Help - I'm Hijacked!!!

[Deniz]

Hi

I keep periodically getting these wierd pop-ups on my IE browser.

They aren't popups where you just close it in a new window but these are image-windows which embed themselves in the browser whatever page you are on and you cant close them, you need to go back or refresh the page.

What is it, anyone?

[Mick]

probably spyware...run some spyware cleaners.

spybot search and destory is one, you can find it and a lot of others via a google search.

[Deniz]

its even gone and installed a iSearch toolbar on my IE browser I aint sure how to get rid of that either.. I cant believe it I'm so careful on the net and the s**tbags got to me..

[Mick]

Originally posted by Deniz
its even gone and installed a iSearch toolbar on my IE browser I aint sure how to get rid of that either.. I cant believe it I'm so careful on the net and the s**tbags got to me..

stop visiting prOn sites via yer browser...get your dirty picts from newsgroups

at any rate get some spyware removal software, that should fix it up just fine.

[Deniz]

I used and ran spyware S&D but didnt work, the popups still come up.


pr0n? what is pr0n?

[Deniz]

Ok, it seems to be working so far, thanks Mick, you sleazy prOn newsgroup leader...

[John E]

Originally posted by Deniz
its even gone and installed a iSearch toolbar on my IE browser I aint sure how to get rid of that either..

Boot up in safe mode and use System Restore immediately. Hopefully, there'll be a restore point a day or two ago.

Viruses and trojans are getting more and more cunning these days. I got infected with something called the Trojan.Downloader which is a devil to get rid of. Norton AntiVirus didn't even know it was there. In desperation, I downloaded something called Ad-Aware which found tons of spyware on my machine. I now use it every day! Try Ad-Aware's site

To be honest, yours doesn't sound like the Trojan.Downloader but get yourself Ad-Aware anyway. You'll be horrified at how much stuff has installed itself (I think there were about 109 spyware apps on my machine - that's in spite of having a firewall AND Norton AntiVirus!!

Another good tip is to disable Java permissions and ActiveX scripting. I turned these off a long time ago and the only problem I noticed is that I sometimes have to turn them back on to submit forms. Browsing is much slicker with them turned off tho'.

Follow this link to disable Java permissions and ActiveX scripting It doesn't give any instructions for IE6 - but the ones for IE5 are pretty much identical.

[Deniz]

I used spyware and it picked up more than 80 spy clients or suss cookies etc. The Trojan.Downloader actually came up on my machine last week. I use AVG antivirus s/w and I update it daily. AVG picked up Trojan.Downloader and so I did a scan straight away and from the time Trojan.Downloader got in to the time AVG picked it up, it managed to get 4 files infected. Thats now gone at the expense of my Windows Media Player. That had to go as well

Gotta be on the ball at all times, its a (cyber)jungle out there...

[John E]

Hi Deniz -

If you only got the Trojan.Downloader last week, don't be too sure that it's gone yet. It seems to hide itself and 'lurk' for days or even a week before striking again. It lulls you into a false sense of security. You're right about the damage to Windows Media Player though. I visited many sites about the Downloader and not one of them mentioned the fact that it nobbles WMP. Fortunately, a System Restore will cure that for you (you need to restore to a time before you got the virus, of course - but I've found it quite safe to use).

I know that CodeGuru is a bit touchy about this sort of thing - but since it's a serious prob, here's a link to Lavasoft's forum where I was discussing this problem with some other guys. If it comes back, you can go there and you should find everything you need for disabling the Trojan.Downloader properly

[Deniz]

Yeah but AVG got it, wont it get it again even if it wakes itself up after a while?

[John E]

Hopefully, although it didn't work with Norton Antivirus....

Did you also get rid of that Search bar that got attached to your browser? I think that must have been some other virus though.

[mwilliamson]

I fixed up a computer yesterday for a co-worker. It had that torjan.downloader virus on it too (a long with sassar and about 30 others!). AVG cleaned it right out for me too.

[Deniz]

I went to iSearch.com homepage and after a long lookaround I finally found where they hid the section for uninstalling the toolbar. Appaerntly, and I quote from what they said, "I" chose to have it installed when I downloaded one of the media players. Which I didnt do of course because I always uncheck all the little gimmicks. So I used their tool to uninstall it and now its GOOOOOONE.

[mdmd]

Originally posted by Deniz
I went to iSearch.com homepage and after a long lookaround I finally found where they hid the section for uninstalling the toolbar.

Where did you find it, under the uninstall section ?

[Deniz]

I cant remember, its there, just look for it. They dont make it too obvious. It might have been in their "Contact Us" section..?