Internet Attack Exploits Microsoft Software Flaws ( Internet Explorer vulnerable )

Reuters ^ | Fri Jun 25, 2004 08:25 PM ET | Duncan Martell

[Lauren BaRecall]

I have Spybot, just ran it.

Ah, just saw that.

[bobwoodard]

I recommend users do NOT install OPERA as an alternative to IE at this time, since that appears to be a SPINOFF from IE. Note a sampling of the HTTP headers from Opera users all say they are compatible with various releases of MSIE (Internet Explorer), so they therefore are ALSO most likely corruptible by these Russian worms/trojans.

Actually, that's a strategy to fool web sites that try to block browsers that _aren't_ IE. Headers mean almost absolutely nothing these days since the newer browsers let you fake your headers to avoid site lockouts.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See my post #78 to Meg33.

Looks like at the Spyinfo website they have a good methology to get someone started to clean the machine without starting over totally or buying a new machine.....course if you have an old one and the money ....might be smart to get a new fresh machine .... but it is almost a philosophy thing.

Said I was gonna start on Linux but I thing my newest video card, an expensive ATI all in wonder 9600xt pro just went bad.

Hmm....

[TaxRelief]

Opera is mozilla based, is it not?

Opera is excellent.

[Future Useless Eater]

Actually, that's a strategy to fool web sites that try to block browsers that _aren't_ IE.

Thank you! That answer makes sense.
I withdraw any implied criticism, or reservation I had of Opera.

While I don't find any evidence that Opera is Mozilla-based, it does seem that it is more in alignment with the Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox folks than with Redmond Washington billionaires...

Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software Describe Joint Vision for Web Application Framework
Tuesday May 25th, 2004

The Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software have published a paper outlining their vision for Web applications. The paper, submitted in preparation for next week's W3C Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents, describes a device-independent Web application framework based on HTML and backwards-compatible with existing Web content. The two organisations are keen to get parts of this framework in place soon to prevent a single-vendor solution (see Microsoft's position paper) becoming dominant.

[TexasTransplant]

I said

Firefox and Thunderbird are now installed, everything went smooth except for maintaining my website (with Homestead), which wanted me to Install Netscape Plugins, I sent off a message to tech support and will maintain the website w/ IE until I hear back.

Painless, easy

Thank you

What a difference a day makes,  I am back to IE, (everything was working fine until my Firewall decided Firefox was an issue, next thing I know all of my settings are changed, my IP rejected any attempt to log on, down hill from there)

I uninstalled my Firewall, tried to re-install Firefox and had the same problems.

I am still using Thunderbird (I like it too, and I still like Firefox) but until the new Firefox comes out I will continue to use IE and patch and update for protection.  For a day it was good, I was a happy camper and I hope the new edition of Firefox can deal with the Firewall issue.

Thanks again

TT

[Cedar]

Spyware Info has a great tech forum. The guy had me download "HiJack This" plus do some other stuff with various files.

It was a great learning experience ( I had never dealt with a "trojan" before--it was stealing/hijacking my cursor). He gave very clear instructions, and we finally got rid of it. And all of this help was free!

It's a great site if you are having any problems with your PC, or even if you want to just learn about spyware, trojans, etc.

The program "HiJack This" is a good thing to have (it's free too). But before you use it to delete anything, it's best to post your log file of it to the forum board and let one of the tech guys tell you what to delete and what not to delete (unless you already are a techie yourself and don't need them to tell you).

[TaxRelief]

http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/history/opera.htm

[Philip_the_evangelist]

I haven't tried it so I wondered when you mentioned an unnamed open-source simulator. Of course, it's still at version 0.9.4 and has a lot of catching up. What specifically did you not like about it?

[Nick Danger]

A friend of mine told me that [Spybot] doesn't catch everything, though. Have you ever tried it?

I have tried it. I'm trying to get rid of something that got into IE that causes pop-ups on sites where there are no pop-ups. I've tried Ad-aware, spybot, CW-Shredder, and a full Norton scan. Whatever this adware thing is, it's still there. I only use IE for testing my own web sites, so it's not that big a deal... but I don't know what else the #%%$@* thing might be doing, so I want to get rid of it. So far no luck.

[B Knotts]

It crashed/froze a lot, and, at least at the time, the scenery was not as good.

[BobS]

"I picked up a couple a few weeks ago. I just haven't had the time...."

Should you change your dating habits? LOL- I can't resist:):):)

[Philip_the_evangelist]

OK, now you have me curious. Under what OS were you running it and what version of the simulator were you using? The website says the entire scenery set occupies 11 CDs which sounds like either a LOT of low quality stuff or a decent amount high quality stuff. The disk map shows practically all land areas covered as well as significant oceanic areas.

[Liberal Classic]

I'm no Windows expert, but try Lavasoft's AdAware. Be sure you go to http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ or http://www.lavasoft.de/. They have a free version you can download, which will find most of these pop up ads, spybots, and trojans. It is not an anti-virus tool strictly speaking, and it really should be used in conjunction with something like Nortons or McAfee, but it can be a big help in a pinch.

[snowstorm12]

Hey yall I have a question. I have been invaded by much of this spyware, trojans malware etc. One day my cd-rom opened up by itself! I almost flipped out, no joke.
I had popups everywhere and my google searches were messed up. I have spybot and ad-aware. When I first used them with the latest updates it didn't get rid of the google problem I was having.
Two days ago I updated spybot and ad-aware fixed my search engine problem finally yay!
My question is I still have these weird things on my desktop called o , bs5-nt15v , silent?
Do I have to wait for another update for ad-aware to get rid of these things?
Also I disabled my internet explore active x, java so is this good enough or do I still need firefox?
I use netscape is that better?

[js1138]

Get Spyware Blaster. It prevents these things from being downloaded.

[Lauren BaRecall]

I was speaking to the same friend today, and told him about this thread. In the course of conversation, he said that sometimes the only way to get rid of something is to save to disk what you know you want to save, and uninstall *everything* else. Even the OS. Then you take your original disks and reinstall the OS and all your programs, etc.

I told him that I'd never even THINK of attempting that alone! LOL!

In the meantime, I bought Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional. I decided that will be my first step (but not tonight).

Anyway, you may have to clean off the whole disk, as my friend discussed.

[Lauren BaRecall]

Yes! I should find men who know about computers! LOL!

[Liberal Classic]

I've had to do this. My wife and I cleaned off a friend's computer that had so many popups and things that it was unusable. We had to put in a second hard drive, loaded Windows on it, and cleaned the original hard drive from there. After that we were able to boot from the original hard drive and run nortons and stuff.

Sometimes you have no choice but to reload from scratch, though.

[Lauren BaRecall]

Thanks very much for the links. :o) I bookmarked both of them. I'll do SystemWorks first. Then I want to look at all the links I've collected, and then decide the order in which I want to try them.

Actually, I'm looking forward to tinkering with all of this stuff. :o)