[softwarelist] Re: Another Windows horror story

In message <9b3FfbIHBZbHFwJ2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
          David Pilling <flist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> In message <333e63554f.tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Tim Powys-Lybbe
> <tim@xxxxxxxxx> writes
>>Have you any idea how it got onto your machine?  Is there a learning
>>point there for the rest of us?

> I believe off a web site. The usual problem is that one looks something
> up on Google and then jumps off to many web sites. No memory of which
> they were and not ones that one is familiar with.

This is why I use Firefox for everything except Windows Update, which 
requires IE. Actually I use Oregano 1 for a lot of browsing, which is 
even more incapable of infecting Windows, as it runs on RISC OS. 
(Natively, not via VRPC.)

To my mind the big advantage of Firefox is that it can't run ActiveX, 
so a number of possible attacks don't work. It seems to be better at 
blocking malware from web sites too.

> Such random web sites often throw up all kinds of pop ups and adverts.

> I'd say the big warning sign was that Internet Explorer crashed -
> completely. I think that crash was the virus making use of a flaw in IE
> to install itself.

Which version of IE? 6 or 7? Just curious, but while IE7 is marked as 
a critical update, it does require your consent to be installed, so 
not everyone has done so.

> The lesson is keep automatic updates on.

Indeed.


-- 
Alan Adams, from Northamptonshire
alan.adams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.nckc.org.uk/

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