Thread: Internet Extortion?

It really is extortion. The bug gets into your computer and tells you it can go away for $49.95! As it turns out Scarlett bought a laptop a few months ago and had the disc for Webroot Spy Sweeper. I loaded it and the problem is solved.

I don't understand how the people who do this aren't in jail.

I paid a one time fee to be free of this type of stuff for the rest of my computer's life. It's called the Apple tax.

-Rob

Originally Posted by icedog

I don't understand how the people who do this aren't in jail.

Mostly it's because law enforcement can't get at them. For example, the code of the Conficker worm has been analyzed and the first thing it does is check to see if the computer is using a Ukrainian keyboard. If it is, the worm shuts itself off. What does that tell you?

Originally Posted by sicboater

I paid a one time fee to be free of this type of stuff for the rest of my computer's life. It's called the Apple tax.

-Rob

One Time Fee?

LOL he's on a Mac.
They hardly get affected by any of that stuff.

All of my computers are behind my wireless cable router.
Cable routers are also NAS boxes, and by default they block all incoming traffic. This means that if your box is behind one of those, you really shouldn't be affected by anything unless you launch something yourself.

Putting a computer directly on the internet without something in between is NOT a good idea. EVER. No matter what OS.

But indeed, if you install XP with an active internet connection, then your box will be infected before automatic updates has installed SP2 or 3.

Even if you don't use wireless and have only 1 computer: buy a cheap cable router and use that for connecting to the internet. That will save you worlds of grief.
As soon as I needs to install a computer for my kids, for school, I will buy a low end juniper firewall for a couple hundred of euros, and shove that directly behind my cable modem. That way I can prevent a lot of problems.

I would do the following:

Contact the company who's product is being advertised (Spyware Protect 2009 - Powerfull PC Protection !). After a quick glance, the only contact info I see (besides an order form) is the "support" option on the above page.

Ask them how to remove the code that pops up that message.

If you don't get a satisfying answer, report this to your state's Attorney General.

are you using windows?
are you using internet explorer?
are you behind a firewall?
do you have an integrated AV solution that works with your browser?

any of those things could be the problem. windows is way more vulnerable than most OS offerings, and internet explorer is a comedy of errors on it's own. you should NEVER connect to the internet without a firewall, and if you have windows, you should never connect it to the internet without "medicine".

on the occasions when i have to use windows and internet explorer (for example, here at work) i make sure i'm behind at least one firewall (in this case, 3, in layers) and i have strong medicine installed and constantly running. if you must use windows, use a browser like srware Iron.

as to why the people that write this stuff aren't in jail, the answer is: writing virii isn't illegal in all countries. if you release the virus into the wild from a 3rd world country that doesn't have a lot of computer laws, it can be perfectly legal.

hell, sony did it to everyone that bought a cd from sonyBMG a few years back and i'm pretty sure they didn't see jailtime.

Originally Posted by Bruno

All of my computers are behind my wireless cable router.
Cable routers are also NAS boxes, and by default they block all incoming traffic. This means that if your box is behind one of those, you really shouldn't be affected by anything unless you launch something yourself.

Putting a computer directly on the internet without something in between is NOT a good idea. EVER. No matter what OS.

But indeed, if you install XP with an active internet connection, then your box will be infected before automatic updates has installed SP2 or 3.

Even if you don't use wireless and have only 1 computer: buy a cheap cable router and use that for connecting to the internet. That will save you worlds of grief.
As soon as I needs to install a computer for my kids, for school, I will buy a low end juniper firewall for a couple hundred of euros, and shove that directly behind my cable modem. That way I can prevent a lot of problems.

Definitely. It's amazing how quickly one can get viruses on the internet. My favorite way to circumvent this is to have an image of the system with AV and firewall already installed. Gets rid of a lot of headaches!

Brad, I've always had great success with AVG Anti-Virus (AVG Free - Download Free Antivirus and Antispyware for Windows XP and Vista) and ZoneAlarm Firewall (ZoneAlarm by Check Point - Award winning PC Protection, Antivirus, Firewall, Anti-Spyware, Identity Protection, and much more.). Everyone I suggest it to that used to have virus issues haven't had any issues since installing both of those (and these are the least internet savvy people around). It's all free and works quite well.

When I say firewall, I mean a physically separate box.
Broad band routers are not firewalls, but they refuse incoming connections by default, so they are already a very good protection measure.

The windows software firewall is better than nothing, but not that great either. For that matter, any software based firewall is inherently susceptible to attack.

Physical firewall boxes are much better, because they allow you restrict traffic fairly easy, based on direction (in / out) IP addresses, port numbers and protocol. Once that is done, nothing on your computer can change it. And these things are hardened against attack so much that they are inpenetrable for all intents and purposes.

The disadvantage is that they cost a couple of bucks (low end juniper is a couple of 100) and you have to understand TCP/IP pretty well in order to configure them correctly. But they are infinitely more secure than anything software based.