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Old 10-21-2005, 12:13 PM   #9 (permalink)
Vikesrock8411
Analyst, Security Team
 
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 3,065
OS: Windows XP


Nice work John
Your log appears to be clean. If you still have any problems let me know and we will work on diagnosing those through other means. If not, there are just a few more things to go through to finish this off and help prevent future infections. Please post one more time even if you have no problems so we can mark this thread as resolved.

Disabling the Viewing of Hidden and System Files
  • Click Start.
  • Open My Computer.
  • Select the Tools menu and click Folder Options.
  • Select the View tab.
  • Deselect the Show hidden files and folders option.
  • Select the Hide file extensions for known types option.
  • Select the Hide protected operating system files option.
  • Click Yes to confirm.
  • Click OK.

Setting a new Restore Point
To turn off System Restore click Start > Right Click My Computer > Properties. Click the System Restore tab and Check Turn off System Restore or Turn off System Restore on all drives. Click Apply. When turning off System Restore, the existing restore points will be deleted. Click Yes to do this then Click OK.

Reboot your system.

To turn on System Restore click Start > Right Click My Computer > Properties.Click the System Restore tab. Uncheck "Turn off System Restore" or "Turn off System Restore on all drives." Click Apply, and then OK.

Windows Update
Make sure to get the latest updates for Windows and Internet Explorer at Microsoft Update Site.

Prevention
A good virus scanner is a necessity in today's computer environment. Many virus scanners include active components that protect you from infection without even running a scan. Some good free antivirus programs include:
AVG Free
Avast! Home Edition
AntiVir

A firewall is the first line of defense standing between the internet and your computer. Some good free firewalls are:

Zone Alarm
Kerio
Sygate

Adaware SE and Spybot SD are a pair of anti-spyware scanners that should be run every week or two. Although there is some overlap there are many pieces of malware that is caught by one of these and not the other, therefore it is recommended you use both to compliment each other. Spybot also contains two other useful pieces. The first is "Immunize", this helps protect your computer against known exploits. The second is "TeaTimer", with this feature enabled you will receive notifications of all changes to the registry such as programs adding themselves to start-up and you default search page being changed.

Spyware Blaster is a powerful tool that prevents "drive-by" downloads and other unwanted installations. It also uses no system resources, run it once and you're all set. Spyware Guard Is a realtime protection engine to guard your computer from spyware. This program does for spyware what an antivirus program does for viruses.

IE-Spyad is a program that only needs to be run once to protect you from many malicious sites. It adds domains of known adware companies into the Restricted List of Internet Explorer, preventing them from performing malicious actions on your PC.

The MVPS HOSTS file is a file you can download and use to replace your regular hosts file. It prevents many sites from performing malicious actions by blocking the sites from ever being accessed.

Together these programs form a powerful barrier between the Internet and your computer. However, all the programs stand alone and feel free to eliminate any you are not comfortable with. Any protection you add to your PC is better than no protection at all.

Alternative Programs
Here are some alternatives that are either less suceptible than others to malware or don't contain malware where similar programs do.

Trillian or Miranda-IM - These are Malware free Instant Messenger programs which allow you to connect to multiple IM services in one program! (AOL, Yahoo, ICQ, IRC, MSN)

Weather Watcher - Free taskbar weather program that is free, malware free, and resource light.

Firefox - This is an increasingly popular alternate browser. Whilst Internet Explorer is not a bad browser, almost every exploit crafted is targeted to take advantage of an IE weakness.

Sun's Java - It's much more secure than Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine.
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