My Mom Just Got A Major "drive By Download" Of A Spyware/mal

[nightwheel]

My mom's PC just got hit hard. And I mean Hard. She got a email in her hotmail that looked like it came from either MSNBC or CNN saying a Plane Crashed into a school and Killed a bunch of kids. Being the kind of person my mom is. She went to the link. Instead she got a drive by download of Antivirus XP 2008. A Very bad Spyware/Malware/Virus combo. And it installed it's self onto my mom's PC. In a attempt to she turned her computer off. But I was too late, Antivirus XP 2008 got done installing. She started her PC back up. Antivirus XP 2008 XP went nuts, Giving false Virus Threats and Changed her Background. We had to go download Spy Bot S&D. But what ever this thing is, Spy Bot had a hard time finding it.


Word of Caution, Don't Go to any links in emails that look like they came from CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, or any other major news networks or sites. You do NOT WANT "Antivirus XP 2008" on your computer. This thing infects both XP and Vista computers. And from what I have experienced so far, This thing is hard as heck to Kill. I know that most of you guys here are probably running various versions of Linux. But There got a be few people here who is using Windows.

Anyways, Thought you guys needed to Know and Warn ya.

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

add/remove programs, try running search and destroy in safe mode, too. I had a SERIOUS virus about a year ago and nothing i tried was able to kill it. Running S&D in safe mode immediately located it and zapped it.

If anyone else gets this, lso try setting your computer back.

 

[Werdersmoke]

I had the same problem last month, and since the virus is always changing, nothing would fix it because it always has a different file name. So I checked out Cnet and they said to use this program.
I figured "Why not?" So I downloaded it, and it fixed everything and restored my wallpaper and my screensaver. Hope this helps.

 

[Chip]

The only safe thing to do is to try an back up whatever files you can, format the drive, and reinstall Windows. There is no way to be absolutely certain that a malware infection is totally removed short of the scorched earth method.

 

[TaG]

The only safe thing to do is to try an back up whatever files you can, format the drive, and reinstall Windows. There is no way to be absolutely certain that a malware infection is totally removed short of the scorched earth method.
Agreed, with two exceptions.

The only safe thing to do is to try and back up whatever files you can since your last backup, format the drive, and install Linux.

 

[Chip]

The only safe thing to do is to try and back up whatever files you can since your last backup, format the drive, and install Linux.

Alternately, you could do what I did when I got sick of the tech support calls from my mother - I bought her a Mac Mini. Over the past two years I've more than made back the $600 I spent on it in gas money, just by not having to drive to her house every other week to fix some stupid problem or another.

I personally prefer Windows over the alternatives, but then again, I know how not to screw it up. For people who can't help themselves when they see a flashy banner that says "Click here for kitties!!!!", something a bit more Mom-proof may be in order.

 

[nightwheel]

For people who can't help themselves when they see a flashy banner that says "Click here for kitties!!!!", something a bit more Mom-proof may be in order.

My Mom is usually a very careful person with her computer. It was this one email that slipped under her Radar and got her.

Also, We got rid of the dern thing. At least we think we did. Here computer seems to be back to normal. We'll just see what the next few days hold.

 

[lizard808uk]

I've seen the CNN Alert email - just as well Yahoo Email have labelled this one spam already, otherwise I might have clicked on it too!

 

[kerplunk]

Same thing happened to me about 2 months ago. I tried and tried to remove manually with no luck. I finally got it off my system by following some instructions from Bleepingcomputer.com. They actually have a pretty good multi-step system to remove any malware on your system. Just search their forums for Antivirus 2008 and you will see many people with the same problem. Just read the solutions and follow the same steps. They have links to all of the tools you need to remove it.

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Everybody needs to have it drummed into them:

NEVER CLICK ON LINKS IN EMAILS. EVER.

...or use a mac.

 

[sam fisher]

Furthermore she must of executed the installer. Why would she do that?

 

[Fishbong]

Maybe ActiveX was on and installed it automatically?

 

[euro48k]

try the famous COMBO-FIX ...

- Link here -> http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe

amazing ..same MSNBC / CNN / Fox breaking news in my inbox ..

 

[sam fisher]

try the famous COMBO-FIX ...

- Link here -> http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe

amazing ..same MSNBC / CNN / Fox breaking news in my inbox ..


I too got the email actually.

 

[hessiess]

simple solution, USE LINUX!

 

[Fishbong]

Yes, tell that to your mom. 95% of the female population doesn´t even know what an operating system is...

 

[TaG]

NEVER CLICK ON LINKS IN EMAILS. EVER.

...or use a mac.

simple solution, USE LINUX!
Three pronged attack for email/internet enabled computing:
Use Linux or mac where possible.
Never click on links.
Delete all email, unopened, unless you know where it came from.

If you use Firefox then use McAfee Site Advisor add-in, NoScript add-in and something like CS-Lite.

If you use Internet Explorer, don't - use Firefox. The other advantage being that you can use the same set up on Linux and when you have to use Windows.

I have been given the use of a newish laptop with Vista on. I have loaded Kaspersky Internet Security. I have to say it seems much more usable than Norton or McAfee. Norton in particular seems to take over the pc for too long and makes the pc virtually unusable at times.