Bloody computers

pingu lord of all penguin

Windows has very helpfully downloaded an anti virus update for me called trustninja.
has anyone else had this happen as all it seems to do is to have two annoying windows pop up in the midle of what ever programme im running which redirect me to a $50 perchase option.

any help would be most useful

Th3 Firestarter

Sounds like a trojan disguised as an anti-virus program. Don't for christ sake put any credit details in otherwise you might get a nasty card statement. I had one a few years ago called spy falcon. Had to send the laptop to a computer expert/geek to get rid of it, which cost about £50!

Anonymous

Best one I've seen was on my Mother's Ubuntu box. She was freaked about a virus, so I checked it out for her.
Turns out, it was one of those stupid popups that was trying to look like a windows XP dialog box, warning her about several "infections" and to "click here now to fix for $50"

Looked so out of place on Ubuntu it was hysterical (for the non geeks, the actual "windows" on Ubuntu look nothing like the ones in Microsoft Windows, so it was a compelte giveaway)

blister pus

lol. Windows hasn't downloaded anything at all - you have, or whoever interacts with the machine.

Download, update, run and perform a complete scan with: http://www.superantispyware.com/

And: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Reboot and then run an online scan from any of:

http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/uk/

And if you're not clean after that (and it's a possibility) then you'll need to run SmitfraudFix - but you''ll need to go to a dedicated spyware removal forum and get professional assistance to guide you through the process as the process has no place in an off topic bike forum (and I don't mean that snottily - it really doesn't).

The Northern Monkey

just buy a mac.... newer OS is 64bit so there's even less chance of a virus (not that there was any chance of one anyways... i think there's only been, erm, two?)

blister pus

lol. except you don't need to pay through the nose to become a mactard you just need to use a Windows machine properly and learn to surf the web securely and safely and you won't get any infections , it really ain't that difficult either.

gazza_d1

This sort of program is written by complete crooks. If you pay for this, you are at massive risk of getting your card cloned and scammed, and any email account completly obliterated by spam etc for all eternity - do NOT send any money or give them your card details under any circumstance.

Only surefire and the quickest way to get rid of this sort of crap for good, is to copy your documents and pictures etc (which you should copy to a backup ( like a usb stick or hard disk )on a regular basis anyway, and reimage the PC from the manufacturer supplied disks. I have spent hours trying to get rid of this sort of crap for people. Some of these programs infect PCs almost as bad or worse than some viruses.

I'd also recommend downloading firefox 3.5, installing adblock, and disabling popup windows.

Anonymous

bigbenj_08 wrote:

newer OS is 64bit so there's even less chance of a virus

64 bit has nothing to do with virus attacks. Also, Windows has been available for the mainstream as a 64-bit OS for some time.

Curiously, it appears as though OSX Snow Leopard is going to have a form of anti-virus built in. Mark of the times, eh?

The Northern Monkey

yeehaamcgee wrote:

bigbenj_08 wrote:

newer OS is 64bit so there's even less chance of a virus

64 bit has nothing to do with virus attacks. Also, Windows has been available for the mainstream as a 64-bit OS for some time.

Curiously, it appears as though OSX Snow Leopard is going to have a form of anti-virus built in. Mark of the times, eh?

Mac wrote:

Another benefit of the 64-bit applications in Snow Leopard is that they’re even more secure from hackers and malware than the 32-bit versions.
That's because 64-bit applications can use more advanced security techniques to fend off malicious code.
First, 64-bit applications can keep their data out of harm's way thanks to a more secure function argument-passing mechanism and the use of hardware-based execute disable for heap memory.
In addition, memory on the system heap is marked using strengthened checksums, helping to prevent attacks that rely on corrupting memory.

Anonymous

That's just Apple guff. Don't believe the hype.
DEP is a function on x64 capable CPUs, but can be leveraged on 32-bit OSes.

This is quite apart from the fact that OSX is still not going to be a fully 64-bit OS, but is actually a hybrid. :roll:

Nick Dastardly

^ ^
Nerd alert!!!!!!!

Can we please talk about bikes or something?

blister pus

It is securi-techno-sales speak and it's only by virtue of desktop x86 market share - the more x64 OS adoption happens as a desktop norm then malware writers switch their attentions to the x64 versions of OSes, and there's still only one winner in that arena and it's Linux. As it is just by numbers alone Macs will be more secure than Windows and if their market share ever grew exponentially you'd see the exact same problem Microsoft have. Apple sits nicely in the MS slipstream and does quite well (thank you very much) out of doing so.

Anonymous

Well, it is a thread called "bloody computers".
And sadly, I am a nerd, yes. As well as being an engineer, I'm also the head of IT at work.

Embarrasing I know, but when the machines rise against us, at least I can talk to them in their language, and be spared a life of being their slave

The Northern Monkey

yeehaamcgee wrote:

That's just Apple guff. Don't believe the hype.
DEP is a function on x64 capable CPUs, but can be leveraged on 32-bit OSes.

This is quite apart from the fact that OSX is still not going to be a fully 64-bit OS, but is actually a hybrid. :roll:

its only a "hybrid" so that the OS can also run on 32-bit systems if needed.

It still doesn't detract from the point that its highly unlikely that you can get a virus on a mac... I've have mine for 2 years now, not had any anti-virus software, and check it once a month using a virus scanner and have never found anything.

Its just too easy with microsoft.. no matter what "protection" you have.
Plus... windows is SHITE.

There's a lot of people that have seen my mac and said "why?!"... then after getting used to it realize how much easier it is to use.
Apart from gaming, there is nothing mac can't do that windows can... and i'm not a pc gamer, I have my PS3 for that.

Lots of people say your're paying for style.... you really arent. Mac osx's are so much more user friendly, easier to work with, have a lot more useful bits and pieces to make life easy.... out-of-the-box.

I doubt i'd go back to windows.

Anonymous

bigbenj_08 wrote:

its only a "hybrid" so that the OS can also run on 32-bit systems if needed.

No, it's a hybrid, because it runs a hybrid 32/64-bit kernel. It can't fully exploit the advantages of 64-bit

bigbenj_08 wrote:

Plus... windows is SHITE.

That's just opinion

bigbenj_08 wrote:

There's a lot of people that have seen my mac and said "why?!"... then after getting used to it realize how much easier it is to use.

I'd argue that people's complacency with Windows makes them less likely to actually learn the proper ways of doing things. When they switch to a Mac, they have to learn how to do things again, and they usually learn the proper ways

bigbenj_08 wrote:

Apart from gaming, there is nothing mac can't do that windows can... and i'm not a pc gamer, I have my PS3 for that.

Likewise, there's nothing a mac can do that a PC can't. (big business use is a different matter, and is irrelevant to the general public anyway)

I honestly don't care what you use. I get mildly annoyed that people follow the mac doctrine blindly without question, but likewise, I also get annoyed when people do the same with Microsoft, or Linux.

Just be glad that there is a choice, it forces everyone to up their game.

The Northern Monkey

you can't seriously say to yourself that "yep, windows is a truly excellent OS"

I'd argue that windows is more complicated than it needs to be....

I'm not sure that windows/mac/linux etc matter in business... at my work they run a "live system" that has nothing to do with windows or mac

Oh and I don't "follow the mac doctorine". i took me a very long while to switch to mac. GF was using them in uni and i had a go every now and then. It just seemed so much better than what Microsoft had to offer.

Anonymous

bigbenj_08 wrote:

you can't seriously say to yourself that "yep, windows is a truly excellent OS"

Yes, I can. :roll:

bigbenj_08 wrote:

I'm not sure that windows/mac/linux etc matter in business... at my work they run a "live system" that has nothing to do with windows or mac

I presume you mean some kind of a "cloud" based system?
What exactly do you think that system is running on it it's not *nix or windows? Honestly?

The Northern Monkey

yeehaamcgee wrote:

bigbenj_08 wrote:

you can't seriously say to yourself that "yep, windows is a truly excellent OS"

Yes, I can. :roll:

oooooooook.

blister pus

Each OS flavour excels at different things and Windows has many flavours as does *nix / linux, there is no such thing as a truly excellent do-all all round OS.

And if you administer a desktop Windows properly you'll never get infected, it just isn't rocket science keeping a Windows machine clean.

Kiblams

yeehaamcgee wrote:

I presume you mean some kind of a "cloud" based system?
What exactly do you think that system is running on it it's not *nix or windows? Honestly?

LMAO! We use a cloud (thin client) system at work for training sessions.

I actually see windows as a necessary evil, and until linux has more time/money invested in it we will all have to lump it. I have the same issue with windows/linux as I have with rigid forks/suspension; I love browsing and office apps on linux (efficient like rigid forks), until I actually want to play a game (hit the trails), then it's back to windows (suspension).

The different operating systems have a place, but I simply can't justify the cost of an apple machine or the compatability/lack of gaming of linux. Windows is just the best compromise.

Anonymous

Kiblams wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

I presume you mean some kind of a "cloud" based system?
What exactly do you think that system is running on it it's not *nix or windows? Honestly?

LMAO! We use a cloud (thin client) system at work for training sessions.

Same question to you then. What OS is underpinning that? It has to be either *nix or windows.

Kiblams

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Kiblams wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

I presume you mean some kind of a "cloud" based system?
What exactly do you think that system is running on it it's not *nix or windows? Honestly?

LMAO! We use a cloud (thin client) system at work for training sessions.

Same question to you then. What OS is underpinning that? It has to be either *nix or windows.

Ours runs on windows... I was agreeing with you... :shock: Sorry if that didn't come accross well. :?

Anonymous

Ah, ok!

bails87

I was tempted to get a Mac when looking at a new laptop a month or so ago, but after using iTunes *shudder* and getting an iPod (didn't want one, but couldn't find any sensible alternatives) I've been put off Apple stuff! Having used a Creative mp3 player, the "iPods are intuitive" crowd really bug me.

It's only when you've used something that's not an ipod that you realise it lacks features, the 'Add to now playing' one being my biggest bug bear! With a creative/sony/sansa it's easy (one click) but with an iPod you have to......
clear the "on-the-go" playlist,
then go back to the library, find the song you're listening to,
add that album/artist to the now empty "on-the-go" playlist,
then find the song you wanted to add, add it to the "on-the-go" playlist too,
then navigate through the library to find the playlist you've just made,
then interrupt the song you're currently listening to so that you can restart playing it from in the playlist, as opposed to playing from the album/artist view, even though when you look at it in the playlist view it has the now playing symbol next to it, which suggests that you're now listening to the playlist!

Oh, and I've used Windows for years, never had a virus, it's generally not a problem if you don't turn off your antivirus and download dodgy software.

Oh, and as a wise man once said, I'll tell you something I can do on my PC that you can't do on a Mac....right click!

Anonymous

bails, you can right click on a mac as well, doh!

I'm also not a fan of i-tunes, but it does work much better on OSX than it does on Windows. (cough) I wonder why (cough, cough).

mikey0303

bigbenj_08 wrote:

just buy a mac.... newer OS is 64bit so there's even less chance of a virus (not that there was any chance of one anyways... i think there's only been, erm, two?)

agreed

I would never go back to Windoze even if they paid me :roll:

thekickingmule

I've been a Mac fan for years, however, since they moved over to Intel chips, I think that they are getting stuck up their own ar*e holes!
I run a eMac G4, it's gettin ancient, but a sturdy work horse. It's had one infection, but I got rid of that easily. I think yeehaamcgee put it right in that when people move from PC to mac, they learn how to use it properly. PC's are a really easy thing to keep clean, just learn to use it properly and hey presto, just a like a mac. And I mean, just like a mac! Mac's with Intel processers are glorified PC's really.

The greatest thing about PC's over Macs is the ability to upgrade. You can upgrade it as you wish and for not too much money. When you buy a Mac, you buy INTO Mac, and your upgrade (fair enough, this may be 5/7/10 years down the line) could cost you thousands, and you'll find that you can't get all the features that you currently have. I'd love a MacBook to do my Freelance Location Recordings, however the macbook no longer comes with a firewire 400 port as standard, you have to buy the 'super deluxe versions'.

They're seriously cheesing me off are Apple. They need to stop their snobby ways.

bails87

yeehaamcgee wrote:

bails, you can right click on a mac as well, doh!

I'm also not a fan of i-tunes, but it does work much better on OSX than it does on Windows. (cough) I wonder why (cough, cough).

Heh, fine! Do you not have to hold down a keyboard button to do it though? Like having to hold Ctrl every time you wanted to right click on a PC Last macbook I saw just had the touchpad as one big button.

Either way, iTunes is still wierd to navigate and a bit awkward to use, never noticed any problems with actual performance, I just don't like it, that and the iPod conspired to stop me buying a Mac!

I'm sure they're good, just can't help feeling that I'd be falling for an awful lot of marketing spiel if I bought one though. As a side point, does every person who buys a Mac because they're more secure contribute to making them less secure? Because the number of potential scam/spyware/virus victims using a Mac increases, so the scammers are more likely to write viruses for them?

Anonymous

^^oh, on the macbooks? I see, I thought you meant with a mouse. I think there is some combination of tapping you can do on the touchpad to emulate a right click, but I've never figured it out (this completely goes against apple's original design ethos of having a one button mouse, BTW )

As for liking i-tunes? I'm the same as you, not a fan at all, but it does indeed run better on OSX than it does on windows, but then again, Office runs much better on Windows than it does on OSX. Make of that what you will!

The computer security thing is reaching a point where no platform is safe from attack now.
The vast majority of risks for people online these days comes from social engineering attacks, luting them into paying for something, or giving away their details or somesuch.
Unfortunately, none of the platforms can truly protect you from these threats just yet. I do worry that less savvy poeple who have been told to "just get a mac" will think they are automatically immune from such attacks, and will click away with nary a thought, providing crucial details to unsavoury parties.

Kiblams

thekickingmule wrote:

The greatest thing about PC's over Macs is the ability to upgrade.

Agreed, buying a Mac is like buying a £2000 bike with every component except for the grips and pedals weilded together. It will do it's job for the time being, but if something breaks or you want to upgrade a part you will be sending it back to the shop without choice (and paying a fortune)

Malware is a major issue at the moment, and with rootkits they are getting trickier to remove, but as long as you keep your anti-virus upto date and don't download anything silly (keep the kids off it) you can live happily ever after.

Thewaylander

PS the whole AMc thing is more secure was blown out of the water earlier this year.

It seems the hackers were getting fed up with the our MAcs are more secure thing and focused more on them, the only reason Macs were previously considered more secure was they were the area of home PC, and had a far more minimal user base.

Recently far more virus's and hacking instances have begun to occur against Mac users and since the system has not had to cope with large scale assaults before the results have not been so good.

So please give up on the its more secure line hehe its not, its just not been attacked hard till very recently