Hacked!

*Robin*

Thanks again to everyone trying to help me.
I'm not getting very far.
The Slimjet prog wouldn't load correctly; Chrome abandoned it.
It's impossible to disable webRTC in Chrome.
I can't revert to earlier settings because I don't know the password (this is my late husband's laptop - I've never reset the thing before).

It's a stupid reason to end up in floods of tears, and I am really starting to believe the only answer is a new laptop - but only worth the expense if it definitely gets rid of the s***ing parasite (whether the thing should be described as "a hack" or something else!).

I'll probably need a new accountant too if I get up the bottle to tell him exactly what I think of him failing to warn his clients about this - he knew back in December that his email address was infected, he's already admitted that!

esuhl

Rubidium wrote: »

If your prefered browser is Chrome, I suggest that you download and install the Slimjet browser here

It's much better to check your distro's repositories first if you want to install anything. It's both easier and your package manager will be aware of what's installed, hopefully avoiding "dependency hell".

psychic_teabag

*Robin* wrote: »

Well. I've downloaded Firefox, but there doesn't seem to be any obvious way of disabling Chrome and using Firefox instead (ie. no icon)?

Unfortunately, the desktop appearance is one thing that can vary widely between different versions of linux : it is one of the freedoms that we get.

In one of my systems, you get a menu of apps from the top-left corner, and the various browsers live in the 'internet' sub-menu.

You can always launch firefox from a command line if there's no icon : just typing 'firefox' at the prompt ought to do it. It might be helpful and put up a window inviting you to make firefox the default browser, but whether that works depends on what your current icon actually does.

(I've not come across the 'Zorin' distribtion before.)

psychic_teabag

*Robin* wrote: »

Thanks again to everyone trying to help me.

It's a stupid reason to end up in floods of tears, and I am really starting to believe the only answer is a new laptop - but only worth the expense if it definitely gets rid of the s***ing parasite (whether the thing should be described as "a hack" or something else!).

You definitely don't need a new laptop. A reinstall of linux would fix it, but that is definitely overkill.

psychic_teabag

esuhl wrote: »

It's much better to check your distro's repositories first if you want to install anything. It's both easier and your package manager will be aware of what's installed, hopefully avoiding "dependency hell".

Ah yes, good point : if you install firefox using your package manager, it ought to install any icons and things you need, whereas if you just download it from the firefox site, it might not do so.

Looks like Zorin is Ubuntu-based, which means the browser might be called iceweasel rather than firefox. It's the same browser - it's just a silly license thing that forced them to rebrand it because they wanted to do something very slightly different from the mozilla way.

System

Hi

The linux way is usually a gobbledegook command line, but very effective.

So if you cannot run as the root/admin user, perhaps a re-install would be preferable, but there a couple of things that might work.

Clam A/V is an anti-virus you may be able to deploy.

Also rkhunter is a rootkit hunter that you may be able to use.

So before buying a new laptop and possibly getting infected again by either copying over documents or dealing with a doofus try the above.

Even consider getting someone "tech-savvy son" to rdp remote desktop protocol into your machine and try and fix it.


Some more ramblings...

64bit Palemoon browser, is a Firefox based browser, and WebRTC is not supported. doesn't remove chrome problem though.

FIREWALL should be able to stop it getting in/out, if you can ID where, like port 6655.

So please could you tell us the distribution you have, and whether you feel confident in beating this thing.

esuhl

johndough wrote: »

Clam A/V is an anti-virus you may be able to deploy.

I'm not sure, but I think that ClamAV is mostly intended for detecting Windows viruses on GNU/Linux mail servers.

johndough wrote: »

So please could you tell us the distribution you have, and whether you feel confident in beating this thing.

Sounds like it's Zorin OS:

*Robin* wrote: »

The "Zorin" version of Linux is what's installed...

Apparently, this is how you install packages (programs) in Zorin:
http://zorinos.com/packagemanagersguide.html

Nodding_Donkey

In the Zorin menu under "Internet" you'll find "Zorin Web Browser Management". Here you can choose to install different browsers.

henm2

johndough wrote: »

Hi

The linux way is usually a gobbledegook command line, but very effective.

Very rarely a command line thing nowadays. You use a software package manager.I have used zorin in the past (if that is what it is) and it is similar to other Ubuntu based linux distros.
From the start up icon (bottom left of the main desktop screen) go to
1. System tools
2. select either 'software centre' or 'synaptic package manager'
3. if you select 'synaptic' for example you will asked for your password (its an admin one)
4. in the search bar at the top put the word 'firefox' in and search
5. When Firefox comes up select it. Use your right mouse button to then select the option install/upgrade and then then the option 'apply'

Firefox browser will be installed. You can now close down synaptic.

Do not throw away your laptop. Its running safely apart from the bug problem within the chrome browser.

I_have_spoken

I'd install Windows 10