Trojan Horse.

[Paul B. 523]

I picked up a Trojan horse last week that was interesting.

Actually, I had several that got by to my laptop. It attacked my Norton software and turned it off. It captured my home page and wouldn't let me erase the files that contained the culprits. It also created pop-ups which directed you to download software to eliminate the Trojan horse (so it claimed). My mamma didn't raise no fool - I wasn't about to go into the spiders web.

I borrowed another software and loaded it. It cleaned off about 32 other contaminants that my existing software missed, but could not remove the last Trojan horse. I'm letting my software guru take a crack at it. I'm sure it's a piece of cake for him.

I'd like to see someone create a software that would take the virus and mutate it, then send it back to the originator.

I'm writing my congressman to enact tougher laws on criminals of this sort.

Let them make license plates for 10-15 years. See how it feels to have a Trojan inserted in their software in prison.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Let them make license plates for 10-15 years. See how it feels to have a Trojan inserted in their software in prison.

I think they will have to settle for the "straight" virus, as most do not carry the Trojan.

My computer was just in the shop to clear 12 viruses that had gotten by Norton. Not sure what kind of viruses they were, my wife was the one who picked up the cpu.

[paul-uk 500]

hi paul, have a look at this site and it will explain how to rid your pc of the last trojan...

http://www.tomcoyote.com/hjt/

things to do once it is clean....3-4 times a week update norton.....goto this site and have a read and see if you want to go down this route...they very good with help and info...install spybot-search and destroy freeware from here http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22262,00.asp...and install zonealarm a firewall that is freeware www.zonealarm.com.....update regular and backup daily.

cheers paul.

[Paul B. 523]

Most of the viruses I had were tracking software for advertisers but who knows. I don't keep personal finances on the computers such as account numbers, etc. it's too risky if the computer is also used on the internet. I need to be careful about internet purchases.

I just ran a Norton update the day before I got the Trojan horse - this one seems very persistant. Actually, the Norton software recognized it butr could not delete it or control it. I added Spy Sweeper and that recognized 32 other items the Norton software didn't flag. Spy sweeper was able to delete everything except the last one.

I was talking to a service tech and he recommended against more than one software last year when I had a problem but I tend to disagree with him now. I think you need several. His reasoning was that some of the software clashed. I needed to find a better service tech.

Paul,

Thanks for the web site info. I'll check them out and add them to my list of resources.

[RyanH 14]

http://www.zonelabs.com

This company puts out some very good software to prevent unauthorized programs from communicating with the outside world (like the trackers and snoopers). They offer a free version that acts as a firewall (very good). They also have some other versions for about the same price as Norton and some that also include antivirus libraries. I'll be putting this in my computer later today.

Something that is becoming a pain in the a$$ lately is browser hijaaking. When you try to go to any website, a bug in the comuter reroutes it to another site. Usually I can get rid of these by going into the windows registry, but I got one last week related to Lycos and it kept passing itself back and forth on my home network. It installs itself and a bunch of other crap. I just decided to wipe out my entire system and upgrade (I was ready for some new stuff anyway).

[Grant 500]

I use McAfee with the auto update subscription service and never have to worry about being up to date with all the trash that seems to get directed at us the innocent web users. Every time a new threat on the web is detected my computer automatically gets updated. I think it is 50 or 60 dollars for the year. Cheap Insurance.

[jsavoy 14]

Was it, about:blank homepage?

[CLASSICPW 14]

McAfee does not recognize or remove Trojans. I have them and sent them e-mails to which they never responded. For some reason these pesky Trojans are tough, I've been through various software solutions like spy-bot and adaware, but the only thing that removes them is to back up your files and re-format.

[RyanH 14]

New Norton 2004 has caught embedded spyware. ZoneAlarm Pro has stopped numerous little buggers trying to worm themselves in and out (spyware, adware, trackers, trojans).

Just my experience with these two programs over the past few days.

I had McAfee before. Computer started acting a bit dodgy, so I bought Norton (I think 2002) to put in. Installed it and ran it....it found *268* infected files that McAfee had missed. Since then, I've never used McAfee, only Norton. Used in conjunction with a good firewall program, my computers have been pretty stable (save for the past Lycos bugger that I had).

[Paul B. 523]

Yes,

"about:blank homepage" AND "any-find"

Spy-Sweeper keeps them in check but none of the three (Spy-Sweeper, Norton or McAfee) can delete it.

[paul-uk 500]

here is 2 different types of software...the first one" spyware blaster"it is not a scanner it just sits and waits for any trojan or spyware to download by changing the registry and stops it....it will also protect any changes to your browser....it will take a snapshot of key windows files incas anthing gets thru...freeware.

the other is spyware guard....check it out at the site...freeware.

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/products.html

[Paul B. 523]

Thanks Paul,

The problem was always removing the items once they were in place as none of the software was capable of removing it.

The Spy Sweeper and a couple of other software protects from future Trojans or Spyware.