In my first introduction to computers back in about 1980, all I did was program. That was all the computer would do so I dove into it.
As the years passed computers got much more complicated and custom programming wasn't as easy as it was in the early years. A bug could crash the operating system, so I got away from the programming that involved the operating system for the most part.
There are still types of programming that can be done that don't require any special software and can get me out of a bind. Windows has the scripting engine built into it. Files that it executes are ".VBE" text files. Notepad edits them easily.
For a browser I generally use Firefox. Occasionally I'll be doing a search for something and a link will come up that I click on, we probably have all done it, click on the link and a prompt opens and won't close unless you click on something. The way they set it up is anything you click on allows them to install and execute a program in their sneaky way.
What I did was find some VBE script that finds the running application of Firefox.exe and stops it. It then restarts Firefox in safemode that clears the Firefox cache of the previous offending page. When you next startup Firefox its on your homepage and everything is fine. Firefox uses what they call a cache. For some web sites the cache will lock on it. Everytime Firefox is restarted, that page will start. Starting Firefox in Safemode will clear that cache. There is a link to it in the programs section.
I wrote one for Internet Explorer too. I put a link to both of them in the Start button area too. But as vulnerable to attack as IE is, I generally don't use it.
Neither works all that well if I click on the offending popup, they are hard to detect when they are a trick. As a rule, if a webpage uses a prompt, I execute the script and that gets me out of there.
They don't get me very often.
Steve
On 1/14/2012 7:04 AM, Mikeneeb@aol.com wrote:
My AVG program just blocked a threat when I clicked on the link, please be careful if you open it.In a message dated 1/13/2012 6:23:43 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, sandaidh@localnet.com writes:From: "Dale S"
> What are these posts? Are they deliberate or do you have a bug in your
> computer?
--------------------
I'm betting she's been hacked. The 'bug' is likely spewing malware. Click
on the link and you're infected. I've seen a bunch come across in just the
past hour, and not all from Cindy.
If this happens to you, all you need to do is change your password to your
email account. That denies access to the hacker.
I had this happen to me a short while ago, and a friend let me know that my
Yahoo addy (which I keep as a backup, and for joining Yahoo Groups) was
sending out malware. I checked my Yahoo inbox and found that some had been
sent out *and* there were almost a dozen messages in my Drafts folder. All
spam/malware. Thing is...I don't use my Drafts folder for anything, so I'm
guessing the hacker (or bug) sends them out from there. It also makes me
wonder if the bug/infaction may be in Yahoo's archives. Why? Most of the
addys that first batch had been sent to were OLD email addys. So old that
most of the posts bounced back with a Failure notice. Some of those email
addys I haven't written to in over 10 years, and I don't have them in my
contact list, nor do I have old posts from them in my Inbox.
If you'll notice, almost all the email addys affected are Yahoo addys;
although I'm seeing some from AOL.
Sandaidh bean-fhigheadair a' bhreacain
sandaidh@localnet.com
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