Was: 's email hi-jacked - Now: To Sharon: My suggestions as to programs I run for added security

[Guest guest]

Sharon,

The programs that I use for security & protection(s) are..

Avast! (anti-virus) -- it's free for home users, though it needs

to be registered for it to stay active. Registration is still

free though -- It has built in protection from malicious

websites as well.. Big ugly more brown than maroon in color

screen that will appear rather than the website, at which point

you can choose to proceed (against their advice) or a "Get Me

The Heck OUT of here!" button.. It updates the database itself a

couple of times a day, so long as you either click on allow, or

set it to automatically do that without asking permission..

sometimes more than a couple times a day.. I checked this

morning to be certain, and Avast! does pick up keyloggers..

sometimes even the good keyloggers [ie. good keyloggers are ones

that parents install to keep an eye on the kids and their

activities]

My second recommendation is Spybot S & D (search &

destroy). That picks up any malware, adware, spyware and such

when run. It also has a little program called "tea timer" that

runs in the background, and prevents unwanted changes to the

system during day to day operations. If something tries to make

a change to the registry (and anything installed makes changes

to the registry) it will pop up a message telling you what wants

to make the changes, and what it wants to make changes to.. The

operator has to either accept or deny the change. If you are

installing a program, of course you know that you're installing

something and can accept the changes.. but if it pops up out of

the blue.. you'd want to pay attention, good possibility that

you'll want to deny it, or at the very least figure out what the

message is saying before you accept or deny.. It also has the

"main" program that you have to intentionally "inflict" (it

takes quite awhile to run) on yourself to get rid of cookies

(tracking stuff) and other intrusive things that get put on the

machine.. And Spybot should also detect keyloggers installed

that weren't installed by a parent.. might even pick up one that

was installed by a parent... You can pick and choose what you

want Spybot to clean up or fix from a list.. so if you are a

parent running a keylogger on the kids.. you can uncheck that

item so that it isn't repaired or corrected.. [The keylogger I

put on the laptop, is only active when I tell it to be active,

and I have to go to the companies website to actually activate

or de-activate the logger]..

Third external program that I have running.. is PeerBlock..

[this guy picked up and improved PeerGuardian2 and I find

PeerBlock to be a bit more user friendly than PeerGuardian2]..

This program can be as sensitive or lax as you choose it to

be... You can download "lists" of "known" threatening IP

addresses to be blocked.. If you happen to use any Peer 2 Peer

sharing software (Kazaa, Limewire, Bittorrent, Emule, Vuze, etc)

you DEFINITELY want PeerBlock running.. There are legitimate

reasons for using Peer 2 Peer file sharing programs.. but they

are also used for spreading pirated software, movies &

music.. The very second that you connect to one of these file

sharing systems the anti-pirating places HIT your machine

looking to see what it is that you are sharing.. PeerBlock keeps

them from seeing what you have, because they can't connect to

your computer.. but they also have "lists" for adware and

spyware & malware IPs as well.. and those will be blocked

from connecting as well..

Windows Firewall, I don't run, because it's a PITA as well as

not really doing the job it should be doing, when another

program (such as PeerBlock does it more thoroughly) but Windows

Defender, I allow to run, and I allow the system to update their

definition whenever it tells me that there's an update out there

to be run.. though thinking that Defender (or anything produced

by Microsoft) is going to be all the protection one needs, is a

bad idea..

Your son is correct in his suggested method of cleaning up the

keylogger. Change password, clean up, change password again..

It also doesn't hurt to use Firefox as a browser (same

people/company that produced Internet Explorer for Microsoft) as

Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer, meaning it's a

little more vigilant about personal security than I.E. is..

And Thunderbird for email rather than Outlook Express, as it's

more secure than O.E as well..

There is also a program out there called "Hi-Jack This".. and

it's absolutely GREAT for cleaning up hi-jacked messes.. the

only thing there, is that I can't decide what should or should

not be in the list that one will be reading after running the

program.. The Good news on that one is that there is a forum on

their website where the really good "eggheads" can tell the

person by looking at the results, what should and should not be

there.. and how to get rid of it..

The friends can also visit this website:

http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/

there are a few scanners and clean up tools listed on the left

side.. Housecall is a great little scanner, and it will detect

some things that other stuff doesn't...

Though you can't run two anti-virus programs on one computer at

the same time.. Does not mean that you can't have more than one

anti-virus program -- had a friend who had more than one

anti-virus program on his computer.. he would scan every file

that he downloaded from anywhere with each of his anti-virus

programs before trying to use the file.. overkill maybe.. but in

the end saved him more time and gave him more peace of mind than

not doing it that way -- so although it's a time consuming

project, having more than one anti-virus (making sure that only

ONE is running at a time, so as to not cancel each other out)

and scanning for virii with each, might bring more peace of

mind..

Oh.. and Spybot as well as Avast! (or I'm thinking any

anti-virus and anti-spyware program) can give a false

positive... by that I mean.. Spybot might tell the person that

it suspects that Avast! is questionable.. and Avast! might tell

the person that Spybot is questionable.. though neither are..

And last but not least.. if you want to contact me offlist that

is fine.. and if you or they run into any problems, I can call

anywhere, anytime for as long as I want at no long-distance

charges.. and I'd be more than willing to give it a whirl at

helping clean up if needed..

Links to the programs mentioned:

Housecall - Free online virus scan:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Avast! - Anti-virus software:

http://www.avast.com/index

Spybot S & D: (scroll down the page to find the download)

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

PeerBlock

http://www.peerblock.com/

IBlock Lists (PeerBlock doesn't keep the blocking lists on their

site)

http://www.iblocklist.com/lists.php

Hope this helps, and sorry it's soooooo very long

HUGS

|)onna

Donna....

We've had about a half dozen members on this group who have had

their emails hijacked. Several were inactive members and I

tried to contact them but didn't get a response so I had to

remove them from the group. I am an owner of our local

freecycle group and it has hit several people there too. I've

been trying to help one get rid of it and if you have any

suggestions please let me know. I told her to change her

passwords, run her virus software, a spyware detector, and then

change her passwords again. But she is still having the same

problem.

Sharon

This email is a natural hand made product.

The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its

individual character and beauty and in no way are to be

considered flaws or defects.

From:

|)onna

To:

MSersLife

Sent: Sun,

November 14, 2010 10:31:19 AM

Subject:

Re: Uh oh. 's email has been hijacked!

Too

late.. already saw the ads.. LOL

and I even had to copy & paste to do it!!.. Some

mornings I'm dumber than dirt..

I do have all kinds of "protective" things running, so

shouldn't have a problem with my mail being hi-jacked

though..

PeerBlock is a great little program to have running in

the background.. it's just additional protection.. that

I keep running on all the machines here.

HUGS

|)onna

I see 's email

has been hijacked. I am going to put her on moderation

until she can get it cleared up.

WARNING: don't open the links that came from her

address!

hugs

Sharon

This email is a natural

hand made product. The slight variations in

spelling and grammar enhance its individual

character and beauty and in no way are to be

considered flaws or defects.

From:

Trimm

To:

amyhugon@...;

mserslife ;

bobw316@...;

chadma@...;

addisonnicole92@...;

dennisobanion@...;

craftycritters@...;

ann.rmathis@...;

smyelingroovy@...

Sent:

Sat, November 13, 2010 10:21:55 PM

Subject:

(unknown)

http://errevolution.net/dir.php

--

Help Feed The Critters! Your daily click counts at http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/

--

Help Feed The Critters!

Your daily click counts at

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much for all the info. I will foward the info on to her, if you don't mind. I used to have Spy Bot but the program got corrupted and I just never remembered to download it again. I guess I should do that! I think I used AVAST at one time. Right now I have ThreatFire. Perhaps I'll go back to AVAST.hugs to you, Donna! SharonThis email is a natural hand made product. The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its individual character and beauty and in no way are to be considered flaws or defects. To: MSersLife Sent: Mon, November 15, 2010 7:27:42 AMSubject: Was: 's email

hi-jacked - Now: To Sharon: My suggestions as to programs I run for added security

Sharon,

The programs that I use for security & protection(s) are..

Avast! (anti-virus) -- it's free for home users, though it needs

to be registered for it to stay active. Registration is still

free though -- It has built in protection from malicious

websites as well.. Big ugly more brown than maroon in color

screen that will appear rather than the website, at which point

you can choose to proceed (against their advice) or a "Get Me

The Heck OUT of here!" button.. It updates the database itself a

couple of times a day, so long as you either click on allow, or

set it to automatically do that without asking permission..

sometimes more than a couple times a day.. I checked this

morning to be certain, and Avast! does pick up keyloggers..

sometimes even the good keyloggers [ie. good keyloggers are ones

that parents install to keep an eye on the kids and their

activities]

My second recommendation is Spybot S & D (search &

destroy). That picks up any malware, adware, spyware and such

when run. It also has a little program called "tea timer" that

runs in the background, and prevents unwanted changes to the

system during day to day operations. If something tries to make

a change to the registry (and anything installed makes changes

to the registry) it will pop up a message telling you what wants

to make the changes, and what it wants to make changes to.. The

operator has to either accept or deny the change. If you are

installing a program, of course you know that you're installing

something and can accept the changes.. but if it pops up out of

the blue.. you'd want to pay attention, good possibility that

you'll want to deny it, or at the very least figure out what the

message is saying before you accept or deny.. It also has the

"main" program that you have to intentionally "inflict" (it

takes quite awhile to run) on yourself to get rid of cookies

(tracking stuff) and other intrusive things that get put on the

machine.. And Spybot should also detect keyloggers installed

that weren't installed by a parent.. might even pick up one that

was installed by a parent... You can pick and choose what you

want Spybot to clean up or fix from a list.. so if you are a

parent running a keylogger on the kids.. you can uncheck that

item so that it isn't repaired or corrected.. [The keylogger I

put on the laptop, is only active when I tell it to be active,

and I have to go to the companies website to actually activate

or de-activate the logger]..

Third external program that I have running.. is PeerBlock..

[this guy picked up and improved PeerGuardian2 and I find

PeerBlock to be a bit more user friendly than PeerGuardian2]..

This program can be as sensitive or lax as you choose it to

be... You can download "lists" of "known" threatening IP

addresses to be blocked.. If you happen to use any Peer 2 Peer

sharing software (Kazaa, Limewire, Bittorrent, Emule, Vuze, etc)

you DEFINITELY want PeerBlock running.. There are legitimate

reasons for using Peer 2 Peer file sharing programs.. but they

are also used for spreading pirated software, movies &

music.. The very second that you connect to one of these file

sharing systems the anti-pirating places HIT your machine

looking to see what it is that you are sharing.. PeerBlock keeps

them from seeing what you have, because they can't connect to

your computer.. but they also have "lists" for adware and

spyware & malware IPs as well.. and those will be blocked

from connecting as well..

Windows Firewall, I don't run, because it's a PITA as well as

not really doing the job it should be doing, when another

program (such as PeerBlock does it more thoroughly) but Windows

Defender, I allow to run, and I allow the system to update their

definition whenever it tells me that there's an update out there

to be run.. though thinking that Defender (or anything produced

by Microsoft) is going to be all the protection one needs, is a

bad idea..

Your son is correct in his suggested method of cleaning up the

keylogger. Change password, clean up, change password again..

It also doesn't hurt to use Firefox as a browser (same

people/company that produced Internet Explorer for Microsoft) as

Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer, meaning it's a

little more vigilant about personal security than I.E. is..

And Thunderbird for email rather than Outlook Express, as it's

more secure than O.E as well..

There is also a program out there called "Hi-Jack This".. and

it's absolutely GREAT for cleaning up hi-jacked messes.. the

only thing there, is that I can't decide what should or should

not be in the list that one will be reading after running the

program.. The Good news on that one is that there is a forum on

their website where the really good "eggheads" can tell the

person by looking at the results, what should and should not be

there.. and how to get rid of it..

The friends can also visit this website:

http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/

there are a few scanners and clean up tools listed on the left

side.. Housecall is a great little scanner, and it will detect

some things that other stuff doesn't...

Though you can't run two anti-virus programs on one computer at

the same time.. Does not mean that you can't have more than one

anti-virus program -- had a friend who had more than one

anti-virus program on his computer.. he would scan every file

that he downloaded from anywhere with each of his anti-virus

programs before trying to use the file.. overkill maybe.. but in

the end saved him more time and gave him more peace of mind than

not doing it that way -- so although it's a time consuming

project, having more than one anti-virus (making sure that only

ONE is running at a time, so as to not cancel each other out)

and scanning for virii with each, might bring more peace of

mind..

Oh.. and Spybot as well as Avast! (or I'm thinking any

anti-virus and anti-spyware program) can give a false

positive... by that I mean.. Spybot might tell the person that

it suspects that Avast! is questionable.. and Avast! might tell

the person that Spybot is questionable.. though neither are..

And last but not least.. if you want to contact me offlist that

is fine.. and if you or they run into any problems, I can call

anywhere, anytime for as long as I want at no long-distance

charges.. and I'd be more than willing to give it a whirl at

helping clean up if needed..

Links to the programs mentioned:

Housecall - Free online virus scan:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Avast! - Anti-virus software:

http://www.avast.com/index

Spybot S & D: (scroll down the page to find the download)

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

PeerBlock

http://www.peerblock.com/

IBlock Lists (PeerBlock doesn't keep the blocking lists on their

site)

http://www.iblocklist.com/lists.php

Hope this helps, and sorry it's soooooo very long

HUGS

|)onna

Donna....

We've had about a half dozen members on this group who have had

their emails hijacked. Several were inactive members and I

tried to contact them but didn't get a response so I had to

remove them from the group. I am an owner of our local

freecycle group and it has hit several people there too. I've

been trying to help one get rid of it and if you have any

suggestions please let me know. I told her to change her

passwords, run her virus software, a spyware detector, and then

change her passwords again. But she is still having the same

problem.

Sharon

This email is a natural hand made product.

The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its

individual character and beauty and in no way are to be

considered flaws or defects.

From:

|)onna

To:

MSersLife

Sent: Sun,

November 14, 2010 10:31:19 AM

Subject:

Re: Uh oh. 's email has been hijacked!

Too

late.. already saw the ads.. LOL

and I even had to copy & paste to do it!!.. Some

mornings I'm dumber than dirt..

I do have all kinds of "protective" things running, so

shouldn't have a problem with my mail being hi-jacked

though..

PeerBlock is a great little program to have running in

the background.. it's just additional protection.. that

I keep running on all the machines here.

HUGS

|)onna

I see 's email

has been hijacked. I am going to put her on moderation

until she can get it cleared up.

WARNING: don't open the links that came from her

address!

hugs

Sharon

This email is a natural

hand made product. The slight variations in

spelling and grammar enhance its individual

character and beauty and in no way are to be

considered flaws or defects.

From:

Trimm

To:

amyhugon@...;

mserslife ;

bobw316@...;

chadma@...;

addisonnicole92@...;

dennisobanion@...;

craftycritters@...;

ann.rmathis@...;

smyelingroovy@...

Sent:

Sat, November 13, 2010 10:21:55 PM

Subject:

(unknown)

http://errevolution.net/dir.php

--

Help Feed The Critters! Your daily click counts at http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/

--

Help Feed The Critters!

Your daily click counts at

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/

[Guest guest]

I just went back to Avast. Was using AVG but parts of my system didn't recognize it so I deleted it and switched. So far so good.

 ~*~Hugs~*~

~*~Akiba~*~

http://www.affiliates-natural-salt-lamps.com/pages/156.php

-- (unknown)

http://errevolution.net/dir.php

-- Help Feed The Critters! Your daily click counts at http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/

-- Help Feed The Critters! Your daily click counts at http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/

[Guest guest]

You're very welcome Sharon..

HUGS

|)onna

Thank you so much for all the info. I will

foward the info on to her, if you don't mind. I used to have

Spy Bot but the program got corrupted and I just never

remembered to download it again. I guess I should do that! I

think I used AVAST at one time. Right now I have ThreatFire.

Perhaps I'll go back to AVAST.

hugs to you, Donna!

Sharon

This email is a natural hand made product.

The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its

individual character and beauty and in no way are to be

considered flaws or defects.

From:

|)onna

To:

MSersLife

Sent: Mon,

November 15, 2010 7:27:42 AM

Subject:

Was: 's email hi-jacked - Now: To Sharon: My

suggestions as to programs I run for added security

Sharon,

The programs that I use for security & protection(s)

are.. Avast! (anti-virus) -- it's free for home users,

though it needs to be registered for it to stay active.

Registration is still free though -- It has built in

protection from malicious websites as well.. Big ugly

more brown than maroon in color screen that will appear

rather than the website, at which point you can choose

to proceed (against their advice) or a "Get Me The Heck

OUT of here!" button.. It updates the database itself a

couple of times a day, so long as you either click on

allow, or set it to automatically do that without asking

permission.. sometimes more than a couple times a day..

I checked this morning to be certain, and Avast! does

pick up keyloggers.. sometimes even the good keyloggers

[ie. good keyloggers are ones that parents install to

keep an eye on the kids and their activities]

My second recommendation is Spybot S & D (search &

destroy). That picks up any malware, adware, spyware and

such when run. It also has a little program called "tea

timer" that runs in the background, and prevents

unwanted changes to the system during day to day

operations. If something tries to make a change to the

registry (and anything installed makes changes to the

registry) it will pop up a message telling you what

wants to make the changes, and what it wants to make

changes to.. The operator has to either accept or deny

the change. If you are installing a program, of course

you know that you're installing something and can accept

the changes.. but if it pops up out of the blue.. you'd

want to pay attention, good possibility that you'll want

to deny it, or at the very least figure out what the

message is saying before you accept or deny.. It also

has the "main" program that you have to intentionally

"inflict" (it takes quite awhile to run) on yourself to

get rid of cookies (tracking stuff) and other intrusive

things that get put on the machine.. And Spybot should

also detect keyloggers installed that weren't installed

by a parent.. might even pick up one that was installed

by a parent... You can pick and choose what you want

Spybot to clean up or fix from a list.. so if you are a

parent running a keylogger on the kids.. you can uncheck

that item so that it isn't repaired or corrected.. [The

keylogger I put on the laptop, is only active when I

tell it to be active, and I have to go to the companies

website to actually activate or de-activate the

logger]..

Third external program that I have running.. is

PeerBlock.. [this guy picked up and improved

PeerGuardian2 and I find PeerBlock to be a bit more user

friendly than PeerGuardian2].. This program can be as

sensitive or lax as you choose it to be... You can

download "lists" of "known" threatening IP addresses to

be blocked.. If you happen to use any Peer 2 Peer

sharing software (Kazaa, Limewire, Bittorrent, Emule,

Vuze, etc) you DEFINITELY want PeerBlock running.. There

are legitimate reasons for using Peer 2 Peer file

sharing programs.. but they are also used for spreading

pirated software, movies & music.. The very second

that you connect to one of these file sharing systems

the anti-pirating places HIT your machine looking to see

what it is that you are sharing.. PeerBlock keeps them

from seeing what you have, because they can't connect to

your computer.. but they also have "lists" for adware

and spyware & malware IPs as well.. and those will

be blocked from connecting as well..

Windows Firewall, I don't run, because it's a PITA as

well as not really doing the job it should be doing,

when another program (such as PeerBlock does it more

thoroughly) but Windows Defender, I allow to run, and I

allow the system to update their definition whenever it

tells me that there's an update out there to be run..

though thinking that Defender (or anything produced by

Microsoft) is going to be all the protection one needs,

is a bad idea..

Your son is correct in his suggested method of cleaning

up the keylogger. Change password, clean up, change

password again..

It also doesn't hurt to use Firefox as a browser (same

people/company that produced Internet Explorer for

Microsoft) as Firefox is more secure than Internet

Explorer, meaning it's a little more vigilant about

personal security than I.E. is..

And Thunderbird for email rather than Outlook Express,

as it's more secure than O.E as well..

There is also a program out there called "Hi-Jack

This".. and it's absolutely GREAT for cleaning up

hi-jacked messes.. the only thing there, is that I can't

decide what should or should not be in the list that one

will be reading after running the program.. The Good

news on that one is that there is a forum on their

website where the really good "eggheads" can tell the

person by looking at the results, what should and should

not be there.. and how to get rid of it..

The friends can also visit this website:

http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/

there are a few scanners and clean up tools listed on

the left side.. Housecall is a great little scanner, and

it will detect some things that other stuff doesn't...

Though you can't run two anti-virus programs on one

computer at the same time.. Does not mean that you can't

have more than one anti-virus program -- had a friend

who had more than one anti-virus program on his

computer.. he would scan every file that he downloaded

from anywhere with each of his anti-virus programs

before trying to use the file.. overkill maybe.. but in

the end saved him more time and gave him more peace of

mind than not doing it that way -- so although it's a

time consuming project, having more than one anti-virus

(making sure that only ONE is running at a time, so as

to not cancel each other out) and scanning for virii

with each, might bring more peace of mind..

Oh.. and Spybot as well as Avast! (or I'm thinking any

anti-virus and anti-spyware program) can give a false

positive... by that I mean.. Spybot might tell the

person that it suspects that Avast! is questionable..

and Avast! might tell the person that Spybot is

questionable.. though neither are..

And last but not least.. if you want to contact me

offlist that is fine.. and if you or they run into any

problems, I can call anywhere, anytime for as long as I

want at no long-distance charges.. and I'd be more than

willing to give it a whirl at helping clean up if

needed..

Links to the programs mentioned:

Housecall - Free online virus scan:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Avast! - Anti-virus software:

http://www.avast.com/index

Spybot S & D: (scroll down the page to find the

download)

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

PeerBlock

http://www.peerblock.com/

IBlock Lists (PeerBlock doesn't keep the blocking lists

on their site)

http://www.iblocklist.com/lists.php

Hope this helps, and sorry it's soooooo very long

HUGS

|)onna

Donna....

We've had about a half dozen members on this group who

have had their emails hijacked. Several were inactive

members and I tried to contact them but didn't get a

response so I had to remove them from the group. I am

an owner of our local freecycle group and it has hit

several people there too. I've been trying to help one

get rid of it and if you have any suggestions please let

me know. I told her to change her passwords, run her

virus software, a spyware detector, and then change her

passwords again. But she is still having the same

problem.

Sharon

This email is a natural

hand made product. The slight variations in

spelling and grammar enhance its individual

character and beauty and in no way are to be

considered flaws or defects.

From:

|)onna

To:

MSersLife

Sent:

Sun, November 14, 2010 10:31:19 AM

Subject:

Re: Uh oh. 's email has been

hijacked!

Too late.. already saw the ads.. LOL

and I even had to copy & paste to do it!!..

Some mornings I'm dumber than dirt..

I do have all kinds of "protective" things

running, so shouldn't have a problem with my

mail being hi-jacked though..

PeerBlock is a great little program to have

running in the background.. it's just additional

protection.. that I keep running on all the

machines here.

HUGS

|)onna

I see

's email has been hijacked. I am going to

put her on moderation until she can get it

cleared up.

WARNING: don't open the links that came from

her address!

hugs

Sharon

This

email is a natural hand made product. The

slight variations in spelling and grammar

enhance its individual character and

beauty and in no way are to be considered

flaws or defects.

To:

amyhugon@...;

mserslife ;

bobw316@...;

chadma@...;

addisonnicole92@...;

dennisobanion@...;

craftycritters@...;

ann.rmathis@...;

smyelingroovy@...

Sent:

Sat, November 13, 2010 10:21:55 PM

Subject:

(unknown)

http://errevolution.net/dir.php

--

Help Feed The Critters! Your daily click counts at

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/

--

Help Feed The Critters! Your daily click counts at http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/