Are you seeing a countdown message? If so, you probably have Blaster or a
variant. This means you don't have your firewall enabled, or used another
good firewall - and haven't run Windows Update
regularly to get all critical patches (the fixes for this came out during
the summer of '03). You need be connected for only a few seconds in order to
get infected!
See
http://www.visualante.org/msblast/main.htm for lots of good
info....and/or follow the instructions below.
If you can't stop your computer from restarting:
As soon as your computer reboots and Windows loads, click Start, then Run.
In the box, type the following:
shutdown -a (then click OK)
Install:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-026.asp
As soon as you can!. You are running the 32-bit edition of Windows XP, btw;
you'd know if you weren't, trust me.
If you get
setup could not verify the integrity of the file
/ cryptographic services message, see
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;326815 (for XP) or
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281458 (for Win2k)
For the removal tool for the MSBlast worm see
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.removal.tool.html.
Note - this is not the only worm/exploit out there - it just seems to be the
most common one.
Get a firewall! You NEED one. There are several free ones, including
Sygate (
www.sygate.com )
Then go to WindowsUpdate to pick up the latest updates:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. (You should do this about once a month
anyway, at least)
More info about the worm:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.html
and
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;823980
You also need good antivirus software - for personal use, AVG 6.0 is free -
www.grisoft.com - set it to update daily.
