Re: I've got problems, computer and medical insurance, can anyone help?

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 17:43:35 -0500, emily2@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:21:14 -0600, Ross Jones <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

emily2@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Computer problem:

Zone Alarm announced this morning, after completing its weekly virus
and spyware scans, that it had found win32.keylogger, a program that
captures every keystroke. ZA says that this program must be installed
directly onto the computer by someone with administrative access.
This is simply not possible. My husband did not get up in the middle
of the night and install this thing. The only other person in the
house is me.

Yesterday, I installed TurboTax, and turned off Zone Alarm before I
did it, not wanting its virus watcher to screw up the installation,
but as soon as the installation was complete, I rebooted. I wasn't
online during the installation until it got to the part where it just
had to go look for updates. Updates my ass. It apparently downloaded
the whole program, which took two entire hours on this lousy dial-up
connection. I can't help wondering what was on the installation CD if
so much had to be downloaded.

A huge download is typical if you bought TurboTax in a store. It was
out-of-date when you bought it, and the downloaded update is in effect a
replacement.

Oh, what a great way to do business. I've been using TurboTax for
fifteen years or so and like it less every year. Since it cost more
than ever this year, one would think it would be better. Ha! If I
could download things in less than a decade with this lousy dial-up, I
wouldn't have had to buy it at the store. Arrrrggghhh!

ZA deleted the keylogger, but I would like to know how it got there.
Anyone have any ideas?

Typically, Trojan Horses are attachments to email which get installed
when you click on it to view.

Also, there are phony messages from Windows Media Player that you are
missing a plug-in, or codec, and just click right here to download it.
This occurs when you try to view a wmv file on the internet, or emailed
to you.

The first and foremost suspicion is inadvertent installation.

Your mentioning Media Player rang a bell --- I did view a couple .wmv
files recently and got the message about updating. I really can't
remember what I did and I may well have let the thing download. Now
when I try to play a .wmv, I get a screen welcoming me to WMP 10 and
says it's going to install now. At which point I close the window.

I suppose it's safe to assume that that's where this little beast came
from since I haven't downloaded anything else recently. Wonder why ZA
says it has to be installed by someone with administrative access.

Do you have Windows XP on your computer? Did you designate
an administrator for XP? Some people have several users of their
computer and one person designated as administrator. In the
latter case, only the administrator can install or delete software.


I don't use the option to have an administrator -- since I am the
only person using this computer but if one has kids with a penchant
for downloading a lot of stuff it would probably be wise to have
one.

OTOH Windows Help section says it is not wise to use the
administator's account when surfing the web a virus might
be acquired.

If you are using the Computer administrator account when you visit a
Web site that contains a virus, a Trojan horse might be installed on
your computer where it could do things like reformat your hard drive,
delete all your files, or create a new user account with
administrative access. By contrast, if you are using the Limited
account when you visit an Internet site that contains a virus, your
computer is less likely to be infected by it.

Does that confuse you even more

Now the question is how do I get rid of this thing that wants to
install Media Player 10? There's nothing likely looking in my
Download folder or in the Media Player folder. Where is this thing
likely to be hiding and what is it likely to be called?

Did you use the Search function to look for any instances of the
program?

.