Internet Service Provider Cautionary Tale of Woe

Virgin Media?

Well, nothing lasts forever, does it? Once it's gone, you can't ever get it back.

Sorry to hear of your loss.

Happy Holidays.

Norton!?!? You might be better of with nowt!

Search back to the thread where we were talking about vulnarabilities, I think they said AVG was free and good.

imho norton is just as bad as the virus, malware and spamware!

Drew K

This is the tread I was thinking of...

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/85996#newcomments

Lyn...virgin media...only once but never again! _{(unless there is surgery for that too!)}

Drew K

A few snips here and there, you'll be good as new.....

I use AVG free. No complaints.

I think there might just be too many moving things on the screen....

I used to have two reasonably priced Virgin cell phones. They were fine for a year or so, then they wanted me to "top-up" constantly, my top ups weren't really top ups, I was always out of minutes, even though I almost never used the phones...

I'm a Virgin no more. They will never see me again.

And for a contrasting view;

I have two Virgin phones on different plans and I love it. Inexpensive and works great!

Howdy Del,

Sounds to me like the original email might have been a scam. It fits the profile of a lot of other security scam emails.

I've used Norton AV for around 15 years without a hitch. Note however it is the Antivirus product and not the '360' or other extended packages as they really are somewhat resource pigs.

Good Luck.

Hi guys, ta for the sympathy and suggestions.
My Son has Norton on his laptop and it's been ok, so I just installed it on this PC as a second installation on his account, so no cost.
I've since had the problem occur again.
I was getting 'access denied' on the firewall settings, but I think I've fixed it....
Del

I've used Norton since the DOS days. It's always worked well for me and, when I have had a question, the customer service has been stellar. There's a lot to be said for good customer support.

I have the 360 because it comes licensed for 3 computers, which makes it easy on me. Yes, it's a resource hog, but the computers are so fast and full of excess memory (so memoryful?) nowadays, I don't notice it.

I've never heard of Virgin Media; and from other posts, I'm glad I haven't. We're currently using AVG; appears to be working fine. Technique for getting a new antivirus: Do NOT disable the old one just yet. Download the new one, but do NOT install it. Disconnect from the Internet. Now you can un-install the old AV. Then install the new AV. Then connect to the Internet again and update the new AV. This technique came from Avast!, and should avoid a virus attack because you always have an active AV when connected to the Internet.

Del, Virgin has always been slightly less ethical than the US broadband providers but all of them are under handed if they think they can be.

The email could very well be a hoax. You could try 'chatting' with a tech rep from their web site.

Here is an AV review.

http://www.pcantivirusreviews.com/Comparison/Editors-Choice.html?avrtsid=2&gclid=CL_ws46PybsCFSLxOgodwzQAbg

Any of the top ten in this review are good. The top rated software is good. I would look for free AV. Some of the top ten have free versions. I would combine it with a free firewall from Comodo which I use or Zonealarm the only other top rated free firewall.

You can also look into K-9 for additional web browsing security.

Your viral threats are becoming passé. The real threats are coming from botnets which are far more prevalent than viruses ever were. Firewalls that block all incoming connections, stealth your ports and block IP fragments and other advanced blocking are essential. Botnets do not replicate as a virus. They replicate through direct attacks such as drive-bys and server attacks. The drive-bys look for an IP address that has some ports which are not stealth-ed. Once a victim IP address is identified the botnet attempts to breach your fire wall. Chances are, they will be able to break in.

The other way they attack is through infected web pages. These are more common than you would suspect. Even hotmail was infected for a few days. Often web advertisements are infected you should be blocking these with some kind of software. I use adblock. A good fire wall may keep out these attacks if you use all the advanced settings. Most firewall breaches employ an IP fragment technique but if that fails they will try other methods.

The free software K-9 will prevent any kind of web attacks. This scans the page before you can open it. Although the infections on your computer are invisible to scanners, the infection on the web page is not. K-9 is the only free software I know of that is certain to block web infections.

I know it wasn't a scam E-mail 'cos I checked on their website to confirm.
It's all sorted now, although there were a couple of problems which needed attention to get it all clean... some rootkit doodab thingy which took a couple of goes to sort out.
Del

I had a similar experience. Got Virgin broadband and been on AVG for some years, first free but later paid for extra features. But Virgin said they provide it free with the broadband package, so I cancelled AVG. About 6 months later I got same message as you, ending 31st Dec etc. I installed the new stuff, after a fair bit of trouble deleting the old Virgin protection.

About 24 hours later the computer went dead slow, and it took a lot of cleaning etc to get it right. BevnBeerGuy in #8 suggested the email might be a scam, but I think we're OK on that as I did manage to speak to a Virgin guy and he knew about the change of security to F-secure. He swore blind it had nothing to do with my computer problem, but I'm not entirely convinced. For days while I was trying to clean up the computer I kept getting messages from F-secure saying protection isn't working, re-start the computer, I did that several times but the message came up again each time. But when I clicked on the F-secure icon it said everything's up to date and working! Thankfully that problem seems to have gone away now.

I wish I'd never gone away from AVG, though strangely it still seems to be doing something, if I can believe the messages that keep appearing saying they've done various checks and tweaks.

Read up on zombie or slaving your pc. Once this software is installed it will work just fine behind your antivirus protection while doing the dirty work of hackers elsehwere. If you are still having any irregularities I would take it to a pro and have it scanned (and then go back to AVG).

Drew K

You are correct! Botnets are easy to acquire and nearly impossible to remove. They probably got installed as part of the security installation. If it is indeed a botnet, which is most likely, it will likely reinstall even if you wipe your disk clean. Botnets closely monitor acquired IP addresses. It will reinfect you the moment you attach to the internet before you install your security software. Most botnet malware is invisable to all malware scanning software. You must format your C: drive to remove them. No not use any factory installation stored on your hard disk. Trust me, that is infected. Only trust read only CDs or DVDs.

Unless you have a high-end firewall that you can install at home without connecting to the internet I would take my computer to a trusted shop and let them install a good firewall for you. I suspect their IP address will be clean and may have a stand-alone professional firewall. I would make sure they stealth your ports, block fragmented traffic and any other advanced setting they can add. Let them know you have a bot net problem. If they do not act attentive take it to another shop. If this is not done right you are waisting your time.

And of course most PCs don't give you the operating system on a CD anymore... ain't Microsoft wonderful?
Del

Your sentence: "It will reinfect you the moment you attach to the internet before you install your security software" is why I suggested this in post #13:

Technique for getting a new antivirus: Do NOT disable the old one just yet. Download the new one, but do NOT install it. Disconnect from the Internet. Now you can un-install the old AV. Then install the new AV. Then connect to the Internet again and update the new AV. This technique came from Avast!, and should avoid a virus attack because you always have an active AV when connected to the Internet.

The plan is to always have an active AV when connected to the Internet. Too bad we can't update the new AV without connecting to the Internet, but even brand new CDs may be fairly old and thus do not have the latest updates.

I was agreeing with you to a point and adding a more information. The public is woefully ignorant about botnets.

AV provides little to no protection against botnets since they are not a virus. A virus spreads from infection. Botnets proliferate by an internet attack of some sort. Because each infection is unique, malware on your computer will never be in any AV signature list. Google 'Polymorphic Server Side Malware' for information about the 'new' malware threat. What is effective is a high-end firewall because the attack comes from the internet. Paid for AV security packages often include a high-end firewall. A firewall that came with your OS is not nearly clever enough to block attacks.