Virus Weirdness?

[Teigan]

Norton keeps telling me that is has quarantined/removed/dealt with an "infostealer" type bug. The source file it lists is in my WoW addon folder. Help?

[Vephriel]

A quick Google search brought me to this thread on the WoW forums:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 8992&sid=1

Sounds like trouble. =x

[Teigan]

Well, at least I have an authenticator. Since Norton seems to think it got it and I really am not that computer savvy...um..what if anything should I be doing?
And it makes sense its a WoW specific keylogger, since the timestamps on the Norton log are when I log into WoW.

[Saturo]

Solution= Respec your computer to Linux.

(You might want to try a different AV than Norton. That thing is a bit infamous.)

[Vephriel]

Avast Antivirus is a terrific program.

http://www.avast.com/en-ca/index

It's free and one of the best out there. My boyfriend swears by it for all his techie work.

[Teigan]

I got an apparently very bad virus earlier this year. After I paid an ungodly amount of money for him to wipe and redo my computer, along with be extremely rude to me, the "computer guy" suggested some things. As time goes on, I begin to wonder just how much of a ride he took me for. It seems so many of suggestions are just plain wrong. These two are relevant to this situation.
1. Buy Norton Anti-virus (from us), it's the best there is
2. Never use Firefox. IE is the only good (read safe) browser

So, I will download the Avast software you mentioned, Vephriel. Thank you.
Saturo, I'm not entirely sure what Linux is other than that I'm intimidated by the mention of it!

[Vephriel]

Hate to say this Teigan, but I think you got ripped off.

Norton has not been very reliable as an anti-virus since they were bought out I think. Anyways, these days you can find great free ones that work better than the expensive ones in most cases.

And I would reverse the second point there. Never use IE, Firefox is much safer.

[Bulletdance]

Oh my, I've worked with computers both mac and pc for some years now and I must say I've always heard that internet explorer is just about as safe as driving without a seat belt...with your eyes closed. I'd recommend firefox. I think if Norton is aware of the virus you should be safe from it. I'd only worry if it keeps bringing up the warning. You could try starting your computer in safe mode before running a virus scan. That way only vital processes are running during your scan so any process built in by the virus to prevent its removal may not be able to occur. I hope you can get it fixed ok. Man these machines can be a headache.

[Saturo]

Linux is insanely safe, fast and about the single most difficult operating system out there. By default, it doesn't even have a graphical UI...

[Sarayana]

internet explorer is just about as safe as driving without a seat belt...with your eyes closed.

That there just about sums it up. I've heard good things about google chrome, but I also use firefox, with noscript and adblock. It does require a little effort (i.e., you have to allow safe scripts to run since it just blocks all scripts) but it's well worth the effort, if you ask me.

I had a similar experience, actually. At my department, we had a techie who had set all the department's computers up with firefox and... AVG, I think. Well, he moved to Ottawa and we had to get a replacement. Who promptly uninstalled firefox and AVG, installed Norton, and set everything up for IE. My supervisor had a virus on her computer within a week, and he took just about a month to get to her. We speculated that it was his version of job security. >.>

[Teigan]

Yeah, I think I got hosed in more ways than one. And to top it off, he was a rude SOB too. Never again. It sounds like, from what I've read here, that he was trying to ensure future business....
So, Firefox with Noscript and Adblock, go download Avast Anti-virus. Is that everything, I think?
I guess it's good I gave up on using IE, since I can't use it without it locking up and had been using Firefox anyway.

EDIT: Got the addons and the free version of Avast. Thanks for the tips, guys. I appreciate it.

[Rarako]

If you keep having problems with that virus I would suggest downloading Kaspersky, I have never seen such a in depth virus scan. If you ever have a virus and you can't find out where it's hiding set this watchdog of a program on it. My boyfriend had a very bad virus a little while ago and kaspersky found its hiding spot, and we were able to delete its run files, now it sits on his desktop, harmless, as a bit of a vaccine and an trophy for all those hours of frustration.

[Teigan]

I'll make note of it, but it's out of my price range for now.

[Bulletdance]

I just figured it'd be good to say though I wouldn't recommend using internet explorer I would advise you not to delete it or get rid of it all together either. Typically tech help people are trained using it and a lot of their fix it solutions will require you to use internet explorer. So you never know when you will have to use it even if you don't want to.

[Mr. Perfect]

Make sure you remove Norton before installing Avast, two anti-virus products of any brand won't get along well together.

You might also want to do a scan with Malwarebytes.

As far as Internet Explorer, make sure it's version 8, even if you don't use it. 8 is far safer then 7, and especially ye olde 6, ever was. It at least has sandboxing, something I was surprised to find that Firefox doesn't have. Hopefully it's in FF4.

[Saturo]

The thing about IE is, it runs whether you use it or not. It's always there, like a glaring hole in hour computer saying "ENTRANCE" in large, neon letters. You're never safe on a windows computer. Not even the IE-free version of windows they have in EU-only (/flex) is completely devoid of IE.

[Kaleos]

Like was suggested Avast/AVG are great virus scanners and Malwarebytes will pull out almost anything missed. If you really wanna get em good go for Spybot S&D and Adaware both free and both deal with spyware/malware, scan with each should get you squared away. Never touch IE, Firefox is great and so is Chrome. Seems a little extensive but with all that you should get most near everything that might be present.

[Adam-Savage]

Linux is insanely safe, fast and about the single most difficult operating system out there. By default, it doesn't even have a graphical UI...

It's not the OS that makes it safe. Some (not all ) seem to think they cant get a virus. It's not that they can't, its that then virus are made for Windows. There are vast majority of windows users then other OS.

[Saturo]

Yes, but since the operating system was written to act as a server, security is a VERY integral part of it.

[Saturo]

On this topic; If you use Windows, I recommend a program called "Ashampoo Winoptimizer". Not only can it clear your computer of trash, like abandoned registry entrings, orphaned files and browser-cache, it can also be used to change various advanced settings automatically, to make the computer faster or safer. This includes, for example, disabling services with ABSOLUTELY NO use for a homeuser that can ALSO work as exploits. This disables a large amount of viruses before they can even get into your computer.

EDIT: Spellcheck. -.-