New nasty doing the rounds.

[spacial]

Sorry to be interupting discussions, but I've just had a security breach in the form of a Trojan called Backdoor.

I'm generally very careful, only had about 5 or so in the last 17 years. So this one may be a bit clever. Then again, I may have been lax, but passing on anyway.

I found out because my hotmail accounts were hijacked, though they don't seem to have been used.

Passwords changed and a scan done using Microsoft Security Essentials.

Just letting other know. Carry on with the discussions. 

[Liminal Stranger]

Backdoor trojans aren't a new thing. They're used as scouts to find or open a port and let bigger and badder viruses through. Evil little buggers.

[spacial]

Is the Security Essentials likely to have completely gotten rid of it?

I ask because my PC restarted from standby rather suddenly. I tried to do a full SE scan and after taking about hour and half to cover only 30,000 files, I closed it.

Thing is, these things are rather upsetting as you can imagine and I just want to be sure it's gone and any problems I'm having are due to something else.

[Liminal Stranger]

I've never used Security Essentials, so I can't vouch for its usefulness or reliability, but those kinds of trojans aren't really known for being hidden too well- usually they just get tacked on to a file or whatnot. Yes, security scans take absolutely FOREVER, especially if you have a good number of files, which can cause a major headache. A RAT (remote access trojan) would be something likely to cause any noticeable change on your computer rather than a backdoor (whose min real purpose is allowing other viruses in as I mentioned before), so it might be safe to let that scan run fully if computer usage isn't of dire importance for the next couple of hours.

Viruses do suck, I've had lovely experiences with them way back when. Sat there editing the registry to remove rogue antivirus software once, missed a piece and it somehow came back. It was 3 am and I wanted to rip my eyes out at that point 

Anyway, I'd do a double check and also look into other antivirus programs, maybe not from Microsoft 
Malwarebytes is good so long as no one using the computer is a fan of cracked software, Avast I've heard good things about.

[spacial]

Thank LM. I have Malwarebytes and will do a full scan with that.

Another curious thing has happened though.

I knew there was something not quite right. That is why I downloaded and ran Security Essentials. It was the one that found the trojan.

But it seems I had Microsoft Defender installed and continuously monitoring all the time.

Now there seem to be two possible explainations.

1. That Defender is rubbish.

2. That it would have picked up the trojan on it's next routine scan.

[Liminal Stranger]

You mean Windows Defender, right? I've had a ridiculous amount of viruses on a computer and it told me everything was fine- and even if it does work, a virus can always infect your antivirus software and trick it into thinking that all is well. Thus why it's always a good idea to check with another. Let's see what the verdict is from Malwarebytes in the next century 

[spacial]

Funnily enough, I was advised a number of years ago, that resident antivirus programs are useless, largely for that reason. That the only safe scan was online from somewhere like Housecall from Trend.

This was further emphasised with those programs which charge, doing their 'free' scans only to come up with a load of absolutely fatal results which they can easily 'fix'.

I didn't have any antivirus software at all from 2002 until about 2010 and the only problem I had was from a 16 yo niece. (Pop star sites and all that).

I know of Malwarebytes and have had it now and then. I will keep it hand now. I do have to say, the best tool I have is a M$ offline scanner. Bit if a beast to be honest, but if you get locked out by something, it gets you back in. I keep it on a pen drive.

[Liminal Stranger]

This was further emphasised with those programs which charge, doing their 'free' scans only to come up with a load of absolutely fatal results which they can easily 'fix'.

Yep, generally referred to as rogue antivirus software, a type of malware sometimes called scamware but not really frequently.
This is the one that drove me crazy a while back: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Antivirus_(malware)
Called itself Vista Antivirus 2009. I had no internet, no malwarebytes on there, no backup computer or anything, which meant that I had to sit there and manually remove it. Absolute PITA, and stopping the processes right when the computer booted up was like some insane reflex test. Mine suck so it was a nightmare 

Ah, good that you have that. And Malwarebytes is good to keep at hand, plus there are such scanners that can use several different programs so you can tell if something is wrong or if it's just one program freaking out over nothing. I forget which antivirus I had at the time, but I once had put some prank software on a computer to mess around with someone, and half the time when I went to run it the antivirus had a hissy fit and quarantined it. But yet when there was real malware, that same antivirus was silent. POS.

[spacial]

Thank you Max. (I hadn't noticed the sub text before).

If I may, do you happen to have any experience with film editing software and such? Or Screen capture programs.

I have a few but all are incredably disappointing. The two screen capture programs are Debut and Cyberlink Director. Both are the unpaid for versions. The first I down loaded. It works, usually, but file sizes are huge. The second I got with a small gadget which is suppose to transfer DVDs and VHS to computer. But it isn't very good. Quality is very poor.

If you do and have any successes, be interested to know what you use or may recommend.

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

I use SpyBot and I update it when ever I run it, so I have the latest catches.

Nothing so far.

[Liminal Stranger]

I don't really do much in the way of recording video off ones' screen- I'm not the guy who does Let's Plays, though I have a few friends who do. Fraps is something a friend of mine has used to make videos of Minecraft play, but I don't know if he has the full version or the free one. Might be worth checking out- I've heard of others but long since forgotten. Sorry bout that ^^

[spacial]

My favourite online game has crashed 5 times in the last 2 hours. Each time I've had to switch off the computer. I really hope it's just that DOS thing going on.

I will check out Frapps. Always open to new suggestions.

[Liminal Stranger]

I've been dealing with unbelievably horrible lag, thought that would have been cleared up by now. What do you mean by crashing, by the way? Lagging too much, a plugin crashed, or a bsod or something to that effect?

[spacial]

The screen freezes, with a series of vertical interference lines running up and down.

The only solution is a switch off and restart.

I'm pretty sure its the program because, firstly, it only happened with it. I did try doing other things but had no crashing. Secondly, it is constantly streamed, heavily graphical and well as the calculations, thirdly, it originates in the US and has a huge user base, but most were not logged in.

I did try asking on the game's help channel but no reply, because, of course, hardly anyone was there!

Anyway, looking forward to seeing what's going to happen to day.

[KaylaW]

You all should look into Kaspersky. You get a free 30 day trial if you can't seriously afford it, I can tell you how to continue the trial version.

I use my Mac more than I do my PC laptop but I keep the big K on the PC because it's just proven to be the best. The Malwarebytes program is good but I have had the best results and least downtime using Kaspersky.

[Liminal Stranger]

Hey wait, what graphics card do you use? I've had that problem before with an AMD card, ended up having to reinstall the drivers. I used Kaspersky as well on trial with another computer, yes there are ways to extend that period indefinitely. It does work well, so that's something else to use.

[spacial]

Mine's NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

I tried running some other graphical programs today, including another game by the same company, Turbine, and no problem.

I'm pretty sure it is this program. I will contact them and ask.

[spacial]

This is an image of what is happening:



It happens quite suddenly, any activity, any of my 3 characters. All I can do is turn off the computer and restart. But once it starts, it tends to happen several times, needing restart each time.

I've sent a support ticket to Turbine along with a DxDiag.txt file. Hopefully they can come up with something.

Thank you KaylaW for the tip on Kaspersky.

[KaylaW]

You're welcome. That looks like a video processor problem. Either onboard or a card if you have one. Looks like overheating processor or ram, on the video card itself.

[spacial]

I thought that. But this evening, had a brainwave and switched off my audio board. Been on ages and so far, no crashes.

My audio board stopped working late last year. I decided to replace it with the cheapest I could find. If this turnes out to the the source, then it was a false economy.