I have a friend who has somehow gotten porn files that open on their system and attach to their files. Is there a way to get rid of this, and how and why does this happen?
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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
help!!
- Thread starter kerux
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kurabrhm
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard this one before!
Stop trying to kid yourself and others man!
I am really 'concerned' that this friend of yours must be so distraught at the fact that they have these files on their computer. It must be such a shock for him.
But I'm sure he'll get over it!
Anyway, try running Spybot search and destroy - that may help to get rid of these naughty files.
Your friend must consider himself the most unluckiest man on the planet!!
Stop trying to kid yourself and others man!
I am really 'concerned' that this friend of yours must be so distraught at the fact that they have these files on their computer. It must be such a shock for him.
But I'm sure he'll get over it!
Anyway, try running Spybot search and destroy - that may help to get rid of these naughty files.
Your friend must consider himself the most unluckiest man on the planet!!
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Well, first off, if your tone is because you think it is me, it is not. Secondly, I am only trying to help someone out and find out how to get this junk off his system, as he has a teenage daughter that he does not want to be exposed to this junk. How can these files show up if one has not been to porn sites? Could it have been someone sending a spam email or something like that?
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rwl
Insert witty comment here
99 times out of 100 they can't.kerux said:
I only leave the 1% because it's possible but I've never seen it.
Tell your friend to DL and run Spybot as mentioned above and Ad-Aware.
Also make sure their virus software is up to date and have them run a full system scan.
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kerux said:
I'm going out on a limb and assuming that it was not, however as the other guy said there is a miniscual chance it could have been a worm or spyware or something.
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WeakButHopeful
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I'm not sure if I can help, but I'd need to know more specifics. For instance, are we saying your friend has discovered pornographic still image files or movies, or do you mean he is being bombarded with pop-up windows that are advertisements for adult web sites? I'm also not familiar with what you mean by "attach to their files". Do you mean to say that if your friend creates say a spreadsheet that somehow a porn file gets attached to that spreadsheet? If so then I'm afraid that's beyond my knowledge level and I can't help you.
As far as I know (and of course I invite other forum members to correct these statements in case I'm overlooking something), the two primary ways that porn could get on a computer when the owner of the PC doesn't want it there are: either another user of the PC put those files there (and depending on how secure their system was that other person might not have to be sitting at the PC itself...i.e., there are such things as unauthorized users or hackers), or else their PC has gotten infected with a malicious virus/trojan/adware that is downloading these files from the Web. Both of these situations are more likely in an always-connected broadband situation (you didn't say whether your friend is connected to the Web, and if so whether it's a dial-up situation or an always on cable/DSL connection) and especially if the PC does not have ALL FIVE of the following protections: password protected sign-on to the PC, periodic check for Windows critical updates (assuming this is a Windows box?), periodic anti-virus scans with RECENT virus signature updates, periodic Spybot Search&Destroy and Ad-Aware scans looking for adware (as was mentioned by another person in this thread), and isolation of the PC behind a firewall (hardware router or software, preferably both).
I would add (and I mean this in a very respectful, helpful way) that it is best to be very specific when asking questions about PC situations. I am sure you did not mean it to be this way, but if you had asked a similar question about a problem you were having with you car it would have been something like: "I have a friend who has a grinding sound coming from their car and it seems to be spreading, how can this be fixed and what caused it?" Believe me, I'm with cars the way some people are with PCs. I happen to have been working with computers for decades. So I only pass along this advice so you can have the best chance of getting your question answered. So just like in my car example you'd want to have given the brand and year of the car, when and where the noise seems to be loudest, whether anything (like service or an accident) had happened to the car recently, etc. etc. with a PC question you want to say (at minimum) the Operating System (your friend could have a Windows, a Linux box or a Mac for all we know), the type of Internet connection, what protections are in force on the PC (the five items I listed in the previous paragraph) and whether it is an isolated PC or is on a network with other PCs in a house or business. Of course, specific questions may call for additional information, but the above was a minimum.
(Edited after original posting: Mr. Pious correctly points out it is highly unlikely your friend had an adware problem if he is using Linux or a Mac, but unauthorized users and hacking could still be a problem, so it would be good to know the answers for some of the other questions I raised...this just points out the importance of complete details in the question...sorry!).
I hope this was of some help.
As far as I know (and of course I invite other forum members to correct these statements in case I'm overlooking something), the two primary ways that porn could get on a computer when the owner of the PC doesn't want it there are: either another user of the PC put those files there (and depending on how secure their system was that other person might not have to be sitting at the PC itself...i.e., there are such things as unauthorized users or hackers), or else their PC has gotten infected with a malicious virus/trojan/adware that is downloading these files from the Web. Both of these situations are more likely in an always-connected broadband situation (you didn't say whether your friend is connected to the Web, and if so whether it's a dial-up situation or an always on cable/DSL connection) and especially if the PC does not have ALL FIVE of the following protections: password protected sign-on to the PC, periodic check for Windows critical updates (assuming this is a Windows box?), periodic anti-virus scans with RECENT virus signature updates, periodic Spybot Search&Destroy and Ad-Aware scans looking for adware (as was mentioned by another person in this thread), and isolation of the PC behind a firewall (hardware router or software, preferably both).
I would add (and I mean this in a very respectful, helpful way) that it is best to be very specific when asking questions about PC situations. I am sure you did not mean it to be this way, but if you had asked a similar question about a problem you were having with you car it would have been something like: "I have a friend who has a grinding sound coming from their car and it seems to be spreading, how can this be fixed and what caused it?" Believe me, I'm with cars the way some people are with PCs. I happen to have been working with computers for decades. So I only pass along this advice so you can have the best chance of getting your question answered. So just like in my car example you'd want to have given the brand and year of the car, when and where the noise seems to be loudest, whether anything (like service or an accident) had happened to the car recently, etc. etc. with a PC question you want to say (at minimum) the Operating System (your friend could have a Windows, a Linux box or a Mac for all we know), the type of Internet connection, what protections are in force on the PC (the five items I listed in the previous paragraph) and whether it is an isolated PC or is on a network with other PCs in a house or business. Of course, specific questions may call for additional information, but the above was a minimum.
(Edited after original posting: Mr. Pious correctly points out it is highly unlikely your friend had an adware problem if he is using Linux or a Mac, but unauthorized users and hacking could still be a problem, so it would be good to know the answers for some of the other questions I raised...this just points out the importance of complete details in the question...sorry!).
I hope this was of some help.
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I don't know anyone with a linux box that has problems with adware, and I don't know anyone with a mac but seeing as there aren't all that many of them I doubt mac has a spyware proiblem either.
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merryheart
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rwl said:
Actually, I have seen several recent instances of porn trojans. People click on pop-ups or banners that download this stuff into your Windows computer. This happens over port 80, and so a firewall will not catch it unless it is a browser proxy as well. If you are having a pop-up problem, or your default ie page has been hi-jacked, and goes automatically to porn, the following should fix the problem.
- Download Lavasoft's Ad-Aware. Run the update to get the most recent data files. Scan the system, and delete everything it finds
- Go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com and run the free online virus scan. This tool is better than either Symantec or McAfee at catching Trojans
- Delete the new "Favorites" that the Trojan has left behind.
- Download Firefox or Opera and use it for your browser instead of ie.
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merryheart
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rwl
Insert witty comment here
I really haven't seen many porn Trojans although I have seen many porn worms.merryheart said:
If the person's browser is getting redirected to alternate pages then ad-aware and or spybot might not fix the problem. Something like Hijackthis will though. They will have to be very careful using it as it's a powerful tool and doesn't differentiate bad from good. As you point out a lot of this happens over port 80 since it's the standard port for web traffic.
To block a good number of pop-up windows I'd also suggest DLing the google toolbar. It does a decent job.
I can't stress the importance of using both Spybot and Ad-Aware in conjunction with each other though. They are good tools that work great together.
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merryheart
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I just cleaned a trojan off my husband's computer yesterday 
It was one that "hijacked" the default page. Did not pay a lot of attention to the name, but I caught and deleted it with Housecall, and cleaned up it's mess with Ad-Aware, and manually. Your point about using it and Spybot also is a good one, because neither will get everything that the other will. Weak also had a good point, that it is very important to keep Windows systems regularly patched. I am about | | This far from putting Linux on my hubby's system, like I have
It was one that "hijacked" the default page. Did not pay a lot of attention to the name, but I caught and deleted it with Housecall, and cleaned up it's mess with Ad-Aware, and manually. Your point about using it and Spybot also is a good one, because neither will get everything that the other will. Weak also had a good point, that it is very important to keep Windows systems regularly patched. I am about | | This far from putting Linux on my hubby's system, like I have
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rwl
Insert witty comment here
Housecall is a good program. We use it at work when having problems with stubborn trojans. I think it might actually be geared twords trojans? ( Can't remember exactly).
Running linux or any *nix is good but there are viruses out there to be carefull of. No where NEAR as many though. Since 98+% of the world is running some type of wintel system all the coders will create viruses for the masses. Funny, considering how most are written in *nix.
Running linux or any *nix is good but there are viruses out there to be carefull of. No where NEAR as many though. Since 98+% of the world is running some type of wintel system all the coders will create viruses for the masses. Funny, considering how most are written in *nix.
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