[sewingalot]

I was online the other night and clicked on a link given as a best answer in yahoo answers. It sent me to a spam sight, so I closed it out. A few seconds later, a popup appeared saying I needed to update my adobe flashplayer. Stupidly, I clicked yes and opened a can of worms! Well, a trojan called HTML/FakeAV critical_warning.html

It hijacked my registry editor, my antivirus, my safe mode, display properties, taskbar and taskmanager. I was too afraid to get online until I fixed it. Luckily, I was able to use my husbands computer to change all my important passwords just in case.

Unfortunately, I had to reformat my computer. I am not computer saavy enough to know how to get to the registery editor when a trojan blocks your access. I have everything backed up, but finding the time and energy to put all my software and files on the computer is another story.

Just had to share. Be careful of popups that look legit. :icon_eek:

 

[hydrophyte]

Yikes!

 

[conduct]

Wow sound like a nasty one. I just hate the pop-ups that look legit. They seem to trick my wife all the time. That is why she has her own computer now.

 

[fshfanatic]

Do you not have an anti-virus program installed on your computer? I run AVG and it stops those types of issues in their tracks. Plus it is free.

 

[legomaniac89]

Ouch. I've been there before. I use AVG, Spybot and Windows Defender and I've still had trojans get through.

 

[mistergreen]

ouch... So, was a there a file that was downloaded to your computer?

I don't have much experiences with viruses since I've been on a mac from the start.

 

[RipariumGuy]

That trojan sounds like a duzy!

I dont use any anti-virus protection. Although, sometimes, I scan my PC with Malwarebytes. Having your computer taken over sounds scary though. I am really finiky when going on a new website, an unsuspected pop-up scares the crap out of me! It'll be a sad day for Mac' users when there are Mac viruses.

 

[kid creole]

That trojan sounds like a duzy!

I dont use any anti-virus protection. Although, sometimes, I scan my PC with Malwarebytes. Having your computer taken over sounds scary though. I am really finiky when going on a new website, an unsuspected pop-up scares the crap out of me! It'll be a sad day for Mac' users when there are Mac viruses.

Luckily for Mac users, it will never happen.

 

[RipariumGuy]

Why? Did Apple make Mac's absoulutly impregnably? What did they do? What did I miss?

 

[vtkid]

Luckily for Mac users, it will never happen.

Amen!

 

[kid creole]

Why? Did Apple make Mac's absoulutly impregnably? What did they do? What did I miss?

Nah, nobody will ever care to bother.

 

[RipariumGuy]

Nah, nobody will ever care to bother.

Ahhhhhhh........

 

[Centromochlus]

PC has a Virus :frown:

Sorry to hear about your computer problems, sew!

 

[mistergreen]

There are mac viruses actually but they seem to be done for fun or aren't too harmful.
They're done by people with intimate knowledge of the few cracks in the mac OS. There aren't a lot of those people around.

We can see more mac viruses only if macs dominate the OS war.

 

[londonloco]

Love my mac, I'll never go back!

 

[sick lid]

That trojan sounds like a duzy!

I dont use any anti-virus protection.

Seriously?

 

[vca2004]

I just recovered from a thing called Total Security 2009 a couple days ago. It displays fake security alerts and wants you to "update" your system by buying their fake software because you are badly infected by "something". At first I thought it's a nuisance, but within a couple hours it had eaten its way through my system, blocking EVERYTHING. I couldn't even start in any safe mode or access my desktop screen once the computer was running. Only thing left was to access my files by opening an internet explorer (it wanted my credit card information over the internet), view source, and dragging all files onto a flash drive and to my desktop computer... And then it took my over a day to get all the drivers I needed figured out, reinstall them in the correct order (Dell) and upload all my files and programs again...

 

[fshfanatic]

I just recovered from a thing called Total Security 2009 a couple days ago. It displays fake security alerts and wants you to "update" your system by buying their fake software because you are badly infected by "something". At first I thought it's a nuisance, but within a couple hours it had eaten its way through my system, blocking EVERYTHING. I couldn't even start in any safe mode or access my desktop screen once the computer was running. Only thing left was to access my files by opening an internet explorer (it wanted my credit card information over the internet), view source, and dragging all files onto a flash drive and to my desktop computer... And then it took my over a day to get all the drivers I needed figured out, reinstall them in the correct order (Dell) and upload all my files and programs again...

I was in FL visiting my sister and her lappy was hosed with that exact virus. 500+ infections. Took 45 minutes to boot and about 30 minutes to fix after that... Bad news

 

[funkyfish]

Sorry to hear that. I been there too took me 3 days to recover and Norton did nothing to prevent or to fix it. Now I use Avast anti virus and it works great for me. I am planing to switch to Mac as soon as my finances will allow me to do so

 

[kid creole]

Seriously?

I ran for years without anti-virus software. The last time I can remember virus software actually finding anything was in the 90's.

You have to execute a virus to enable it. If you don't click on stuff you don't know, don't go to dodgy websites, don't steal software, it's hard to become infected.