explorer.exe' if your desktop hasn't loaded.

I think that it tried my machine on Sunday, whilst I was accessing Photobucket, but Norton Internet protection kicked in, and just gave me a message that a threat had been dealt with.
The second time I accessed the site, no problems.