[fireman15]

In the last few months I have had trouble with Cryptomining Malware. It is quite sophisticated and actually much of it disables itself to avoid detection when it senses that you are using your mouse or keyboard and even when you are using the resource monitor, or task manager to watch for unusual activity. Eventually, but not always antivirus software detects most of it.

The primary symptom that has tipped me off on our laptops is when one of them is sitting idle and the computer gets hot and the fan starts running full bore. The other problem that I have had is when the laptop is put to sleep and put in its bag and when I arrive at my destination it is super hot and the battery is dead. I shut them down all the way these days if I want to be sure this will not happen.

I also had an Amazon Fire TV box get infected and started running so hot that it became unstable. I suspect that my Apple TV may have started overheating for the same reason.

Cryptomining malware is quickly becoming one of the most pervasive and annoying problems on the internet.

[catnipman]

antivirus programs aren’t all that great to start with, though they soak up massive amounts of memory and cpu resources

the only way to secure a windows system is to set up a minimum of two login accounts: one is a normal administrative account (akin to unix superuser but unfortunately the default on windows) and a second account that is a Limited User account, then use the Limited User account for all work except for system/software/peripheral adds/removes/updates, which would be the only reasons that the administrative account is used ... you can still get malware in the limited account, but such malware is local to the user account, can not invade the system or the software, and is very easy to remove by going to the administrative account and deleting the malware components (which can’t fight back since they can only be started by the limited account)

[mrsmith]

No flashing lights on your router?

[ml/nj]

It’s a good thing for everyone that I have no interest in planting viruses on anyone’s computer. There’s beaucoup ways to do this that haven’t been attempted yet, SFAIAA.

ML/NJ

[exinnj]

I would imagine that a public dismembering of a caught hacker (as opposed of incarceration) would be an effective anti-malware tool.

[daniel1212]

when the laptop is put to sleep and put in its bag and when I arrive at my destination it is super hot ...I also had an Amazon Fire TV box get infected and started running so hot that it became unstable.

We have to ask, is that why your handle is fireman15?

[Bob434]

run linux in a virtual machine on your windows operating system for all online work- much much less apt to get any kind of virus-

You can also run soemthign like sandboxie to isolate your browser from your OS- and delete everything when you go offline- if you get a virus i n the sandbox- oh well- the main operating system is safe supposedly-

Also- another good thing to run is RollBack RX- create a known good snapshot- after you have all your programs and setting set the way you like- if you get a virus- do a rollback- virus gone- even if windows won’t start- it loads before windows does- (You’ll just have to redo all your windows updates though-)

[dfwgator]

VirtualBox is your friend, just run it in non-bridged mode.