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Yahoo Messenger worm turns on IE
VNUnet ^ | 21 May 2006 | Clement James

Posted on 05/21/2006 6:32:25 PM PDT by gondramB

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To: AbeKrieger
Yeah but these worm/virus/trojan/malware writers REALLY inconvenience us.

</SARCASM>

21 posted on 05/21/2006 7:29:23 PM PDT by savedbygrace (SECURE THE BORDERS FIRST (I'M YELLING ON PURPOSE))
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To: Always Right
Can't they just shut down that website?

No, the website is part of a group the promotes illegal immigration into the U.S. and Congress must debate how to handle the situation. They are thinking about putting up a firewall and then instituting fines against anyone that goes to the website.

Although some in the Senate are opposed to the firewall idea.

22 posted on 05/21/2006 7:31:40 PM PDT by BJungNan
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To: BJungNan

I spend most of time on the internet using win 98. Works ok and not many attacks.

I recently got a worm on my 530n HP which is a 2.8mhz and runs winxp home edition. It was, was disabling and rendering the virus protection, and malware programs useless. Damn, they are getting sophisticated. It eventually locked up the computer, or I killed some crutial function, trying to get rid of it. All I could get was a blank screen.

HP has the partitioned hard drive with restore capability....you don't have to reload the operating system and drivers from disks. Never used it before but it restored everything....amazing.


23 posted on 05/21/2006 7:47:33 PM PDT by TheLion
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To: TheLion

Good to know. Thanks. I heard that restore feature worked. Thought of trying it just for the heck of it...next time I am on a friends computer...


24 posted on 05/21/2006 7:56:57 PM PDT by BJungNan
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To: observer5
Mac once had 24% of the market, now less than 4%. The had to give up on their own operating system and processor. There are holes found in every operating system, including Solaris, BSD, SuSE, Redhat, and all the other flavors of linux and unix. Keep patched, and backed up. run good anti-virus and firewall. The rats will always be ahead of the traps in the computing world.
25 posted on 05/21/2006 8:02:49 PM PDT by rightwingtechman
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To: BJungNan

Do you have an HP? BTW, when you start the restore, they ask you are you really sure you want to do this? It will wipe out everthing you installed since you bought the computer....but actually it restored everything on the HD. I was impressed.

I just have to do some tweaking to get folders and things back to the way I like them. There may be a few programs that won't function. I found one allready.


26 posted on 05/21/2006 8:02:52 PM PDT by TheLion
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To: formercalifornian
So what do you do if you use Yahoo Messenger? Never let it boot again? Is there some remedy?

Use something else, like Trillian or AIM.

27 posted on 05/21/2006 8:11:07 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: formercalifornian; All
The best solution for this malware is prevention rather than cleanup. Like most malware, it counts on getting a "sucker" to take some action, in this case clicking on a link, in order to install itself.

When it infects a computer, it will likely send a message like this:

hey dude check out this pic of us
coolpic.jpg

Most people, when they get such a message from someone in their buddy list, will assume the link is actually to a picture and click on it. Of course, if you mouse over the (fake) link in my example, you'll see it actually points to a .com file, which is an executable program, even though I falsely labeled it as a .jpg picture file. Clicking on a link to an executable program will run the program, thus installing the malware on your computer and sending the same message to everyone in your buddy list.

The solution is simply not to click on any link anyone sends you via instant messenger program unless you can confirm with them that it is a genuine link and not malicious. It's also advisable to right-click the link and select "Properties" to make sure the link points to what it says it does, such as a .jpg picture or a .html web page, and is not actually a program such as a .com or .exe file. In any case, it is not possible for such a worm to run without action on the part of the user, and avoiding clicking on any link sent by instant messenger will prevent infection of your PC.

On a side note, while I use and recommend Firefox as a better web browser than IE6, it's of no particular help in this case. Yes, it won't get infected, but if you click on an infected link, you will still get this worm on your computer, and it will still attempt to infect everyone on your buddy list. Other malicious effects are also possible.

28 posted on 05/21/2006 8:18:48 PM PDT by Turbopilot (Nothing in the above post is or should be construed as legal research, analysis, or advice.)
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To: BJungNan

firewalls are insensitive!

You are only allowed to set up a VIRTUAL firewall which will report the problems to a service agent of the IP service (someone outsourced working in India), That IP agent will call you and advise you how to fix your problem within 30 days (assuming you can even understand them)


29 posted on 05/21/2006 8:19:55 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: gondramB

I've always looked at IMs as a portal for bad crap since it requires no action by the end user - which is why I refuse to use it and delete messengers from bundled software.

Ironically, my employer uses it.


30 posted on 05/21/2006 8:31:17 PM PDT by Tall_Texan (I wish a political party would come along that thinks like I do.)
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To: seppel

I'll try Firefox again. Last time certain programs wouldn't work with it or images not loading. It's been so long I can't remember what the problem was, but it's sure worth a try again.


31 posted on 05/21/2006 9:23:53 PM PDT by formercalifornian (One nation, under whatever popular fad comes to mind at the moment, indivisible...)
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To: Turbopilot

Thanks. Very helpful. As long as you don't click links you're fine. I never click links on Yahoo Messenger, so I guess I won't have a problem (if the kids don't, that is).


32 posted on 05/21/2006 9:26:18 PM PDT by formercalifornian (One nation, under whatever popular fad comes to mind at the moment, indivisible...)
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To: TheLion

No, I have a home built system. Really need to do a back up. But I see XP has the restore. Do you figure it works the same? The HP system sounds great.

Anyhow, I think I had best do a date back up. I have the burner and the disks next to me. Would hate to loose some data I have on there since my last back up.


33 posted on 05/21/2006 10:15:19 PM PDT by BJungNan
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To: mkjessup
"a mandatory death sentence => a dramatic decrease in hacking and other sorts of computer tampering."

True, but then the security holes would remain and only be exploited during times of war by governments and/or terrorist groups.

I don't like them either, but then I don't understand why it's so hard to make secure software.

34 posted on 05/21/2006 10:57:11 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: BJungNan

I've just found out that all my game codes and registration info have to be re-entered. Windows itself must get overwritten in the restore process which wipes out any ini files. It probably overwrites the registry too, otherwise the origional problem would not go away.


35 posted on 05/22/2006 5:26:24 PM PDT by TheLion
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