ATTENTION ALL PUB MEMBERS

[Rumba Rue]

If you are using Mozilla Firefox as your browser (and if you're not you should be!) this is what you need to know and do, thanks to Mad Jack. The hacker is using a back-door patch and is going through people's names here at the Pub. I wish to thank Mad Jack on bended knee for this wonderful information!

From Mad Jack:

I just found a trojan on my system called Backdoor.Redghost. It allows a remote user to take over your system. The info on it and the removal steps are here.

Spy

I installed an extension to my FireFox browser (under Tools -> Extensions, click "Get more extensions") called NoScript. It blocks the execution of web-based scripts unless you explicitly allow them. That'll gum up the boy's plans!

Here's a free line of defense that will help. Go to LavaSoft and download Ad-Aware Personal Edition. Damned good anti-spyware protection.

Next, go download Crap Cleaner, one of the best tools available for ridding yourself of all the junk web browsers leave on your system. This includes all manner of scripts that can hide malicious code. This one's free, as well.

The Lavasoft website is at http://www.lavasoft.de, and Crap Cleaner is at http://www.ccleaner.com.

Thank you again to my friend Mad Jack

Rumba Rue

[The Doctor]

Just *hic!* doing my civic duty!

[Red-Handed Jill]

Been using Ad-Aware for ages - great program! You might also want to look into Ad-Watch, its companion utility. Runs in the background and warns you if anything untoward happens. Also blocks tracking cookies and adware.

[The Doctor]

Aye! Always a good idea to have constant protection running. I was pointing out the freeware version, as Ad-Watch costs money.

For those of ye running out of time on your trial antivirus subscriptions, check out Avast! Antivirus. Totally free, and it's one of the best AV systems available. I've been using it for over two years now, and I trust it implicitly.

[hitman]

HMMMMMM,

I run Ad Aware Spybot and AVG free edition with Opera as a browser. Just as a question any reccomandations for changes?

[The Doctor]

Opera is a fine alternative to Internet Explorer. One of IE's downfalls is that it's highly vulnerable to malicious scripts.

[hitman]

I stoped useing IE a long time back for just that reason. I perfer Opera to IE or any of the other alternative browsers but then thats just me. Wish they had a google bar for it but beyond that I have no complaints. My only real conceren is that as a rec. user now my suite of tools might get outdated while I'm not paying attention.

[The Doctor]

Looks like there's an issue with Crap Cleaner not being able to completely flush out some broswer index files, and it subsequently confuses the browser cache. You'll know you have the problem if you start getting an inordinate number of broken images on web pages you've previously browsed before running the cleaner. The workaround is to run CC 2 or 3 times with your browser closed down.