Fucking internet

[palsgraf_polka]

I got hit with a massive computer virus this morning on reboot of my computer, and my computer is fuxored.

And you know, I'm so safe and I'm so good about not going to any websites that are questionable and I don't do anything weird on my computer at all. I am so pissed that this happened, and apparently, after doing research, this is a nasty trojan that slips in under ALL the antivirus/antispyware programs and hits you. You can pay a $70 ransom to get it to go away, or you can do battle like a true IT Warlord.

Well, I'm not fucking paying. And the worst part is that I was going to back up my hard drive tonight and burn my Windows XP disc tonight in preparation for my reformat on Friday, but now I have 45 pages of instructions on how to get rid of this thing and everything on my computer could be infected with this shit. I don't even know if I want to use the Windows XP file I got that I needed to burn to disc.

For you out there that are more tech savvy then I am, if I go through all the manual removal rigmarole to get rid of this piece of shit trojan, can I go back to using my files as I did? Would you trust the Windows XP ISO I have on my hard drive or should I go out and buy one to have a fresh disc for the reformat on Friday? Also, I have pretty much everything backed up from a month or so ago on my external drive, which has not been connected to the computer. Should I just say FUCK IT to everything and just reformat my drives without removing this thing, or should I remove it first, then reformat my drives? I don't think I'll lose anything major - any pictures I've posted since I did my big backup a month ago can be recovered from photobucket.

Advice please? I've not really dealt with something like this on my own computer. Travis had a similar virus on his computer but I just reformatted it and it was gone. But I'd kind of like to do one final backup of my documents folder before I reformat. Also, without that Windows XP ISO that's on my hard drive burned to a disc, I can't reformat without going and buying Windows XP again because my disc disappeared.

So, please let me know. Hopefully some of you tech peeps are reading this.

Comments

[skywhisperer.livejournal.com]

Telling us what it is would help. :)

But, in general: your ISO is likely fine. Your documents are likely fine, unless you have programs in there. I'd unplug the network cable (so it can't do bad things online), burn your documents folder to CD, burn the ISO to CD (you might be able to do this in safe mode), then reboot and reinstall Windows.

The "paying $70" makes me think it's one of the fake AV programs that looks sort of like the windows ones. They're not generally horribly vicious.

Are you running a real AV program? And by "real", I don't mean AVG. You need Norton/Symantec, McAfee, the CA one, or ThreatGuard - all the others are junk. If you need a copy of Norton, I get them very, very cheap with employee pricing, and I'll send you one.

[wobblerlorri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, knowing what it is would help. I got fucked hard by the Vundo/Virtumonde trojan about a year ago, and I was on the verge of wiping my machine. But then I went to Bleeping Computer and got excellent information on removing it. Took about a day, but it cleaned it beautifully.

What is your virus?

[jdack.livejournal.com]

A format is the nuclear option.

The ISO image probably isn't messed with, and your photographs are very unlikely to be infected. Most malware goes after e-mail programs, address books, firewall software, and your AV stuff. It wants to spread itself.

Is there any chance you could post a screen-capture of your desktop when you're seeing all the evidence of the infection? It sounds familiar, if it's the one I removed for a friend recently, it's an easy fix.

I also have to disagree with the first commenter, AVG isn't great, but Norton and McAfee are absolute bloated crap that will fuck your system up worse than it is.

Fact is most AV programs are inadequate, but I use both AVG and/or Avast on all my company PCs and they work well enough if you keep them up to date.

[wobblerlorri.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I like F-Secure for my anti-virus/anti-spyware all around program. It catches things Norton and McAfee don't even know about. But nothing catches/cleans everything...