They HiJack your Browser!

[lineup]

hello

I had a severe attack of an intruder in my PC.
I had to try to find and remove a lot of suspicius stuff/files
in my Windows XP.
I had to go into FailSafe Mode at system start
and start scanning.

I also did a System Restore to a couple of days back.
I finally made my computer clean and working again!
Otherwise you wouldn't have seen me here for some weeks maybe.

I think HijackThis did the job
- there were 2 small programs, that was set to start
first thing when I logged into Windows XP - at system start.
I removed them both.

===================================

I have some good programs and tools for track & remove bad programs.
Even if I have not invested in any Payware, like Norton Antivirus.

Here is my list of good freeware,
in case you want fight, before it is too late:

1. My favourite: HijackThis:
A general homepage hijackers detector and remover.
http://www.merijn.org/programs.php#hijackthis
It only scans registry. Takes only some seconds.
Will detect anything that try to use your browser
and will also list all Auto-Start programs. So called Services.
Mark, read info & eventually fix.

2. Spybot - Search & Destroy.
Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html
Will scan your computer for bad programs and entries.
Take not too long.
You then select what you want to do with those files.
Mark and fix!

3. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition.
Maybe the best free virus program around.
Free updates of those virus detecting lists.
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/products-...g/us/tpl/tpl01
I installed AVG again, after this incident.
I have used it before and it has always worked good.
Also a nice easy interface.

4. ZoneAlarm - free firewall
A good alternative to Windows firewall.
I like the good interface with settings etc.
Latest free version is 6.5
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/zonealarm.html

5. The Proxomitron - Universal Web Filter
A nice freeware proxy for filter what will display in your browser.
Block popups and for example Banners that are bigger than a certain size.
Bann sites using wildcards characters and filter other special contents.
For example a special filter for geocities.com websites ads.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/proxomitron/index.html
There are so many settings you can select and deselect.
There are also several pre-configured levels of filtering.


lineup survived the attack - this time

[kelticwizard]

I would just like to point out that for PC owners only, there is a forum that will let you post the results of Hijack This! and a nice expert over there will tell you which files should be deleted. So you don't have to be an expert to use Hijack This-the experts are there, happy to help you much as people on this site are happy to help people who are not that technically skilled.

www.aumha.net

There are other forums that will do this as well.

[awpagan]

The standard mandate for win XP users to start by is..

Never ever ever logon to your pc with ADSL, Broadband, or other fast internet connection with an account that has Administration privilages

Use basic user account and if needed use the "run as" for administration

Standard installation windows user account has "admin" rights??????
NOT a good idea Bill.

Any program, spyware, hijack etc that is acquired while logged on to the net gets run with the priviages of the user that was logged on at the time.


ps I prefer Linux
used Redhat, mandrake, suse and others.
Kubuntu now and it is very good.