While repairing a computer, have you ever found something illegal on it?
Yes. Early in my career, I repaired computers for a well known franchise that required us to dress in a nerdy uniform and run repairs. Most were boring. People come in complaining of slow response, lag, etc, and we ran through a standard slew of repairs, including blowing out the machine, a quick physical inspection, and running antivirus and malware repair software.Nine times out of ten, we found porn on computers—this was back in the earlier file sharing days, so often when you found a folder near the root entitled “New Folder,” you instantly grinned to yourself, knowing what was inside before clicking on it. The guys I worked with (mostly young and single) would even occasionally copy some clips they liked. Certainly no one judged, and we even phrased things carefully when talking with customers, speaking very generally about how free movies and music could be dangerous to your machine.One day, however, I remember dealing with a guy who was quite horrible, who made quite a lot of noise at check in about how this was his business machine and how we needed to make sure we didn’t mess up any of his important documents or records. He was quite rude about it. Later that night I was working on a different machine in the back, and I still will never forget watching a young man blanch as he clicked open the file folder that contained what appeared to be a massive amount of child pornography. We barely glanced at it but it was horrifying.I remember a corporate office being called and authorities basically instructing us to summon him as if his computer was done. When he showed, he was very quickly whisked away. The computer was seized as evidence. I never saw him again, and mentally filed away the encounter as a reminder to always trust my spidey sense with people.
Desktop turned blue and porn icons appear?
i was looking for a cd crack for jedi academy when suddenly Avg was telling me about some bad stuff. i told it to heal and stuff and then i looked to my desktop and it was white. then i restarted my computer and it was blue and there were two icons. one read "Quality Porn" and lead to http://www.megaporndump.com/ While the other was somehting about zoo porn. i tried scanning with avg but it takes FOREVER... i also ran smitfraudfix but it seems to only be a temporary fix. every time I tell it to clean it'll do so but then i tell it to search it'll come up with the same infected keys. what else can i do?
My computer's memory is almost full, and i cant find what is taking up all the space.?
Sounds more like a virus than a lack of memory or what is being consumed for memory. Try running some scans first, than see how it works. These are the three main programs that techs use when they charge you tons of money, like geeksquad. I know because I'm one. :) http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4716-malwarebytes-anti-malware.html http://download.cnet.com/SuperAntiSpyware-Free-Edition/3000-8022_4-10523889.html http://download.cnet.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html
Can I get hacked by clicking on a malicious link? What can I do to protect myself if I clicked on a malicious link?
The answer is simple; yes! Clicking on a link is you telling the computer I accept whatever this is and will go wherever this link takes me. The result is that you could download malware, a virus, or rootkit into your machine that allows it to be taken over by a hacker. It becomes part of a bot or botnet. The result is that your computer and its contents belongs to someone else. They can use it and do to it whatever they want. You may never even know this is happening. Some malware is designed to run 'in the background.' Meaning its doing things silently and secretly. In some instances you may end up with ransomeware. This is a program that takes your computer over completely and forces you to pay a ransome to get it back. See CryptoLocker - Ramsomeware Rises to New Dangerous LevelsIf you should click on link you believe or discover has delivered malware on your system you need to do an immediate scan using your up-to-date anti-virus program. Then go to the next step and use a root kit scanner. I use the Malwarebytes Beta Rootkit scanner but you could also use Kaspersky Labs free root kit tool. Keep in mind that malware will sometimes reveal itself. If you are lucky. It may change your homepage, add a toolbar or change your default search engine. That's if you're lucky. Unlucky means your files get encrypted, your system goes crazy and won't work or you start getting angry messages from friends claiming you infected their computers. Viruses and malware can send themselves to all your contacts. Unlucky means your passwords have been recorded using a key-logger and a hacker empties your bank accounts and steal your identity.Never click on any link you are not absolutely certain of. Especially in unsolicited email. If you get an email from a friend with an attachment or link don't click on it. Call them and ask them what is it? Maybe its their system that's infected?
Fix my laptop? Issues with a program called WindowsSafeMode.?
Try CTRL/SHIFT/ESC if you want to bring up Task Manager (CTRL/ALT/DELETE doesn't go to Control Panel in ANY version of Windows. In Windows Vista (and possibly 7), it goes to an intermediate screen that should have a link to Task Manager.) The Safe Mode screen sounds legitimate (see below), but the touting of some software sounds like malware taking advantage of Safe Mode. Even Microsoft doesn't push its software that way. There are never any guarantees in malware fighting, but here's my best shot at a generic removal procedure: First, boot into Safe Mode With Networking. (See below for details.) That sometimes keeps malware from protecting itself. Then, if you have an anti-virus, make sure it has the latest virus definitions and run a full scan with it. If you don’t have one, many people here swear by Malwarebytes (it’s free). I suggest you also download Ad-Aware Free and Spybot S&D (they’re free), install them, update them and run full scans with them in Safe Mode With Networking. Also, turn off System Restore to evict any copies of bad stuff that might be lurking there. To get into Safe Mode with Networking: 1. Log out and reboot your machine. 2. When the machine starts the reboot sequence, press the F8 key repeatedly. 3. Select Safe Mode with Networking from the resulting menu. 4. Login. If the malware has changed your password, try logging in as Administrator. By default, Administrator has no password. 5. The machine will continue booting, but the Windows desktop will look different. 6. When you're finished doing what you need to do, log out and reboot back into normal mode. Another trick that may enable anti-malware and/or its installer program to sneak past the malware is to change the name of the anti-malware program itself. The names of the files and their locations differ between anti-malware programs, but the procedure is always the same: 1. In Windows Explorer, find the folder with the anti-malware. 2. Change the name of the program (it always ends with a .exe) to virtually anything else, but keep the “.exe” part. 3. Run that. Note that even if the anti-malware programs get rid of the malware, they may not be able to reverse the effects. Search the Web for possible fixes. Update and run full scans regularly, not just when you think you already have malware. Good luck.
Fixed Neighbor's Computer - What Should I Charge?
Hey there guys, I'm new to these boards and am not sure if this is where I ask this sort of question, but here goes anyway... So, I've been working on my neighbor's computer recently (I now have just over 6 hours into it) and I'll be finishing it up today. What she wanted me to do was "Clean it up... make it run faster", but that turned out to be a great deal trickier than it sounds... see, her computer is riddled with viruses and runs slow as hell. Anyway though, after all those hours of work and headaches, I cleared it up as best as I could. It's not running magnificently fast, but it's running as fast as I can make it go (unless I start replacing internal parts). Basically to make a short list of what I did is that I painstakingly searched her computer for what was slowing it down, realized it was viruses after it wouldn't allow me to go on any site except weird mortgage sites and what not, tricked it into letting me download an anti-malware program, scanned and scanned... and scanned, removed all infected files, then I began with what she wanted me to do... I deleted all programs that she doesn't use (or won't miss), ran a disk cleanup, defragmented, and then ran another disk cleanup; and I believe it'll be the end of it today with me setting up her new printer (no big deal there). I'm sure I'm forgetting about some stuff here and there, but that's basically the gist of it so far. After all that, my question is what should I charge her? She's made a couple hints towards it, but I didn't really know what to say as of yet. What worried me a little is that she said something along the lines of "Let me know what I owe you hourly...", and you know you always get screwed with this kind of job if you have to get paid hourly for it... so should that mean that I charge more for it hourly? Let me know what you guy's think! I know it's nothing really all that complicated, but there's a lot of time and energy involved in this fix up. Thanks.