6 replies to this topic

[rim rim]

I had my first bad experience with Broadband recently. Having been on Broadband only two weeks, and after visiting a dodgy site, SpyBot S&D's Teatimer went mad with pop up warnings about attempted changes to the Registry. As fast as I clicked on 'Deny Change' a new warning was displayed. After I had denied a dozen or so attempted changes I ran SpyBot S&D which found 9 infections covering 50 odd entries. SpyBot could only remove 4 of the infections, even after a re-boot.
I then ran Ad-Aware PE which found over 100 Malware entries of which it could only remove a few. Faced with a few days of cleaning up my PC via HiJackthis in the forums I decided to revert my drive using GoBack. Having reverted to just before I last went on line it worked a treat. After scanning my PC a couple of times with SpyBot and Ad-Aware all scans were clear. Thank heavens for GoBack.
I've learnt a good lesson, as wonderful as broadband is, it enables your PC to become infected with Malware much quicker than with dial up.
My big question is though, how did all this rubbish get past the following programs? : Panda Firewall Platinum 7, IESpyads, Spyware Blaster, Giant, SpyBot S&D 1.3, Ad-Aware PE 1.05, all of which are kept up to date. rim rim

Edited by rim rim, 21 December 2004 - 09:18 AM.

[Dragonslore]

Easy enough said, using Internet Explorer or an IE based browser is the quickest way to get infected. Another is not keeping your system up to date with Windows Update.

Using FireFox or Opera Browser should keep this sort of thing from happening.

But even then, if you click on something, you might still get infected if the item is not blocked by any of your spyware tools.

[ErikAlbert]

rimrim,

I almost never read about GoBack as a preventing solution for malware infections at SWI.
It seems to me that GoBack is almost taboo. What's wrong with GoBack ? Is it such a bad solution ?
The last time somebody talked about GoBack was in this interesting thread
http://forums.spywar...6&hl=shadowuser

In stead of GoBack, I'm told to install at least the following softwares :
01. Spybot SD
02. AdAware SE
03. CWS
04. HJT
05. MVP Host File
06. IE-SPYAD
07. SpywareGuard
08. SpywareBlaster
09. X-Cleaner
10. Kerio firewall
11. Firefox
(Let us not start a discussion about these softwares, that's not the purpose of my post. Fact is that these softwares are recommended in general)
ELEVEN softwares and that's the absolute minimum I need to protect my computer, while most members have several backup-softwares and other softwares that are indirectly related to solve malware problems, in case the other softwares fail.
Let us assume you need about 15-20 softwares to protect my computer and the real paranoid has probably alot more softwares.

Well it's VERY FUNNY to read that GoBack saved your computer in one hit rimrim, while all your other softwares failed.
Dragonslore is probably right, but that doesn't really matter to me.
Personally, I think that GoBack solutions like ShadowUser have more future, than all the other softwares.

Solutions, that use a "Definition Database" (and they all do) makes them at the same time very weak.
Every day new malwares are created and these malwares need to be discovered first and when that doesn't happen, they can infect any well protected computer.
The most notorious malwares in history damaged many computers all over the world, because they weren't discovered in time and there are more malwares on the internet, than malwares in the definition databases.
What kind of protection is that ?

GoBack solutions DO NOT ACCEPT ANY CHANGE on your harddisk, so they protect you better against discovered malwares and above all UNdiscovered malwares.
It seems to me that the only disadvantage of Goback is that GoBack also doesn't accept any GOOD change on your harddisk.
Is that really such a big disadvantage ?

I'm still waiting for alternate solutions, but at this moment I find GoBack solutions more perfect, than any other protection solution and ALOT EASIER for ignorant users (the majority).

Microsoft buys Giant. Well I'm very disappointed in MS, because MS will offer the same solution like any other anti-spyware company, based on definition databases.
I expected from Microsoft a TOTAL NEW solution and not a business deal to copy someone else's OLD ideas.

Edited by ErikAlbert, 22 December 2004 - 07:39 AM.

[rim rim]

rimrim,

I almost never read about GoBack as a preventing solution for malware infections at SWI.
It seems to me that GoBack is almost taboo. What's wrong with GoBack ? Is it such a bad solution ?
The last time somebody talked about GoBack was in this interesting thread
http://forums.spywar...6&hl=shadowuser

In stead of GoBack, I'm told to install at least the following softwares :
01. Spybot SD
02. AdAware SE
03. CWS
04. HJT
05. MVP Host File
06. IE-SPYAD
07. SpywareGuard
08. SpywareBlaster
09. X-Cleaner
10. Kerio firewall
11. Firefox
(Let us not start a discussion about these softwares, that's not the purpose of my post. Fact is that these softwares are recommended in general)
ELEVEN softwares and that's the absolute minimum I need to protect my computer, while most members have several backup-softwares and other softwares that are indirectly related to solve malware problems, in case the other softwares fail.
Let us assume you need about 15-20 softwares to protect my computer and the real paranoid has probably alot more softwares.

Well it's VERY FUNNY to read that GoBack saved your computer in one hit rimrim, while all your other softwares failed.
Dragonslore is probably right, but that doesn't really matter to me.
Personally, I think that GoBack solutions like ShadowUser have more future, than all the other softwares.

Solutions, that use a "Definition Database" (and they all do) makes them at the same time very weak.
Every day new malwares are created and these malwares need to be discovered first and when that doesn't happen, they can infect any well protected computer.
The most notorious malwares in history damaged many computers all over the world, because they weren't discovered in time and there are more malwares on the internet, than malwares in the definition databases.
What kind of protection is that ?

GoBack solutions DO NOT ACCEPT ANY CHANGE on your harddisk, so they protect you better against discovered malwares and above all UNdiscovered malwares.
It seems to me that the only disadvantage of Goback is that GoBack also doesn't accept any GOOD change on your harddisk.
Is that really such a big disadvantage ?

I'm still waiting for alternate solutions, but at this moment I find GoBack solutions more perfect, than any other protection solution and ALOT EASIER for ignorant users (the majority).

Microsoft buys Giant. Well I'm very disappointed in MS, because MS will offer the same solution like any other anti-spyware company, based on definition databases.
I expected from Microsoft a TOTAL NEW solution and not a business deal to copy someone else's OLD ideas.

Erik Albert,

That was a really interesting thread you posted Erik, I've not heard of ShadowUser / ShadowSurfer or Deep Freeze before, like GoBack they sound like the answer to many Malware problems. I intend to try them out soon.
I agree with you that a down side to GoBack is that by reverting the drive you lose any good changes you've made as well as the bad, but you can always get the good stuff again once your reverted drive is clean. I thought I was operating in Paranoid mode with the number of Malware programs I was using until I saw what others were using in your posted link. I think one user had 12 programs,WOW! Many thanks for the links. rim rim

[rim rim]

Easy enough said, using Internet Explorer or an IE based browser is the quickest way to get infected. Another is not keeping your system up to date with Windows Update.

Using FireFox or Opera Browser should keep this sort of thing from happening.

But even then, if you click on something, you might still get infected if the item is not blocked by any of your spyware tools.

Dragonslor

I've been looking hard at Firefox for some time now and the latest ver' 1.0 is getting very good reviews so I think I'll have a go at it. I'm not sure though, if I need to uninstall IE before I install Firefox. Thanks for your comments.
rim rim

[ErikAlbert]

rimrim,

Frankly, I hate to run and maintain all these protection softwares. That's why I'm looking for other solutions and above all time-saving and simple solutions.
I always like to see problems from different angles. Part of my job in real life LOL.
I still don't know what to do, but this forum gives me at least a good picture of the "Malware Wood" and the "Malware Trees" .
----------------------------------------------------
If you ever install Mozilla Firefox (and you should), keep your Internet Explorer, because many members use still IE for "Windows Update", which is also VERY IMPORTANT.

This link shows that the use of Mozilla is increasing significantly, while the use of IE is decreasing.
http://www.w3schools...wsers_stats.asp
which proves that many people are changing their mind about IE.

Edited by ErikAlbert, 23 December 2004 - 10:00 AM.

[rim rim]

rimrim,

Frankly, I hate to run and maintain all these protection softwares. That's why I'm looking for other solutions and above all time-saving and simple solutions.
I always like to see problems from different angles. Part of my job in real life LOL.
I still don't know what to do, but this forum gives me at least a good picture of the "Malware Wood" and the "Malware Trees" .
----------------------------------------------------
If you ever install Mozilla Firefox (and you should), keep your Internet Explorer, because many members use still IE for "Windows Update", which is also VERY IMPORTANT.

This link shows that the use of Mozilla is increasing significantly, while the use of IE is decreasing.
http://www.w3schools...wsers_stats.asp
which proves that many people are changing their mind about IE.

Erik Albert

Thanks for another interesting link, I found the table about OSs useful. I am still clinging on to Win98SE, mainly because I dislike the XP activation process and all that it stands for. If I spend almost a £100 on an OS, I don't expect to have to ask Microsoft for permission to use it. Nor do I want to repeat that activation process if and when I upgrade my PC. I know they are concerned about loss of income because of piracy(my heart bleeds for them) but if their software was less expensive in the first place,then they might not have to worry so much. Thanks again for your help. rim rim