Basic Question On Virus Attacks from a Non-Techie

bobthedambuilder

Having just gone through the palaver of having to block and cancel a credit card for the third time:mad: because (so the provider's fraud line told me) my details had probably been hacked by a virus on my computer, I have a basic question to ask:

Is it worth having a separate computer used only to access your financial sites (say a cheap(ish) netbook)? My basic logic says that if I don't access all manner of potentially dodgy sites while web surfing, I have less chance of picking up one of these viruses that "harvest" (?) your details.

At the moment I use a single (middle-aged) desktop running XP for all my computer work, including online banking etc. I run Avast antivirus and Comodo firewall, and Firefox browser. Avast is set to do a daily scan in the evening, while I'm having my tea. I did get a high threat warning a couple of weeks ago from Avast, which I deleted, but the damage may already have been done.

rmg1

I'd back up your anti-virus with something like Malwarebytes and run a scan with that to see if it finds anything.
It might also be worth following the speed-up sticky as that has some other recommendations on there for keeping a "clean" computer.

You don't have to visit dodgy sites to get a virus, some are disguised as adverts when visiting normal websites.

gonzo127

if you run avast you shouldnt really have any major infections, although we do always recommend running malwarebytes anti-malware asa secondary scanner (this is a on demand scanner so does not have issues with the real time scanner avast has) - depending on size of your hard drive a full scan with malware bytes on my 500gb hard drive generally takes around 2 hours

and just normal questions is avast fully upto date (program and definitions?)

other that this if you want to be safe when doing shoppign/banking and dont want to spend any money, linux is the way to go, as this is a seperate operating system which (due to numerous reasons such as better design but also low market share etc) is not targetted by virus's and all the windows virus's do not work on it

now linux has multiple ways in which you can run it for example
From a CD
from a usb memory stick
installed inside windows as a seperate program (still unable to be infected by windows virus's this way)
or installed at the side of windows

each of the above are pretty easy to do and totally free - so if your interested in this let us know and we can give you more details

bobthedambuilder

gonzo127 wrote: »

if you run avast you shouldnt really have any major infections, although we do always recommend running malwarebytes anti-malware asa secondary scanner (this is a on demand scanner so does not have issues with the real time scanner avast has) - depending on size of your hard drive a full scan with malware bytes on my 500gb hard drive generally takes around 2 hours OK, will try this

and just normal questions is avast fully upto date (program and definitions?) Yes and Yes (automatic updates, and definitions updated on startup every day and several times during the day)

other that this if you want to be safe when doing shoppign/banking and dont want to spend any money, linux is the way to go, as this is a seperate operating system which (due to numerous reasons such as better design but also low market share etc) is not targetted by virus's and all the windows virus's do not work on it

now linux has multiple ways in which you can run it for example
From a CD
from a usb memory stick
installed inside windows as a seperate program (still unable to be infected by windows virus's this way)
or installed at the side of windows

each of the above are pretty easy to do and totally free - so if your interested in this let us know and we can give you more details

I am definitely interested in the Linux approach. Which is the safest option and how do I do it?

InsideInsurance

It is unlikely that going to banking sites etc that are your problem as these tends to be very secure. Where the risks are are much more around ecommerce sites where you are buying goods where the security can be much more lax.

Your bank however will have no idea how the people are getting your card numbers so them saying it is a virus is just a stab in the dark.

Personally would go for Kaspersky for my AV as I found my old Windows laptop did get infected despite having Avast running (as it did with AVG previously).

You could use a Linux or Mac OS X (both are *nix based) but these technically are no more secure but simply a case of due to their relative obscurity compared to Windows they are simply not targeted as much (hardly at all). However the rare times when there have been issues found with either of them they have been relatively slow in fixing them - the disadvantage of not having to be doing this sort of fire fighting on a daily basis.

gonzo127

any of the above ways are safe and each has there own merits and 'potential' problems

CD option - this could be classed as one of the safest options as once burnt you can not change it, therefore every time you boot it is to a totally clean operating system - although it could be argued that it isn’t as safe as you have not got all the updates for it so could potential have holes, that being said if only running it for banking and purchases the likelihood of coming across something that would take advantage of a hole is basically 0.

Other bonus is that once burnt off this can be used on virtually any computer with a cd/dvd drive in the same way

main problem with this method is that it can be ‘slow’ this is because everything is ran from your cd/dvd drive and your systems ram, also if the disk gets scratched same as any other cd/dvd you will have to re-burn it

USB option – this is very similar to the above as you can set it up so no changes can be made to the disk, however it also gives you the option of allowing it to update and keep changes, this also has the advantage over a CD of being a lot faster as the interface is quicker and also being able to use it on different computers should you need it

Main problem with this method is that you are limited to the size usb stick you have and the fact you can lose your usb stick (usually happens when you need it the most) – the other issue is you need a motherboard which supports USB booting – most computers from the last 5 years do support this but there is the odd one which doesn’t

Installed inside windows – on some of the main linux versions (for example ubuntu and Linux Mint) you can get the option to install a version inside windows, this works as if you are installing it like any other program (main ones are WUBI or mint4win installers) and can be uninstalled in exactly the same way as any other programs inside windows all it does is make a entry in your boot registry which gives you the option of booting to linux instead of windows, this is of course even faster than usb as its based on your hard drive and you can also (on install) give it as much or as little ‘extra’ hard drive space as you like depending on how much space you have free on your hard drive

Main problems with this is the fact that should windows become corrupt this can/will effect the linux option you have as this is of course installed inside windows, the other main issue is that although normal updates do work within linux in this way, a full os update (for example what i am talking about is the equivelant of moving from windows xp to windows vista or 7) doesn’t work very well and usually means you have to uninstall it and re install it

Installed alongside windows – this is a full and proper install, it will run the fastest it can run and will allow full os upgrades should you wish to do so

Main problem with this is that when installing it does run the potential risk of you losing data, this of course is not common but should be kept in mind if you go down this route and so you should make sure you back up all your important data

For installation you will have to download the ISO of the version you want I would suggest either ubuntu or linux mint as these are more new user friendly (current personal preference is linux mint)

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop


Now for CD option the version you choose will give you all the instructions on how to burn these off from both sites

USB route I would suggest looking at this http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ and follow instructions there

The installer inside windows just make sure you choose the option that includes the windows installer

To install it along side windows once again each site contains instructions on how to do this

C_Mababejive

Here is the answer

https://www.ubuntu.com

I switched from windows about three years ago and never looked back. I dont have any anti virus software.

I know linux isnt 100% secure..what is but there are a whole host of other advantages.

Its free,its fast,the software is mostly free,it starts and runs faster,doesnt really crash and is safer.

Neil49

I tried Linux a couple of years ago and found it quite good but there were wireless issues at the time so I never progressed with it.

What I did find was that the usb version worked well and I followed the pendrivelinux route as described by gonzo127. Linux isn't a big operating system and a 4gb usb stick worked fine for me. Since then of course, both Linux has had major updates and usb sticks are available with much larger capacity.

Linux is free so you have nothing to lose. Also, using the usb option, you don't need to purchase a separate pc.

Give it a try.

C_Mababejive

Neil49 wrote: »

I tried Linux a couple of years ago and found it quite good but there were wireless issues at the time so I never progressed with it.

What I did find was that the usb version worked well and I followed the pendrivelinux route as described by gonzo127. Linux isn't a big operating system and a 4gb usb stick worked fine for me. Since then of course, both Linux has had major updates and usb sticks are available with much larger capacity.

Linux is free so you have nothing to lose. Also, using the usb option, you don't need to purchase a separate pc.

Give it a try.

The wireless woes are pretty much sorted and tend to be laptop specific. I run a toshiba A210-12u and the wireless works fine.

Mr_Toad

There is another fairly simple option.

I never use my credit card on-line. I have a debit card with no overdraft or any other facility for taking money that isn't there.

I keep the account balance at a few pence and when I buy something on-line I log into the banking site and transfer the funds into the debit card just prior to buying something.

If anyone gets my card info they can't use it as it will be declined due to lack of funds.

I have have had a couple of vendors try and get me to change the payment type but they couldn't offer a convincing reason and either backed down or I cancelled the order.

fwor

I've done the same as several above and moved from Windows to Linux full-time, but another solution if you don't want to learn another OS (though I should add that you won't find that hard) is to run your external browser sessions in a sandbox, which isolates it from the rest of your PC.

I've not needed to try it, but others here have recommended Sandboxie.