Virus 85

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A computer virus is sending out emails from me – don’t open if you get one.
I am puzzled how this happened, as I have not received or opened any suspicious emails today or visited any dubious websites. I have Norton on fully and it automatically both updated and scanned last night. As soon as I started getting back a rash of auto-replies, I started scan again and it has immediately detecting and started eliminating threats.
I am not the most technology savvy of people – does anyone know how this can happen without an apparent triggering event such as opening an infected email?

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85 thoughts on “Virus”

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  • Clark

    April Showers, 11 May, 7:26 am

    “To make matters worse, BT or Yahoo did not help and even disabled the password to my e-mail account as it had been ‘compromised’ (in their words) without even telling me.”

    The arrogance of these big companies is stunning. Their own lax security permits their customers’ accounts to be abused, so of course they just blame their customers and lock them out of their own accounts!

    Sorry to have come so late to this thread. Funnily enough, I’m in Wales, installing Debian GNU/Linux for a friend, this upgrade being prompted by the very same security breach at AT&T/Yahoo! and subsequent spamming from my friend’s btinternet e-mail account.

  • Clark

    P.S. – the upgrade I’m performing won’t make any difference to the spamming from my friend’s btinternet account; the security breach is at Yahoo!, and my friend’s system was not “infected”. I’d been meaning to do this upgrade for a year or more; the spam e-mails just brought the matter back up.

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Clark; Howzit Dood?

    Don’t get many chances to talk with you these days. Have you any good news?

  • Sophie Habbercake

    Craig: On second thoughts Ubuntu perhaps easier for a grown-up to use than Debian. There’s less for those old neurones to learn.

    April: Dad gets pretty bothered with having me calling him “Dad” all the time. Without DNA test I can’t swear about my paternity. I might have a clever dad after all.

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Clark; This Wiki piece…….

    29 of 50 Democratic senators (58%) voted for the resolution. Those voting against the Democratic majority include: Sens. Akaka (D-HI), Bingaman (D-NM), Boxer (D-CA), Byrd (D-WV), Conrad (D-ND), Corzine (D-NJ), Dayton (D-MN), Durbin (D-IL), Feingold (D-WI), Graham (D-FL), Inouye (D-HI), Kennedy (D-MA), Leahy (D-VT), Levin (D-MI), Mikulski (D-MD), Murray (D-WA), Reed (D-RI), Sarbanes (D-MD), Stabenow (D-MI), Wellstone (D-MN), and Wyden (D-OR).
    1 (2%) of 49 Republican senators voted against the resolution: Sen. Chafee (R-RI).
    The only Independent senator voted against the resolution: Sen. Jeffords (I-VT)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Resolution#Passage

    ………omits hillary Clinton and Joe Biden as voting for the resolution, along with 8 others. 2016 advance scrubbing?

    Thoughts?

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Clark; I thought; ‘what the Hell’ and registered for edit at Wiki. Made the entry….Huzzaaaahh!!

  • Clark

    Hello Ben; I’m away from home, rushed off my feet, gotta get finished so I can head home tomorrow…

  • Jives

    Craig,

    Without in any way wishing to be alarmist you ought consider an anti-Establishment blog-such as this-is gonna attract all the spooks you like…from MI5/6,MOSSAD,NSA,CIA etc…

    Are you,then,really suprised you might experience some online weirdness?

    I think not.

  • Mark Golding - Children of Conflict

    Buddies Microsoft and Roxio enjoy a close relationship with the NSA. Avoiding Roxio if possible will make it difficult for government ‘terrorists’ to cause you headaches from an unrecoverable Windows; one that requires a clean install(you lose files!) unless you are smart and have a back-up or restore snapshot.

    Just that one furtive act (an automated script) has silenced many an on-line dissident or cyber-hacker.

  • Jemand

    I heard there is some good tech support at the Ecuadorean Embassy. Cost of standard consultation is a pizza and bottle of red.

    Happy Mother’s Day Mrs Murray.

  • Habbabkuk

    @ Jives :

    “Craig,

    Without in any way wishing to be alarmist you ought consider an anti-Establishment blog-such as this-is gonna attract all the spooks you like…from MI5/6,MOSSAD,NSA,CIA etc…”
    ——–

    Was it not my good friend Jives who not so long ago castigated me for starting a post with something like “Without wishing in any way to compare myself to Craig..”?

    BTW – the thread is starting to go off-topic. Moderator please note + time for a new thread, please!

  • Jon

    Plenty of techies on this thread to do some testing for me! I have installed a “Facebook share” button above, under the article: would a handful of Facebook users let me know here if it works?

    (Facebook Share apparently offers more options than Facebook Like, even though FB is trying to get everyone onto the latter, as it’s easier for beginner users – it’s one-click I think. We’ll see if this works out, and switch if not).

  • A Node

    Hi Jon,
    not a techy, not on Facebook, but since I’ve come across your appeal and so far no-one else has replied, here’s a little encouragement for you to be going on with:

    I clicked the ‘share’ button and transferred through to my other half’s Facebook page, so although I didn’t (dare without herself’s permission) click the actual Facebook ‘share link’ button, I can confidently say that it works on Firefox 17.0 running on Linux Mint.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    @ Jives :

    Actually, the key words I was pointing to were “Without wishing in any way…”.

    And I am your friend, you just don’t realise it.

  • Clark

    Craig, I got home last night and I’ve been catching up on my e-mail; I’ve just found a spam e-mail from your btinternet account, and I can confirm that it is just like all the others I have seen.

    Your system did NOT need to be infected in any way for these e-mails to have been sent.

    But you (and everyone) should still upgrade to GNU/Linux for other reasons, both practical and ethical. Support GPL software, because GPL software supports the freedom of users and gives them back control of their own systems:

    http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

  • Jon

    @A Node, thanks. No need to be a techie to test, but if anyone would share a post on Facebook (one they actually want to share, I guess!) then please let me know in this thread if it worked.

  • SpamCan

    I heartily recommend dual-booting with Ubuntu. In fact, I always carry a bootable Ubuntu micro-SD, so I can install it on the spot for users who are fed up with Windows. I make 4 partitions (Windows, Files, Ubuntu & Swap), and give them a choice of operating system every time they boot the machine. Even skeptics gravitate towards Ubuntu over time. It’s a lot less clunky (and vulnerable) than Windoze.

    There is no doubt that Linux has caught up with Windows on the desktop and is now racing ahead. With Windows 8, Micro$oft pinched lots of ideas that have been integral to Linux distros for years, and for the most part implemented them poorly.

    That said, there are some things that Windows is much better for – particularly sophisticated office integration. And it’s often easier to customise and troubleshoot. Most small businesses rely on certain MS products and would be stuck if they migrated wholesale, not just because the migration and learning curve are prohibitive, but because the advanced business software isn’t (yet) available. So I strongly recommend dual boot systems (or perhaps virtualisation).

    It’s different with servers, though. Linux servers had the edge until quite recently, but MS now offers certain advantages. Having spent the last few days wrestling with installing and configuring Linux systems via SSH command shells, eventually discovering undocumented incompatibilities between various releases, elements and platforms that required wiping and reinstalling and going through the whole charade again, I’m thoroughly scunnered. Installations usually require intricate script editing (in various languages), and the web forums are full of conflicting (and frequently erroneous) advice. It can take days to do things that should be very straightforward – like they were on Unix many moons ago. My next task is to install to two enterprise-grade servers on a large corporate network, and I ain’t looking forward to it. Windows Server management is much easier by comparison – and in my experience, relatively trouble-free.

  • Jon

    A Node, thanks – though I should be much more thrilled if Dana were to pop in to try it too!

  • Clark

    Ben Franklin, 11 May, 10:27 pm: at Wikipedia, were you, or are you, “Semanticleo”? 21:22 and 21:26, 11 May 2013‎, here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Iraq_Resolution&action=history&year=2013&month=5

    I think Semanticleo’s contribution should go in this section:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Iraq_Resolution&diff=554647602&oldid=554429514#Passage

    I’m Clark42. Log in to Wikipedia, and then go here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Iraq_Resolution#Move_.22which_Senators_voted_.27YES.27.22_to_.22Passage.22:

    To discuss, click the “Edit” link and add to the talk page. When you’re finished, “sign” your post by typing four tildes, and then click the “Save Page” button.

  • anon

    It is ridiculously easy to send email with a fake senders address. I could do it. Anyone could do it.

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