Viruses - Another Pointless Step - Why, what is the point, of going so far.

Hi,
im not making this post to ask for help or anything, as i know how to deal with it. Just really, because i feel like sharing what i think, and id like to know what other people think about it.
Now, the reason i made this thread, is that earlier today,i was on a friends computer, and it has been completely ruined by viruses, i mean,

• His desktop background had been changed to an advert for an antivirus programme, and the desktop properties tab for chaning it back was just... not there
• task manager had been disabled
• He had about 20 antiviruses programme trials advertisint to him, which installed themselves, and crashed the computer when i tried to uninstall them.
• His taskbar disapeared randomly, and didnt come back.
• his applications were constantly interupted by adverts for antivirus programmes

I just dont see the point in viruses that do that much damage. most malicious things have a good reason, but apart from advertising an antivirus programme, which there is no way of installing considering the state of the computer, there is no good reason.

Most viruses you see comonly, slow you computer, but most wont ruin it?

why the step too far?

opinions?

 

 

 

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Hard to say why people do it, but of course now a days the big time hackers create the tools and sell them to other hackers to make a lot of cash, but it is the thrill of creating a virus and not getting caught is the challenge. Although there have been big name viruses such as Melissa and the Storm worm, you could say the challenge is creating a super virus that could cripple a government, a military or a business. Of course, the easy way to answer that is ask the hackers and virus creators themselves.

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Agreed.

I don't know why people do these terrible things either, but despite the fact they do it for a stupid reason, not only does the target of their victim get infected, but alot of other people's computers aswell. Some can disable your security, your Firewall, Anti-Virus, any malicious scanning and removal software.

The most aggravating thing is, viruses are hidden, and when you turn on and log onto your computers username it releases It's self back into the system. I must admit, I have created a Trojan.Agent virus before, and not only did it corrupt an old friends Internet settings, it messed up the entire system.

-Sky

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haha i actualy got a virus similar to that one once, i had to get the geeksquad to reinstall everything.. it was nebuler s, & purescan (i think?) viruses.. that would try to access the internet 50 times at once, and just crash everything & redirect all my internet sites to their "master, get rid of viruses site" which i mean its kinda pathetic, why would you download some sort of ed from the site that effed you over in the first place. and that thing was a pain, i would use about 3 different sorts of spyware/viruses removing softwares and they would get rid of everything, but then the virus would redownload itself again & again..

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I agree.

But there is an alternative way to stop getting lots of viruses. Just stop downloading porn video's and Keep your Anti-Virus on alert. Even though some others risk their computer being infected by disabling their protection. I never used to believe in AVG Anti-virus 8.0x, because of It's rubbish features etc...but I guess I misunderstood. I am using it now and It's going perfectly well, I never even thought I could count on AVG this much. I've had it now for 2 months, and it hasn't played up on me!

-Sky

 

 

 

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I hate viruses (just like everyone does). They are getting worse these days.They are disabling system administrative features, Deleting files etc..They are common these days, if we don't have an upto date antivirus. But the sad news is no antivirus is perfect in detecting viruses. I hate some antiviruses more than I hate viruses.



I do believe in AVG but not that much. Actually I used AVG for 4 years. And I updated it daily. I like it, even though it was failed to detect some viruses. Yes. My system was infected with viruses many times, even I was updating daily. But I thought it was only the best free antivirus available.
But I didn't like its 8th version. It consumed all my pc's resources. My system became very sluggish. I reinstalled Windows and AVG. But no use. Then I changed to Avira Antivirus. I am happy with it now. Of course it has some drawbacks like very very slow system scanning etc..but OK. AVG is better in these.

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Agreed. I don't know why people even think there smart and making them...It's just pointless. I mean what are they actually archiving with these threats? Nothing. They don't really archive nothing. They are just some sad pathetic script kiddie thinking they are the best with these things.

I laugh at their failure into messing up peoples computers all the time!

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I have to disagree,
I think most people realise that they should take certail precaution when using "that type" of website.
However, as "that kind of site" is such a huge industry, most of the sites are completely safe, in an attempt to make money.
Aroung 81% of viruses come from legitimate sites that have been hacked.

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To Stop Virus
1. Ignore any emails claiming themselves from such as company and then asking you to download an EXE (executable or software), VBS (widely use VB virus), LNK (a link to a virus), and many more. Just ignore it if you never request of such and do not know their reliability
2. Do not download any software that claims that they can download free porn! Though it might be true it can give you free porn, but then your computer is at risk
3. When opening a site, their site claims that "Your computer is at risk" or any kind that you have been infected by virus and they ask you to download software to clean it, ignore those, since they won't be able to check your computer from virus! Online scanning such as provided by many antivirus companies, they require you to install their activex in order for them to be able to scan your PC.
4. Because of jpg rendering bugs, some jpg can contain virus, if people that you don't know sending you picture, don't accept it, just ask who they are, and what pic is that to be confirmed
5. Do not install software that the source is not known, do not install software for cracking files, for hacking, as such might contain virus or trojan

Virus that disable task manager in fact can be cleaned by going to Safe Mode then change some registry. But some virus is very bad, when you enter safe mode in your current user name, it will reboot your computer though in safe mode! So the way is to create a new user in safe mode, logout and login to that user name, and then change the registry setting to enable task manager, run, hidden file, and so on. But this does not guarantee to clean virus.

To clean virus, you need to clean in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/HKEY_LOCAL_USER]/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/[Run/RunOnce] (which also can use Start -> Run -> type "MsConfig" enter to change it)

And a key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon should have a key name Shell then Explorer.exe and only Explorer.exe no other file (, others).

These keys can be used to run extra applications on your computer, some of these applications is hidden in background which some is a real apps, while others might be virus. Just examine those keys, see that if any suspicious filename which is put inside a folder that you don't seem to know, to don't seem to remember installing it. While cleaning virus from my friends computer I often ask have install this and this and so on. I often clean my own computer from trojan etc without using anti virus. First you need to identify the virus name, by using task manager, and check for suspicious name, it can't open task manager, check for registry keys I mention, then check what it is doing, then if we know some part of the name, go to goole and check it, look if the symptoms is similar, if it is, we can go to the site that taught us how to manually remove it.

Some virus can corrupt explorer which makes hard to clean it, and some others corrupt OS heavily which seems incurable, if this problems happens, we might need to format the OS. I have once been infected by .exe virus, which it corrupts most executable files in my system, my system becomes slow, and when executing some exe file, it won't launch and error. Then I use some kind of antivirus to return the original exe file (by cutting the virus part and changing back the instruction pointer location inside the exe file) but somehow the antivirus does not work properly due to several .exe file types, and i have lost some of my files...

I really hate virus! The most I hate those infect files, destroy word&exe files and any of my important files, then I hate those destroy my OS, though I could reformat and reinstall, but it takes time backing up files and so on, then the least one I hate is those only do small work virus, like trojan or changing wallpaper or configuration which still fixable.

I think government should check antivirus companies, checking whether they are creating virus to be cleaned by their products!

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Alternatively, stop downloading porn video 'codec's, usually the source of viruses. avi extensions are pretty harmless.


A common trick is to name a file something like 'cute.jpg.vbs', and people with known extensions disabled will see it as 'cute.jpg' and open it. That's pretty stupid as you should realise that .jpg would be removed and look for the actual extension.. the easiest way is to have Windows set to display all extensions.

Adware often has these types of ads. Are people really gullible enough to believe these AVs help?


I've had to do this before when Avira didn't pick up the virus! Useful information.
It probably helps to have TeaTimer running (part of Spybot S&D, it monitors important parts of the registry and allows you to deny changes).

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