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Author Topic: Can just visiting a website foul up your computer? Greg Anderson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 766 From: Ogden Valley, Utah Registered: Nov 1999 posted 06-15-2011 10:26 PM                        I have helped two different persons in the last couple of months to remove a fake malware scanner from Vista. In each case, the virus has installed a desktop icon which was a shortcut to a program called defender.exe AND it already disabled the ability to run legitimate programs like the task manager, iTunes and Internet Explorer. I did a search (on another machine) for defender.exe and found useful advice on how to get rid of it with MalwareBytes. In one case, I had to find and run a program called rkill.exe to stop the virus from running and THEN allow me to run the task manager and other legitimate programs (before getting MalwareBytes installed)..  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 06-16-2011 10:01 PM                     I've seen plenty of computers hosed by malware just from the user visiting a website or even going to a site commonly visited that just happened to have an ad running that had a malicious script embedded in its code. Anti-virus and anti-spyware applications are definitely stuck playing a catch up game. No web browsers are safe either. Google Chrome had a good rep for a long time, but now certain hacks can leap out of its "sandbox" and straight into the Windows kernel. "Scare-ware" infections are pretty common, like the fake anti-virus software that attempts to get your credit card data and other personal information. I've seen a couple that simply couldn't be cleaned from the system. The only resort was to format C and reinstall Windows. Some of this stuff still boils down to user error or risky browsing habits. Even with the latest updates to Windows, latest anti-virus definitions, etc. it's very risky to do things like file sharing, torrent downloading or viewing Internet porn. I suppose someone could run plug-ins like NoScript to add another layer of security, but even that is only going to get you so far. If I wanted to do some risky web surfing and feel relatively safe about it I would do the surfing from some other device, like an Android tablet or perhaps a Mac mini hooked up to my HDTV set.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 06-16-2011 10:15 PM                        After a computer has had malware installed on it, the machine can no longer be trusted anyway. Sure, you managed to remove BadWareA with your trusty virus scanner, but what about BadWareB that was installed at the same time? Think of it like someone breaking into your house and filling it with a series of clever booby traps. After removing how many traps will you allow your kids back into the house? How do you know that you haven't missed one?  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-16-2011 10:42 PM                        The college is looking at a program called Centurian that installs on computers that the students and interns use. Centurian SmartShield From what they've told me, it basically runs everything as a virtual machine and no matter what happens during a session where they are connected to the internet, when you reboot, the registry is restored to the exact same state as it was when you turned on your computer. If you WANT something to change your registry, you have to use a key to let that happen. Sounds good in theory and maybe ok when interns are using a computer that you never want anything in it to change, at least not at their hands, but the question is, for people who actually do work that requires frequent legitimate changes, how badly will a program like that impact productivity? How annoying will that be when you need to do stuff that requires changes, and more importantly what if you've picked up something without knowing it during the course of legitimate interaction on the internet and you allow a change but it contains a hidden virus? Seems to me it only affords absolute protection if you never want to allow anything to change your computer.  |  IP: Logged

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