Lost Everything and have to hand in IT coursework tomorrow...HELP

asbokid

stilltheone wrote: »

I gave the OP instructions to un-hide the files, but that appeared to fail for one reason or another.

i don't think she was pointing it to the correct directory to recover her coursework files..

That TDSS rootkit looks very nasty.. How would it have been delivered to the OP?

This is all a sick joke. The whole Microsoft Windows security industry is a sham ;-(

RussJK

stilltheone wrote: »

I gave the OP instructions to un-hide the files, but that appeared to fail for one reason or another.

She probably accessed desktop.ini

asbokid

The_Grandmaster wrote: »

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-windows-diagnostic
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-windows-7-recovery
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-hard-drive-diagnostic

All the three guesses state the files are hidden so I assume they are hidden rather than deleted...

Thanks. Who are the people behind bleepingcomputer.com though? They plug the malwarebytes tool, and extensively carry ads for "StopZilla" so they must be on the make themselves..

The whole Windows security industry is a joke. As that old saying goes, "the fox is in charge of the chicken house".

RussJK

closed wrote: »

I only suggest tdsskiller when there's evidence of that infection in hjl logs, it doesn't find everything unfortunately.

I know, I was just trying to recover my sense of humour by being tongue in cheek...

Next you're going to tell me that I never had one to begin with

RussJK

asbokid wrote: »

Thanks. Who are the people behind bleepingcomputer.com though? They plug the malwarebytes tool, and extensively carry ads for "StopZilla" so they must be on the make themselves..

Actually I just noticed the same irony tonight regarding StopZilla as well, accessing this site from another computer. They might not be responsible directly for what the ads display, similar to when eBay were carrying malware-containing ads.

I don't disagree with your sentiments although you are going off on a tangent I consider myself behind the times when it comes to all this, and it amazes me how all the malware these days seem like they come off a factory-line compared to in the past,... big-business.

asbokid

RussJK wrote: »

it amazes me how all the malware these days seem like they come off a factory-line compared to in the past,... big-business.

What gets me is that there are no independent post mortems of this malicious code. I don't count the security advisories from the anti-virus s/w companies. I don't trust them. They've got their corporate interests to safeguard.

Where are the little people, the students, the kernel hackers, who spend all night disassembling the malicious code for TDSS or whatever? That's what happens with Linux, and then their discoveries are posted to some place like the linux kernel mailing list, and everyone paws over their findings and studies it even more.. All that is missing in Windows, and it doesn't feel right.

RussJK

asbokid wrote: »

What gets me is that there are no independent post mortems of this malicious code. I don't count the security advisories from the anti-virus s/w companies. I don't trust them. They've got their corporate interests to safeguard.

Where are the little people, the students, the kernel hackers, who spend all night disassembling the malicious code for TDSS or whatever? That's what happens with Linux, and then their discoveries are posted to some place like the linux kernel mailing list, and everyone paws over their findings and studies it even more.. All that is missing in Windows, and it doesn't feel right.

I don't honestly know either way, but most reports from security researchers I find are usually attached to one of the big companies. From your point of view, it must seem like a health researcher working for McDonalds or Nestles

debitcardmayhem

One option we all missed of course is if OP can run cmd.exe and then issue -
cd c:\Users\DDname
attrib -H /S *.doc
attrib -H /S *.xls
dir /S
.......

We all want to remove the virus/malware first then get the PC running as it should be , the above might well allow poor kid the opportunity to get her work back quickly

asbokid

RussJK wrote: »

I don't honestly know either way, but most reports from security researchers I find are usually attached to one of the big companies. From your point of view, it must seem like a health researcher working for McDonalds or Nestles

that's a great analogy!

there's a recent masters thesis here on windows rootkits that i am just flicking through.. it's quite interesting and well written.

http://sce.uhcl.edu/yang/research/A%20Comparitive%20Analysis%20of%20Rootkit%20Detection%20Techniques.pdf

If Google Scholar is any benchmark to use, there are surprisingly few academic research papers that focus on Windows security.

I have heard that Microsoft just "buys" university departments that are too critical of its software. The university is offered a grant from the Corporation that is so massive it cannot possibly be refused on the grounds of preserving academic freedom.. Of course, once the department is bought, Microsoft then steers and stifles any further research that is not in the Corporation's interest. The University of Cambridge was brought "on message" in this way.

Hammyman

loobyloo2 wrote: »

Huh, I wish it was that easy, it is two years worth of work, she just recently redid it all to try and improve her grade

Wasn't learning about doing backups part of her course?