Tuesday, February 22, 2011

On The Virus In My Eee

It proved to be deeply entrenched and intractable; I'm doing a full system recovery. Will that get rid of it? Maybe. Still can't figure how I got it in the first place.

Saved some text files on a thumb drive. If I can figure out how to be sure they're clean -- pipe 'em through a Mac and back out on a fresh USB drive? -- I won't have to start over on the current chapter of "Dropping In" (which was supposed to be posted already!).

Update: Recovery recovered and I have Malwarebytes and Spybot - Search and Destroy loaded, along with AVG. Plus I put Q10 back on it. It just shut down and powered back up okay. Fingers crossed!

3 comments:

  1. Hi Roberta,

    Most people "get" the need for anti-virus" programs and buy reputable software and keep it up to date. Still, this is less than adequate. As you've discovered, you need to control the malware that sneaks in the door from other sources. Use your MalwareBytes or SpyBot regularly; somewhere between weekly and monthly.

    We use the Firefox browser and, although it drives my lovely wife buggy, I insist on installing the "No-Script" add-on. "No-Script" is not unlike a firewall for a webpage. You control what appears on the web page when you open it. This goes a long way to stopping the malware from getting in.

    Jerry

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can't vouch for No-Script enough; That and a couple others: Adblock Plus, Ghostery and BetterPrivacy. No sense running scripts, downloading ads, or leaving a trail for marketers. Oh yeah, Flashblock too for those pesky talking flash ads.

    E-mail me if you want re installation & use.

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unfortunately, all the virus protection in the world won't help much when it's something new, and not a rehash of an existing bug. Having been the guy in the NOC saying, "Hey, guys, we're getting a lot of weird traffic on port such-n-such.", I can tell you it's no fun.

    ReplyDelete

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