Headtheball said:
I have recently discovered that I have had the backdoor cyanure 1.0 sitting
in the system restore settings of my pc. My AV software did not detect it
and it must have got passed ZA, adaware and spybot search and destroy as
well. I only detected it by using yet another security suite, Ewido security
suite which is a freebie. Apparently this is a keylogger, how do these
things work and how do they get on the system? I am really becoming paranoid
about system security. After being the victim of internet fraud twice, I
really need a top notch security suite or at least some advice on how to
keep these b******s out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Check out the newsgroup: microsoft.public.security.virus
It's very active, and lots of help is available even if you have something
previously unknown.
They'll also tell you some of the best utilities to use to clean (and keep
clean) your computer. Most are free. But it's like changing the oil in a
car, you have to get the new stuff now and then (utility database updates)
and circulate the stuff (use it, at minimum on some sort of schedule) or
things will deteriorate.
If you *keep* your security programs up to date, you've at least enabled
your built-in XP firewall, you diligently do all Microsoft Updates just as
soon as they become available (and preferably the regular Windows Updates,
too, that aren't critical ones) then chances are very high that your
computer will not get infected. I don't know how many there were last month,
but I saw in the news that there were over 900 brand new virus in May 2004
(2nd highest ever). And that's not counting web browser hijackers,
adware/spyware, trojan horse, and keyloggers. Currently there is no "one
stop" silver bullet that will catch all these things, you have to use many
different utilities to catch them all -- and even then, you might get
something, especially if you think it's for free, like some "cool" search
toolbar (uh huh) or some free music (yea, right) and so on. Outside of
recommended security utilities, very little is really both free and safe.
And then opening email file attachments, without first verifying that who
claimed to have sent it really did, is just asking to get bitten by some
virus that used a zombie to spoof who the mail was from. You see, most
infections somehow obtain user permission to get themselves installed. If
you have a firewall up then there are almost no exceptions to that rule.
There were some problems with IE that were just corrected, if you're up to
date on critical updates. By and large, though, most infections of whatever
type manage to somehow dupe the computer user into allowing themselves to be
installed.
Today, infections are an intended attack/war on economies, very purposeful
IMHO. And it's getting worse, not better. MS products are currently the
biggest target, but even that is beginning to change as other vendors are
starting to find out and much to the chagrin of some who previously felt
safe.
