Virus generalities

[JimL]

XP Pro, SP3, etc.

You run 3 major anti-virus programs and come up clean. Then you run a
fourth one and it lists 59 trojans.

What do you think about that fourth anti-virus.

Thanks

 

[Daave]

XP Pro, SP3, etc.

I have no idea what "etc." means in this context! I doubt anybody else
does either.

You run 3 major anti-virus programs and come up clean. Then you run a
fourth one and it lists 59 trojans.

What do you think about that fourth anti-virus.

Is this a hypothetical? Or is this something that actually happened to
you? If the latter, which three programs didn't find anything? And which
program claimed to find 59 trojans? And what are some of the names of
these trojans (five would be plenty)?

If it's a hypothetical, my guess would be the fourth program was a rogue
antipyware program and it would also pop up windows constantly urging
you to purchase the means to get rid of the "trojans." Then again,
there's not enough information, so I have no idea!

 

[JimL]

I have no idea what "etc." means in this context! I doubt anybody else
does either.

Beside the point.

Is this a hypothetical? Or is this something that actually happened to
you?

It happened.

If the latter, which three programs didn't find anything?

Actually four. Avira, a-Squared, SuperantiSpyware and Microsoft MSRT. All
ran at full scan and MSRT took an hour and a half on around 30 GB.

And which program claimed to find 59 trojans?
MalwareBytes

And what are some of the names of these trojans (five would be plenty)?

Hm, it isn't real specific. It listed 6 as Trojan.Zlob, 1 as
Rogue.Multiple, an Adware.Hotbar and the rest as Trojan.Agent.

 

[David B.]

Not hard to believe that MSRT didn't find anything. I would tend to believe
what Malwarebytes is telling you, but I'd visit their support forum for more
targeted assistance.

 

[JimL]

I would tend to believe what Malwarebytes is telling you,

I have a little trouble with that. I've had a single Zlob before and it
gave me all sorts of trouble. 6 Zlobs with 50 cousins and no issues? Can't
really believe that.

 

[David B.]

I've had machines with zlob, hotbar, keyloggers, etc on them with no outward
signs at all that they were infected, I've found you can't base a machines
level of infection by how it's performing.

 

[Daave]

Beside the point.
?


It happened.


Actually four. Avira, a-Squared, SuperantiSpyware and Microsoft MSRT.
All ran at full scan and MSRT took an hour and a half on around 30 GB.


Hm, it isn't real specific. It listed 6 as Trojan.Zlob, 1 as
Rogue.Multiple, an Adware.Hotbar and the rest as Trojan.Agent.

MBAM is one of the best. I would assume it's correct.

 

[Twayne]

In JimL <[email protected]>[email protected]
typed:

: : XP Pro, SP3, etc.
: :
: : You run 3 major anti-virus programs and come up clean.
: : Then you run a fourth one and it lists 59 trojans.
: :
: : What do you think about that fourth anti-virus.
: :
: : Thanks
: :
: : --
: : JimL

Depends on the maker of each program. Which ones? 3 trash and a good
one, or 3 good ones and a trash? You gave no data to work with
realistically.

 

[Anon]

Malware bytes is one of the most thorough- I had popups at the beginning of
the year- norton couldn't touch it- and a friend in Sweden said MBAM was the
only thing that helped clear up his computer. Funny thing was, I was only on
google and something put 3 infected dlls and registry keys got infected. In
a 24 hour period- my work station at work and my wife's computer got
infected.

The funny part- the popup said that my wife's computer was infected with 75
pieces of spyware. A long time ago- I had trusted one of these google ad
headers - to scan my system for free and it kept popping up for me to buy
their commercial version- and in researching how to remove this sucker- I
found out that the scanner software itself was considered spyware- creating
an artificial illusion that you needed to spend money to remove additional
spyware that wasn't necessarily there.

The other night- in researching a hardware issue- Norton 360 invervened to
tell me that the second or third link on Google was infected with 4 separate
high priority threats. Naturally , there was not an easy process to find a
way to easily report this to google... its more about revenue from all the
bad guys than to shut them down. since then I have downloaded the MS hosts
file to shut down the pulse360.com popups and refresh it frequently to block
other host sites added to the list .

Bottom line- if it was a popup offerning to scan for free- don't accept it.
Use only trusted software to scan.

Advanced System Care (I use this- it fixed my wife's computer- found three
remote processes that MBAM and Norton could not identify)
Malwarebytes.org (I use this)
Winpatrol (used to use it, stopped using it when I started using Spybot
S&D)
Spyware blaster (I use this)
Spybot search and Destroy (I use this)
Adware (use this at work)
Norton 360 ( it slowed my computer way down- but their tech service helped
me through this and its no longer dragging my system down)

and I'm always willing to try the guy who gets ahead of the pack..... <G>

 

[JimL]

In JimL <[email protected]>[email protected]
typed:

: : XP Pro, SP3, etc.
: :
: : You run 3 major anti-virus programs and come up clean.
: : Then you run a fourth one and it lists 59 trojans.
: :
: : What do you think about that fourth anti-virus.
: :
: : Thanks
: :
: : --
: : JimL

Depends on the maker of each program. Which ones?

Pleaes note the Subject line.

 

[Anon]

all I know in this case- my wifes computer was taking forever to boot up,
and CPU showed minimal load - less than 10% use, but it would take >1 minute
to bring up IE, or open any other program and the mouse was in very slow
motion and it could take several minutes to bring up Word and it could take
10-15 seconds for every keystroke to register. this program found the 3
remote processes and shut them down- I suspect they were bot nets and I
was a bit surprised that MBAM did not find them-this time.

MBAM has worked well for me in the past, as it had found some issues on my
own machine a few months earlier- when I had a computer at work get infected
from google (frequent ad popups) including the 59 virus popup window- a
definite pop up ad/spyware tactic. The night before, a google infection at
home (different google search, but no navigating to listed sites)- making it
two different infections just by visiting google. A friend in Sweden
recommended MBAM and it immediately found 3 infected dll's , and
registries- found virtumonde, superjuan, Vundo and about 5 problems in all.
At the time, he told me MBAM was the only thing that was able to clean his
machine- and he had pretty much used the same stuff I was trying to use.

Since then i have found problems with MSNBC.com and pulse360 ads (more
nuisance and offensive rather than malware). I have used the MS hosts list
to block this and all the usual suspects.
Now my only problem is IE won't browse backwards a lot (IE 8 problem?)

My only point was to ask why someone called advanced system care snake oil,
since I found it on cnet with high ratings- and did not think I had to worry
about it, and just assume that of all the packages I use, in conjunction
with each other- they all take turns being either ahead or behind on the
latest threats out there. I'm certainly not a spammer pushing one program
(advanced system care) I use all that I mentioned and am concerned if there
is valid merit for dissing this package vs a person who just figured I was
spamming.

I did see the other day that MBAM is accusing these guys of ripping off
their code, so that has me concerned that if they are, support for this
package may soon evaporate- if it was "smoke and mirrors" or plagiarism (vs
snake oil) or a bit of both<G>. and I found out the company was based in
China- so that has my suspicions up too... so lets define 'snake oil' as I
am already leery of running this one ever again.

And just for those concerned- I'll use anything that gets the job done, as
soon as the next one comes out, and it clears the peer scrutiny (not a wolf
in disguise), I'm not afraid to use new stuff. but I do appreciate
everyone's feedback in calling out onto the carpet the less genuine
products.

All I'm asking for is details instead of categorizations without supporting
rationale when we start condemning products.


Thanks

 

[Hot-text]

shut them Taskbar off it will help


A wife computer do taking forever to boot up
And with all the Processes they run like Logitech, Yahoo!, MSN Messenger,
games and it go on and on
And Spyware like Google and on and on it go
and if you say BB shut them Taskbar off so you can boot up faster and say I
need them go away it my PC.

O that's my live LOOL

 

[Hot-text]

All You Need Is Yahoo Tool Bar with CA its free with ToolBar
No Spyware in it http://toolbar.yahoo.com/

if you look to buy go here https://yahoo.cainternetsecurity.net/
But the I have is the Free one in the Yahoo toolbar
and it run no Processes in the Back ground
it Work only when you ask it to Scan
it get the Spyware and work with your Antivirus to Kill the Virus and it
will fine all
Spyware and Virus on your PC
And Do NOT Delete cookly if you can not remember password that on that
Internet.

it been good to me for two years now

Malware bytes is one of the most thorough- I had popups at the beginning
of the year- norton couldn't touch it- and a friend in Sweden said MBAM
was the only thing that helped clear up his computer. Funny thing was, I
was only on google and something put 3 infected dlls and registry keys got
infected. In a 24 hour period- my work station at work and my wife's
computer got infected.

The funny part- the popup said that my wife's computer was infected with
75 pieces of spyware. A long time ago- I had trusted one of these google
ad headers - to scan my system for free and it kept popping up for me to
buy their commercial version- and in researching how to remove this
sucker- I found out that the scanner software itself was considered
spyware- creating an artificial illusion that you needed to spend money to
remove additional spyware that wasn't necessarily there.

The other night- in researching a hardware issue- Norton 360 invervened to
tell me that the second or third link on Google was infected with 4
separate high priority threats. Naturally , there was not an easy
process to find a way to easily report this to google... its more about
revenue from all the bad guys than to shut them down. since then I have
downloaded the MS hosts file to shut down the pulse360.com popups and
refresh it frequently to block other host sites added to the list .

Bottom line- if it was a popup offerning to scan for free- don't accept
it. Use only trusted software to scan.

Advanced System Care (I use this- it fixed my wife's computer- found three
remote processes that MBAM and Norton could not identify)
Malwarebytes.org (I use this)
Winpatrol (used to use it, stopped using it when I started using Spybot
S&D)
Spyware blaster (I use this)
Spybot search and Destroy (I use this)
Adware (use this at work)
Norton 360 ( it slowed my computer way down- but their tech service helped
me through this and its no longer dragging my system down)

and I'm always willing to try the guy who gets ahead of the pack..... <G>

 

[JimL]

All You Need Is Yahoo Tool Bar with CA its free with ToolBar
No Spyware in it http://toolbar.yahoo.com/

Yahoo and "no spyware" in the same sentence? Now THAT is twisted language.

 

[JimL]

MBAM is one of the best. I would assume it's correct.

Not being that impressed with it I haven't used it in a long time. This
morning I ran it and the 59 viruses had magically disappeared. The only
"security failures" MalwareBytes complained about was that I wasn't using
Microsoft brand anti-virus, auto-updates, etc.

 

[Daave]

Not being that impressed with it I haven't used it in a long time.
This morning I ran it and the 59 viruses had magically disappeared.
The only "security failures" MalwareBytes complained about was that I
wasn't using Microsoft brand anti-virus, auto-updates, etc.

By your own description, you didn't have 59 viruses. However, it did
detect six Zlob instances.

You can always get a second opinion (because false positives *do* occur)
by uploading the files to sites like these:

http://virusscan.jotti.org/en

http://www.virustotal.com/

Just because MBAM is one of the best (and that *is* the consensus
opinion currently), doesn't mean it is immune from giving a few false
positives. But you should still take it seriously!

 

[JimL]

By your own description, you didn't have 59 viruses. However, it did
detect six Zlob instances.

Actually neither the program nor I used the word "viruses" in my OP. But
that doesn't matter. It listed 59 items it said I needed to delete. Now it
doesn't list them. That's more than a couple (or six) false positives.

 

[Daave]

Actually neither the program nor I used the word "viruses" in my OP.

Jim, the original post was apparently made on November 30 (also note the
Subject line!). I was replying to the paragraph above, specifically to
the "the 59 viruses [that] had magically disappeared."

But that doesn't matter. It listed 59 items it said I needed to
delete. Now it doesn't list them. That's more than a couple (or
six) false positives.

Not if they are related. It's surely listing each location on your hard
drive these instances (false positives or otherwise) were found.

If this is the reason you hold MBAM in disregard, I believe you are
misguided. *All* such programs have been known to exhibit this behavior.