[jmitchell]

Has anyone had one of these nasty buggers? It appears to be a very sophisticated one and may be in the "kernel" layer of our computer. It has hi-jack our BofA passwords, personal info, used our Verizon broadband aircard to send our information to whoever/where ever and maybe even used our broadband to send spam -- made us go over our 5G TWICE! Also, got a hold of my credit card number and starting charging and sending me "presents". What a mess, but nothing too bad or unresolvable yet...

We are buying a MacBook this weekend since most of these bad guys don't waste their time programming virus' for the Mac, but does anyone know if the GeekSquad at BestBuy is knowledgable enough to rid our PC of this or do we need to find an expert/ex-hacker?

Thanks!

[Dan =^..^=]

Geeze, what a nightmare!

I recently had a trojan that several well known anti-virus and anti-malware programs could not kill but one product wiped it out without a problem; it was the free version of SUPERAntiSpyware. I was so happy that I paid for their Professional Version.

In case you want to give it a try, here is their website:

http://www.superantispyware.com/index.html

Good luck,

Dan

[jmitchell]

Originally Posted by Dan =^..^=

Geeze, what a nightmare!

I recently had a trojan that several well known anti-virus and anti-malware programs could not kill but one product wiped it out without a problem; it was the free version of SUPERAntiSpyware. I was so happy that I paid for their Professional Version.

In case you want to give it a try, here is their website:

http://www.superantispyware.com/index.html

Good luck,

Dan

Dan,

Thanks! I'll check it out. I am absolutely NO expert -- barely a novice -- will something like this work after-the-fact or do I need to have my computer 'cleaned' and then install this?

[784caroline]

If you are already running AVG and Malwarebytes, can you downloand Superantispyware and run it.

[jmitchell]

Originally Posted by 784caroline

If you are already running AVG and Malwarebytes, can you downloand Superantispyware and run it.

We do not have AVG and Malwarebytes --We were not SMART and as a friend told me -- our computer was so unprotected it was like leaving our home for a 6 month vacation, with doors and windows wide open and oh yeah btw - you live in a "very bad, bad, bad part of town"

I guess we need to get it cleaned completely. I think we will only use our MacBook for personal info stuff and use this laptop PC for basic fun stuff. Any other advice is welcome!

P.S. 784caroline -- I spoke with hubby last night about Title Insurance after requesting subcontractor doc from developer and we decided to forgo Title Insurance - I've ALWYS wanted to do this and I finally feel GOOD about doing it. We KNOW we will sleep o.k.! Thanks again.

[Dan =^..^=]

SUPERAntiSpyware claims that it will clean up a wide variety of malware infections so I would download the free version now and let it scan your computer. I don't think that it would hurt anything and it might actually find the infection and kill it. Of course it won't do much for all the information its already collected and passed on to who knows where.

You might want to start notifying any online accounts about the problem and get passwords changed.

Good luck!

[Dan =^..^=]

Originally Posted by 784caroline

If you are already running AVG and Malwarebytes, can you downloand Superantispyware and run it.

Yes, you can install SUPERAntiSpyware with other anti-spyware and anti-malware products.

I also use the MalwareBytes product. It is another very good product but in my case with the trojan that I had, MalwareBytes would find the infection but could not kill it. SUPERAntiSpyware killed it!

[jmitchell]

Originally Posted by Dan =^..^=

This product claims that it will clean up a wide variety of walware infections so I would download the free version now and let it scan your computer. I don't think that it would hurt anything and it might actually find the infection and kill it. Of course it won't do much for all the information its already collected and passed on to who knows where.

You might want to start notifying any online accounts about the problem and get passwords changed.

Good luck!

O.K. I will begin downloading as soon as I finish typing. We have already notified everyone -- IRS , Social Security, credit cards, credit bureaus, banks, brokerage firm, on and on. So far only one credit card, CapitalOne, had a problem, and they reversed the charges and are investigating the fraud! I have LEARNED MY LESSON!!!! Thanks for the link. Here I go. I let you know if it finds something... those nasty buggers...

[ajbrown]

Originally Posted by jmitchell

Has anyone had one of these nasty buggers? It appears to be a very sophisticated one and may be in the "kernel" layer of our computer. It has hi-jack our BofA passwords, personal info, used our Verizon broadband aircard to send our information to whoever/where ever and maybe even used our broadband to send spam -- made us go over our 5G TWICE! Also, got a hold of my credit card number and starting charging and sending me "presents". What a mess, but nothing too bad or unresolvable yet...

We are buying a MacBook this weekend since most of these bad guys don't waste their time programming virus' for the Mac, but does anyone know if the GeekSquad at BestBuy is knowledgable enough to rid our PC of this or do we need to find an expert/ex-hacker?

Thanks!

Sorry to hear that.

Finding keyloggers is not too difficult, but if you really have a keylogger, you probably have other underlying issues. If you are not an expert and you really believe someone is stealing secrets through your computer, find someone local for help and stop using this computer for anything personal or sensitive until you do.

If you do not want to try and fix, a safe way to fix this is backup your user files, shutdown and reinstall from scratch. Once up, secure the system and check your user files for malware, etc.

There is no doubt Macs have fewer attack vectors, but even on a MAC you still have to use them securely. There are several popular keyloggers for Macs.

[Dan =^..^=]

Originally Posted by jmitchell

O.K. I will begin downloading as soon as I finish typing. We have already notified everyone -- IRS , Social Security, credit cards, credit bureaus, banks, brokerage firm, on and on. So far only one credit card, CapitalOne, had a problem, and they reversed the charges and are investigating the fraud! I have LEARNED MY LESSON!!!! Thanks for the link. Here I go. I let you know if it finds something... those nasty buggers...

You're quite welcome and I wish you the very best of luck.

[ajbrown]

Computer Guy Recommendation

Although if the hacker is any good they will read this and soon you will not be able to get to TOTV

Best of luck....

[getdul981]

I heard or the Clark Howard radio show a while back that if you suspect you have a keystroke tracker, you can use the on screen keyboard to put in your passwords and any sensitive stuff and it is not registered as a keystroke. Can be found by clicking Start> All Programs> Accessories> Accessibility> and On-Screen Keyboard. Then you use your mouse to click on the key you want.

[Hawkwind]

JM
First of all get a copy of Malwarebytes from their web site Malwarebytes.org and this is a free program.

You may have to get this from a friend on CD or jump drive if your computer is really infected bad. Next boot your computer in the Safe Mode with network capability. This will only load the necessary programs to run your computer.

Next install and run Malwarebytes while still in the safe mode. Do a complete scan of your system and if anything is found bad or containing a virus delete it. You may want run Malwarebytes again just to make sure. It may come up with some files in your recycle bin that cannot be deleted. Sometimes these files have a virus and are located in a folder under $Recycle Bin/S-1-5-20 or something close to that. You will not be able to open the S- folder but you can delete it.

Next reboot your system in the normal manner and for to the Microsoft Web page and download Microsoft Security Essentials. This is also a free program. Install and run the program to do a full scan.

I have used this process a number of times while I was still working in support and it worked almost every time.

Hopefully this will get everything.

[Pturner]

Hi jmitchell,

I hate that this happened to you. It is also a good idea in the future to connect to the internet through a router.

Please let us know if you are able to get rid of the problem and if so, what works. Glad you discovered the problem before more harm was done.

Best wishes,

P

[jmitchell]

Originally Posted by Hawkwind

JM
First of all get a copy of Malwarebytes from their web site Malwarebytes.org and this is a free program.

You may have to get this from a friend on CD or jump drive if your computer is really infected bad. Next boot your computer in the Safe Mode with network capability. This will only load the necessary programs to run your computer.

Next install and run Malwarebytes while still in the safe mode. Do a complete scan of your system and if anything is found bad or containing a virus delete it. You may want run Malwarebytes again just to make sure. It may come up with some files in your recycle bin that cannot be deleted. Sometimes these files have a virus and are located in a folder under $Recycle Bin/S-1-5-20 or something close to that. You will not be able to open the S- folder but you can delete it.

Next reboot your system in the normal manner and for to the Microsoft Web page and download Microsoft Security Essentials. This is also a free program. Install and run the program to do a full scan.

I have used this process a number of times while I was still working in support and it worked almost every time.

Hopefully this will get everything.

O.K. Let me see if I understand Part 1. boot my computer in Safe Mode -- should I not do this using my broadband air card -- I don't have a network connection.

I did run, per Dan's helpful post, SuperAntiSpyware and it found all sorts of bad guys and killed em'. It also seems to give me a way to "start" my computer in a "Safe" way. Are you familiar with this? Dan -- how about you? I would happily pay you all for this help