funsec mailing list archives
Re: Family tech support
From: Drsolly <drsollyp () drsolly com>
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:44:07 +0000 (GMT)
On Sun, 29 Nov 2009, Theodore Pham wrote:
Drsolly wrote:Daughter.1 has picked up a nasty, that wants her to pay for an antivirus, and keeps nagging at her. She already had Norton, but that doesn't seem to want to know. I don't know if she's updated it - probably not. I didn't fancy wrestling with the malware to try to remove it, or go back to some previous checkpoint (there probably isn't one). I offered her two solutions. 1) reinstall XP. She doesn't have the CDs (I don't think they came with the computer). I suspect you can't buy XP now. Vista will cost her about a hundred pounds, and then she'll need to buy a new word processor, I'd guess. Probably another hundred or two.Have her run the free version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (http://www.malwarebytes.org/) to remove the fake antivirus. It's surprisingly effective for removal. Has a better UI for novices than ComboFix and updates very frequently. Then dump Norton and install either the newish free Microsoft Security Essentials (http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/) or Avira's free AntiVir (http://www.free-av.com/) Also switch her to Firefox and make sure she has the latest Adobe Flash/Reader. Tell her not to skip any of their updates.
... or ... install Linux. Look, I don't want to fire up the old controversies, but for some people (ladysolly, older daughter, me), it seems to have everything we need, installs without any problems (even without asking questions about hardware), and doesn't require constant pruning, weeding, tickling with other software and general schmoozing to keep it running. And Microsoft ought to be told this. In case they can make something competitive. _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- Re: Family tech support, (continued)
- Re: Family tech support Theodore Pham (Nov 29)
- Best Linux distribution for home use (was: Family tech support) chris (Nov 29)
- Re: Best Linux distribution for home use (was: Family tech support) Robert Portvliet (Nov 29)
- Re: Best Linux distribution for home use (was: Family tech support) Valdis . Kletnieks (Nov 29)
- Re: Best Linux distribution for home use (was: Family tech support) chris (Nov 29)
- Re: Best Linux distribution for home use (was: Family tech support) Predrag Ivanovic (Dec 02)
- Re: Family tech support Theodore Pham (Nov 29)
- Re: Best Linux distribution for home use (was: Family tech support) David Lodge (Nov 29)
- Re: Best Linux distribution for home use (was: Family tech support) steve pirk [egrep] (Nov 30)
- Re: Family tech support Martin Hepworth (Nov 29)
- Re: Family tech support Larry Seltzer (Nov 29)
- Re: Family tech support Chris Boyd (Nov 29)
- Re: Family tech support Robert Portvliet (Nov 29)
- Re: Family tech support Larry Seltzer (Nov 29)
- Re: Family tech support Tomas L. Byrnes (Nov 29)
- Re: Family tech support Chris Boyd (Nov 29)
- Re: Family tech support Robert Portvliet (Nov 30)
- Re: Family tech support Drsolly (Nov 30)