clicking on a fraudulent link 2

[fenix]

I was just reading about the real POSTCARD bot virus, (not the hoax sector 0 version) and I wanted to know if there is any antivirus that will detect any nefarious intentioned servers in real time and warn you or not let you connect to them.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

In other words, is the only way to protect yourself just not clicking on anything suspicious (that could make your computer a bot or steal information from your hard drive) ?

Or are there any A/V programs that offer this kind of protection ?

If not, is there any companies or people working on this kind of protection ?

2nd question:
Will hijack this detect if your computer has a bot virus on it ? I've heard they can hide them pretty well

thx for any info

fenix

 

[electronicsfreak]

Well an antivirus can help be on the lookout if a site is trying to send you to bad sites. Not all of them work this way. I believe avast works with the host file which has thousands of bad known sites. I personally use antivir antivirus. It is my favorite. As far as free antiviruses though, there are a few good ones.

Antivir

http://www.free-av.com

Avg

http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?tag=lst-2

Avast

http://www.download.com/Avast-Home-Edition/3000-2239_4-10019223.html?tag=lst-1

Although nothing will detect everything. The best thing you can do is never click on anything that looks suspicious to you.

As far as hijackthis, yes you can use it to find spyware and things of that nature. However the way it works is by showing you everything that is being used with your connection and browsers. Not everything it shows is bad which is why it is for expert users only. As you can damage your connection and/or more with it if you do not know what you are doing.

It is an extremely useful program I do reccomend learning to use, just work with someone who knows what they are doing till you get a grasp of it so you do not damage your connection.

Hijackthis

http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html

Hijackthis tutorial

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial42.html

If you have any more questions, just let us know.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[wahnula]

Firefox has an excellent extension, called NoScript:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

That will ask you if you want to run a script from a clicked link. Hopefully your antivirus is up-to-date and will notify you if you are trying to open a known virus.

I switched our entire 10-user office to use Firefox by default when the Spyware plague started several years ago, and it alone has cut my admin time for spyware from a couple of hours a week running scans and deleting files to zero today. Although there is still a chance one of my "crazy clicker" users will download something unintentionally, removing IE and ActiveX from the equation has been a tremendous help.

Yes, there are some sites that NEED ActiveX & IE, and for that reason I have not uninstalled IE, I've just removed the shortcuts and quick-launch icons. This way the users come to me to get to IE, and I will gladly exchange this few moments of help with the weekly updating and spyware scanning needed for IE.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[eyec]

if you want to check out a link, you could try using the below service

http://linkscanner.explabs.com/linkscanner/default.asp

 

[electronicsfreak]

Star for you eyec, I never knew anything like that existed. Thank you!!

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[fenix]

Some real great info as always from the good people at tek-tips

thx all

 

[fenix]

Tony,

One question about your response

"Yes, there are some sites that NEED ActiveX & IE, and for that reason I have not uninstalled IE, I've just removed the shortcuts and quick-launch icons. This way the users come to me to get to IE, and I will gladly exchange this few moments of help with the weekly updating and spyware scanning needed for IE."

How deep do you hide IE so that the average user can't find it ?

 

[electricpete]

re: linkscanner

It might be a great service to purchase, but the free service seems to have some bugs.

I submitted three extremely suspicious sites. Three times in a row it came back with:

Congratulations! LinkScanner Online did not find any exploits.

blah blah

[blue]blah blah blah[/blue]

[!]BLAH BLAH BLAH[/!]

[SMALL]CDO.Message.1 error '80040213' The transport failed to connect to the server. /linkscanner/checksite.asp, line 459[/SMALL]

Notice how the failed to connect is at the bottom.... long long after the headline that the site is safe.

 

[wahnula]

How deep do you hide IE so that the average user can't find it ?

Sorry for the delayed response, fenix, I haven't been in this forum in a while. Normally removing the shortcuts and Quick Launch will suffice. Most of my users do not know how to navigate into the C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer folder, so I do it for them when needed. Gladly.

One could easily hide the shortcut in more mysterious places, but I have generally convinced everyone over the years that Firefox is better & safer than IE. All it took was one serious spyware infestation to get my last stubborn IE user to use the default browser, Firefox. Now he even uses it at home.

You need IE of course for Windows Update, and my company's online credit card processing website needs it too, so I left the shortcut on the accountant's PC, she knows that using the default browser is safer.



Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[fenix]

thx for your post Tony. As easy as it was to navigate to that, I hadn't ever thought of that access path. pretty cool. I'll keep your secret, ha ha ..sshhhhhhh