Shipbucket

My home p.c. is currently disabled, due to what I first thought was a massive attack of 30 plus bugs of varying toxidity. It is actually a clever scam - not a virus, but somehow introduced, which aims to get me to pay for a non-existent Windows XP package (I already have Edset Nod which works). I need to take my cpu into my local shop to get this cleaned up, so I will be laying low for some time. I thought it might be useful to share this as other bucketeers may encounter the same

It happened to me too. At first I thought it to be true but then I realized that something was wrong after that the number of viruses, worms and Trojans seemed to vary from time to time this"warning" came up on my computer, that it was infected. So I put my computer in quarantine and ran my anti-virus and spyware progams. The answer was two files that I first disekted to see so that they did not triggered any damage to my hard drive if deleted only then did I deleted them. It took me three hours and I was really angry. One always has to be on ones guard against wickednes.

Master Standfast

XP is no longer supported, so anything about an update to it is likely a virus.

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95% of my drawings are destined for NS, 4.9% for fun, & .1% serious.
Worklist:
Space Shuttle
Atlas V
Delta II/III
Project Constellation
Soyuz series

Not quite

While Windows XP (x86) mainstream support ended in April of 2009, the extended support (security patches and such) will be still provided until mid April 2014. [Note: This is only for SP3, as SP2 support ended mid 2010]. XP (x64) SP2 is supported through April of 2014 as well as it is based on the Windows Server 2003 code base (same kernel actually).*

The reason (as I understand it) that XP is going to get 12½ years of support is that Microsoft locked in the some support contracts with various large organizations (read: US Government agencies) around the time Vista was released. Vista (SP2) support ends in 2017.

*This is rather odd actually as Win Server 2003 support doesn't end until July of 2015. With this in mind I fully expect that any security patches for 2003 will be made available to XP x64 users.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

Interesting, and thanks for the advice. I should get my home p.c. back today. I took it into the shop and the whizz kid explained that this 'thing' (not a virus so not sure what it is) loads from a website I visited, and no, it wasn't Sexy Babes In fact one that I was researching for Admiralty disruptive camouflage 25 for the 1943 Belfast, and I actually watched the whole thing happening. As my word application is also kaput, I left it with them to sort out. I'm no great shakes on this area, but I did buy Eset Nod antivirus and renewed it again recently; and it works fine, apart from the above; but I was told that all the major applications are working to block this sort of attack. I did try one the best know 'free' antivirus, but it drove me nuts with constant pop ups to buy the 'advanced' version to fully protect my p.c.

As long as you stay away from Norton, you're good. The thing does stuff that makes it match the definition of a virus(tracks & reports what you do & can't be removed without another separate piece of software) and takes up 20GB of space(had this, no damn wonder my harddrive was maxed out).

_________________
95% of my drawings are destined for NS, 4.9% for fun, & .1% serious.
Worklist:
Space Shuttle
Atlas V
Delta II/III
Project Constellation
Soyuz series

Did it replace your wallpaper with a flamboyant warning and disable applications from being launched? And was it by any means called "System Tool"? If anyone else gets this just go to Safe Mode, run a scan with whatever program you use (I find AVG and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware preferable), and kill it. I think this kind of scam is known as a "rogue". If you get any popups that say "Windows update [somethingsomething]", click OK or X and then CLOSE THE TAB ASAP before it starts downloading. Also if you see an address with "roboserver" in it, stay well away from it.

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No, it was just a pop up, pretending to be legitimate; but thanks very much for the advice re eradicating these rogues. I had been already having major problems with Word from a previously corrupted template, so I got a complete service on everything, including this pretend Virus attack. And from what you're saying no Windows update on a pop up is legit - right? Because that may have been another entry onto my p.c. If I grok this correctly, all Windows system updates are done during the close down period?

And thanks for the advice