trojans and Ubuntu

[Willis Taylor]

Tim M wrote:
> On Jan 18, 2008 3:18 PM, Willis Taylor <gods-servant at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>   
>> Tim M wrote:
>>     
>>> Yesterday a friend of mine asked me about identity thief protection
>>>       
>> sites
>>     
>>> and she sent me a link to one asking if it was okay. I clicked on the
>>>       
>> link
>>     
>>> on my laptop running 10.7 (also protected with NoScript). Anyway this
>>> morning I was talking to my boss he is in charge of Internet security
>>>       
>> for a
>>     
>>> major company (I work for him part time in his own business). He said
>>>       
>> that
>>     
>>> if she clicked on that site she could have introduced a Trojan into her
>>> computer. I will not post the site address here . . . anyway, he might
>>>       
>> have
>>     
>>> misunderstood me or I might have misunderstood him. Now I need to tell
>>>       
>> my
>>     
>>> friend, who suffers from panic attacks) to reinstall her system. I guess
>>>       
>> I
>>     
>>> should listen to my boss . . . I am wondering what the group thinks
>>>       
>> about
>>     
>>> what he said and that if my system might be compromised also.
>>>
>>> Tim
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> Tim,
>> is he running windows?
>>
>>
>> The friend? Yes, she is still using windows XP. I am concerned about her
>>     
> because her computer is her lifeline but I don't want to needlessly alarm
> her and send her into a panic.
>
> Tim
>
>   
Without knowing what anti-spyware and anti-virus I can not be sure but 
the chances that she is infected with a torjan are above the 90% mark.  
Take her unit to house call and let the site there run a check on it.  
The address is housecall.trendmicro.com.  If it is infected by this 
latest trojan they do not have a cure for it.  As for your unit, your on 
Linux and I can be proven wrong but I believe your safe.  If house call 
finds the newest trojan just back up all the work that is not infected 
and run Derek's Nuke and Boot to remove evertything from the drive and 
then reinstall windows and the backed up work.  If she has a forty gig 
hdd it will take DN&B about two hours to clean it.  I reccommend DN&B 
because it is reccommended by the National Security people and it's 
free.  It will leave absolutely no trace of the infection to rise up later.

I'm sorry she has gotten into this mess.  Try to get her to switch to 
Ubuntu or Kubuntu and forever avoid these messes.