Norton useless?

[Morton Davis]

I was sitting here about 9AM this morning, when my norton auto-protect icon
suddenly disappeared. When I tried to load Norton System Works, it loaded
for a few seconds - then disappeared.

Not one whimper on the Norton site about this. I've already installed the
Windows XP patch and just had a live update of viruses, but it came in
anyway.

What good is Norton if this can happen?

-*MORT*-

 

[Boyd Williston]

I was sitting here about 9AM this morning, when my norton auto-protect
icon suddenly disappeared. When I tried to load Norton System Works,
it loaded for a few seconds - then disappeared.

Not one whimper on the Norton site about this. I've already installed
the Windows XP patch and just had a live update of viruses, but it came
in anyway.

What good is Norton if this can happen?

-*MORT*-

No AV, firewall, or OS patch is nearly as effective at defeating malware
as simple good practices are at preventing them. And bad practices can
defeat the best AV, firewall, or OS patch in existence.

Did you open an e-mail attachement? Remember, all AV software is at least
24 hours behind the newest infection. And infections are spreading ever
more rapidly.

You might have had a Trojan running that gave someone a 'back door'.

Maybe something you downloaded and installed.

Could be something that came in through a chat session.

 

[Morton Davis]

No AV, firewall, or OS patch is nearly as effective at defeating malware
as simple good practices are at preventing them. And bad practices can
defeat the best AV, firewall, or OS patch in existence.

Did you open an e-mail attachement? Remember, all AV software is at least
24 hours behind the newest infection. And infections are spreading ever
more rapidly.

Been deleting a lot of SPAM lately.

You might have had a Trojan running that gave someone a 'back door'.

Maybe something you downloaded and installed.

Have not downloaded or installed any strange .exes.

Could be something that came in through a chat session.

I don't do chats.

I checked the Norton newsgroups. They were full of messages about the same
thing.

Norton's online checker couldn't find anything. Two free ones did.

-*MORT*-

 

[Roy Coorne]

Been deleting a lot of SPAM lately.



Have not downloaded or installed any strange .exes.



I don't do chats.

I checked the Norton newsgroups. They were full of messages about the same
thing.

Norton's online checker couldn't find anything. Two free ones did.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
What did they find?

Roy <still using NAV>

 

[Morton Davis]

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
What did they find?

Roy <still using NAV>

Found: Agobot.3.Gen back door trojan.

-*MORT*-

 

[SFB]

Found: Agobot.3.Gen back door trojan.

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/agobot.shtml

So the problem is that your OS is not patched.

 

[Morton Davis]

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/agobot.shtml

So the problem is that your OS is not patched.

I had downloaded the patch prior to getting the agobot. From what I could
tell, NAV quarantined the virus during one of my abscences from the computer
and it managed to activated itsself from inside the quarantine. I found and
deleted the quarantined file last night.

Interestingly, is is gone today. I believe it was looking for a network to
infect. It didn't find one, so it self-destructed. NSW is back and NAVAP is
up and running.

One thing I did do was run the computer with the cable modem unplugged, so
it (the virus) couyld not communicate outside of the system.

-*MORT*-

 

[Tosis]

Pointing this out to you might be unnecessary, but you are aware that
installing a patch and not rebooting immediately means that you're still at
risk, right?