Curse

Elistan Theocrat · Oct 17, 2005, 06:14 AM // 06:14

ugh, what an anoying little bugger, booted my computer and my favorite GW screenie made desktop is gone and replaced by this bogus warning and my desktop is hijacked... anyone else ever pick this one up?

Claire Wolf · Oct 17, 2005, 06:21 AM // 06:21

Nope, haven't gotten it yet ( and hopefully won't ). Have you tried running a program to delete it ? Or does it just sit there and do nothing, start with annoying clicking noises, or the screen freezes ?

Elistan Theocrat · Oct 17, 2005, 06:36 AM // 06:36

well, adaware didnt get it, it could ID it but not permanently remove it. Tried another crappy program that claimed to be able to remove it, and it kind of did, but desktop still wasnt quite right untill I set it to no background.

Symptoms include, bogus warning replacing whatever you have set as a background, and a really annoying habit of drawing windows attention away from whatever youre doing to do something else (and not good i'm presuming) resulting in say this browser window being momentarily not "drawn forward" or on top on the stack, every few seconds. You'd notice this most when typing as it stops responding for half a heartbeat while something else is goin on. After running that second program, my background was 1/2 returned but I was still getting those, Hiccoughs for lack of a better term, untill I set the background to none.

I figure I'll back up the crap i dont want to lose and just nuke the whole thing again. Until then I'm not sure I'm gonna log in cause god forbid its a keylogger and someone nabs my GW account

huh · Oct 17, 2005, 06:45 AM // 06:45

I use a combination of Spybot, PC-cillin Internet Security, and Microsoft Antispyware to keep my computer clean (or as clean as possible).

I update the programs everyday and do a full scan of my computer every night when I go to sleep.

Those 3 programs seem to do it for me cos I don't get any weird stuff.
Hopefully there's not some hidden thing that all 3 can't detect.

Claire Wolf · Oct 17, 2005, 06:46 AM // 06:46

Sounds icky. I would be VERY careful though because it sounds like it can most likely have a keylogger, like you've said. My old noob computer got a hijacker, keylogger, and some "uber 1337" virus with five thousand pop-ups. But it didn't pick up a thing on scans. I would just caution the websites you visit -.-;; since from personal experience I've gotten waaaay too many bugs from webbies.

EDIT: I hate things that install on stealth >;O

kg_lildude1 · Oct 17, 2005, 06:56 AM // 06:56

i think i read somewhere that you can sue the companies of such spy/adware for up to $5,000 for each piece of ad/spyware

downloading spyware fully knowing it is, does not constitute the above though

here is a high profile lawsuit as one example
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1782649,00.asp

another one
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05..._utah_spyware/

yet another
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04...ware_workshop/
on that one please note the parts about "computer fraud, and identity theft", since there is no anti-spyware law in any state except Utah, you can file lawsuit under those

Omega_2005 · Oct 17, 2005, 10:00 AM // 10:00

I'd hate to say it, but it hijacks EVERYthing on your computer's HDD, so the only way to truly prevent it is to get the OS installer and format evrything. If you have any way of backing up data, I'd suggest you do so.

I'm really sorry, but I have had a trojan before and it took me and my brother 3 DAYS to get everything back up and running. But at least all of the Internet Server data will be saved.

D.E.V.i.A.N.C.E · Oct 17, 2005, 10:11 AM // 10:11

And this is why people need firewalls that ask you about everything.
http://labs.paretologic.com/spyware.aspx?remove=PSGuard
details to remove it; or use that whatever software they use.

telarin · Oct 17, 2005, 10:14 AM // 10:14

try looking up on windows preloaded environment, callet bartPE
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
It's a windows XP on a CD, quite useful for disasterous situations where you want to have a 'clean' boot cd to use. If you can make it on another PC and boot ur infected pc with it to copy out whatever u need.

Elistan Theocrat · Oct 19, 2005, 03:13 AM // 03:13

thanks for the info you folks rock

Platinum Agent · Oct 19, 2005, 03:17 AM // 03:17

Here's a tip: Get some floopies, cds, USBs, anything and save all of your computer's data on them. For the items that don't want to copy to your memory device of choice you should try to put the data on a website.