How did all this malware get onto my computer? ?

Question

We run a computer repair service and are in the process of building a couple of XP machines for ourselves. They were totally fine last night- but today, they were running a little sluggish, and we ran Spyware Doctor. That proceeded to lock up our computers, so we disabled it on both, which significantly boosted both of their performances. The we ran AVG Free on both.

One of the machines just turned up a few tracking cookies. But on the other- there was a truckload of stuff! Everything from rogue antivirus programs to trojans to browser hijackers. They all led back to ActiveX, which is an Internet Explorer thing. But... we use Mozilla Firefox.

Can anyone explain this phenomenon to me? I'll be online often, so if you need more details please ask.

Answer 1

Of course, Active X is always suspect. But unless you click on those blinking "you're the 1,000,000" winner ads and such, someone must have a back door to your computer. Does EVERYONE who uses your computer know about security? Maybe some kids playing around? Some programs intentionally place malware (benign) in a program so it looks hacked already. Other than that, you've got me!

Answer 2

They can accumulate on your computer without really doing anything or one of the websites you have visited may have been hacked or designed with multiple viruses.

Answer 3

You run a repair service and you don't know !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 4

Hi Sarah,

You being in the computer repair business you already know that formatting your computer wipes the hard drive clean.

Therefore, anything on your computer after that, IS on your disks you used to load your OS and Programs.

The solution to this is to toss the disks. They're infected, and you can't get that off the CD.

Also

Go back to the source computer where you burned the disks from and run the programs below.

Also, run them on the new hard drives you just loaded.

Please know this:

  AVG is reported to letting malware are virus' through.

Now, you report that SpyDoctor freezes computer.

Dump them both.

These programs, both have EXCELLENT reputations,

AND they are light and fluffy (use few resources to perform their magic).

======================================...

Clean up your comp with these, and burn new installation disks for your shop:

These tools do an EXCELLENT job, and the "home' versions are FREE to the public.

(The business versions you should purchase)

A.

Avast free Home Edition

Get it here:

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.ht...

And please do a "thorough" scan as soon as you get it downloaded. The user interface is simple. Click the left side, and in the top menu that comes up, select thorough scan.

When it finds a culprit it throws up an alarm, then you DELETE the culprit, (do not quarantine).

Then allow it to run all of the time, and you will be completely protected. It will "automatically" update itself, also for free.

You only need to renew your registration once a year, also free.

Note: I KNOW of several people who have used AVG and Norton and have gotten a virus anyway.

Don't go with Zone Alarm as it is hoggy and conflicting.

I've tried them all, and have had wonderful results with DEPENDABLE AVAST for the last 5 years.

The corporation I work for uses the Pro version, and has never has an incident. Avast is your answer.

B.

Get free Ad-AWARE spy-removal tool from Lavasoft

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-a...

1. Download, install and run this program weekly or more.

Then you can be really confident that you are protected at all times.

^j^

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Answer 5

If you have any open ports, then anything can slip through.  Make sure your anti-spyware is removing 100% of spyware, also like you found out, some anti-spyware will make your computer run very slowly.  Also i like to see if its accredited by the BBB.  hope this helps

http://honest-spyware-reviews.blogspot.c...