I will preface this post by hoping Tom will allow it.  I will avoid using profanity.  But I will say what's on my mind.

 

Tonight I had to clean a despondent daughter's computer from malware.  Despite my best efforts, she was human and clicked one of those drive by download "your pc is not protected" popups.  Fortunately she was very smart--she knew afterwards her browser (Chrome) was not behaving right.  And fortunately her daddy's a systems guy.  I am not saying that to boast.  I'm saying that because I feel blessed I was given that gift by a higher power.  I wasn't angry with my daughter, but I was angry inside at those who right this junk.  What my daughter and I had was good time for teaching--teaching her how to prevent this, and teaching her Daddy how to react without getting his princess upset.

 

What I want to say to all those who write this garbage--some who browse these forums to get their kicks, that you are on my list now. 

 

Does that mean I spend my time chasing down every author of malware on the planet?  No, but at least I hope they understand it's not nice to sow fear in the hearts of children.

 

Regards,

 

John

 

Edit:  I am trying AVAST free anti virus software on her laptop now.  I know there's some debate as to what's the best, but it came recommended on a couple of websites.

Avira is pretty good too. Doesn't slow your system as much as other anti virus software and also offers a free version if you can tolerate an ad once a day.

Avast is like a virus in itself

just a few words regarding a certain pce of malware ,a friend of mine picked up a ransom ware malware ,he called me in a awful state ,pc locked and the ransom ware wanted wanted £150 to unlock ,this is simply to deal with if your pc still has PS2  connections,shut down pc ,unplug all  USB keyboards /mouse in fact every thing usb ,plug in PS2 keyboard /mouse restart press f8 safe mode and restore pc to time before you picked up ransom ware ,worked a treat  ,in the uk quite a few business have had their pc,s infected and have reportedly paid thousands to be unlocked ,one estimate I read stated the writer of this pce of malware had earned £4/5 million from it ,hope this helps someone

peter

The Malware Removal forum at Major Geeks got me out of trouble once for which I am ever grateful.

 

If you're not a techy and you need help the procedure is easy to follow and the forum will answer any remaining questions you may have:

 

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35

i like avast, never had a problem and i'm using it for 6 years

I am trying AVAST free anti virus software on her laptop now.

You did have anti-virus software before the incident?

Been there, done that with my teenage daughter as well.  She was not that upset though as her laptop is a few years old, she used the opportunity to start angling for a new computer....nice try, dad fixed the problem and resumed his flight on course!

 

 

The Malware Removal forum at Major Geeks got me out of trouble once for which I am ever grateful.

 

I like the joke there:

 

"There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who don't."

May all the pervayers and creators of this UTTER GARBAGE be smited from Above.

 

There is no lower form of life on this planet.

^except politicians of course.

You could always move your Internet browsing PC over to Linux.  If i could get FSX running under WINE i'd bin off Windows for good.

My computer builder talked to me about these pop-up windows.  He told me to never even click on the "X" to get rid of it when one pops up.  If you click on the "X", you are infected.

First press "Alt+F5", which should close the window safely.  If not, leave the internet and pop-up window open, without touching it, and go to the back of the computer and unplug the internet.  Then just shut down the computer normally.  Plug in your internet cable and restart.  Clean out all of your cookies and history and don't go back to that website.

My wife gets on MSN and some websites like that, so she has run into this before.  This method has worked pretty good so far.

^ i use WTM to shut down pages like this if i ever get one.

You did have anti-virus software before the incident?

 

The only Anti virus Software on her laptop was Windows Defender, I have to admit.  I trusted her with her laptop, she's been coached by both my wife and I.  And in the end, I think my faith in her was justified.

 

There's no way to escape from every piece of malware out there.  We tremble in fear because of the attacks the writers of this stuff inflict on us.  There will always be something that sneaks thru the cracks because here on Earth, perfect software is hard to come by.  What my daughter did know was that something wasn't right.  She knew something was wrong.  And she had the faith to tell me, and I was able to help her.  I think there's a message there somewhere.

 

John