Barry
30-05-2011, 15:04
On Saturday whilst trying to transfer some photos from my hard disc into Photobucket a 'Trojan Horse' got into my computer. It seeems that I was not the only one to suffer this, typing the relevant key words into Google revealed thousands of other users had been affected.
The Trojan Horse mimics Microsoft Vista Security and is a piece of malwear, known as 'scareware' that is triggered by Internet Explorer. It will inform you that your computer is seriously infected with all sorts of viruses and other nasties; actually giving a list of the virus names where they are in your system and the potential risk and damage that might be done if you don't do anything about it. All this is completely bogus.
It looks plausable as the warning windows show the Microsoft Vista Security shield and the layout and typeface are correct. Don't be taken in by this - the purpose of the scary warnings (hence 'scareware), is to persuade you to purchase on-line suitable software that will remove these 'infections'. Under no circumstances be tempted to do this! The malware will ask for credit card details etc., which is what they are after, and having got these details you could find your card cleaned out.
I know nothing about computers and what to do when this sort of thing happens. Fortunately a former work collegue of mine lives nearby and he is a bit of a computer guru. As I mentioned this Trojan Horse is activated by logging onto Internet Explorer. Fortunately I also have Mozella Firefox and my friend was able to use this to download and run MBAM MALWAREBYTES, a free piece of software designed to root out these malware programes. Even so, it took him three hours to completely clean up my system.
I don't know if Photobucket themeselves have fixed the problem, but until I hear they have, I won't be posting any of my pictures here for a while.
The Trojan Horse mimics Microsoft Vista Security and is a piece of malwear, known as 'scareware' that is triggered by Internet Explorer. It will inform you that your computer is seriously infected with all sorts of viruses and other nasties; actually giving a list of the virus names where they are in your system and the potential risk and damage that might be done if you don't do anything about it. All this is completely bogus.
It looks plausable as the warning windows show the Microsoft Vista Security shield and the layout and typeface are correct. Don't be taken in by this - the purpose of the scary warnings (hence 'scareware), is to persuade you to purchase on-line suitable software that will remove these 'infections'. Under no circumstances be tempted to do this! The malware will ask for credit card details etc., which is what they are after, and having got these details you could find your card cleaned out.
I know nothing about computers and what to do when this sort of thing happens. Fortunately a former work collegue of mine lives nearby and he is a bit of a computer guru. As I mentioned this Trojan Horse is activated by logging onto Internet Explorer. Fortunately I also have Mozella Firefox and my friend was able to use this to download and run MBAM MALWAREBYTES, a free piece of software designed to root out these malware programes. Even so, it took him three hours to completely clean up my system.
I don't know if Photobucket themeselves have fixed the problem, but until I hear they have, I won't be posting any of my pictures here for a while.