Sunday, April 19, 2009

Lemming Tracks: The Zlob Worm and Related Malware Issues

The Lemming doesn't want to go through another week or so like that: running malware scans and having the two other computer-savvy members of the family do some manual search-and-destroy on the hard drives.

Last Tuesday, I played my last card: uninstalling my browser. I use FireFox, which has a pretty good rep - but I'd been upgrading an existing installation for years. Uninstalling it, and Thuderbird, the other Mozilla product I had, was easy - and so was going in and deleting the left-over files and folders. Those uninstallers aren't always as good as they could be.

Then, I re-installed the latest build of FireFox (essentially the same that I had before, except starting from scratch). I tried the Twitter "tinyurls" that were being redirected - and had no problem.

That was a relief: cost for taking this machine in for a complete wipe, scan, reformat and new operating system started somewhere a bit shy of $200. That's not exactly chicken feed for me.

So far, there's been no recurrence of trouble - and several websites are loading faster now. And yes: I've changed critical passwords, and am working my way through the relatively low-priority ones.

So: good news.

Related post:

No comments:

Unique, innovative candles

Visit us online:
Spiral Light CandleFind a Retailer
Spiral Light Candle online store

Pinterest: From the Man Behind the Lemming

Top 10 Most-Viewed Posts

Today's News! Some of it, anyway

Actually, some of yesterday's news may be here. Or maybe last week's.
The software and science stuff might still be interesting, though. Or not.
The Lemming thinks it's interesting: Your experience may vary.
("Following" list moved here, after Blogger changed formats)

Who Follows the Lemming?

WebSTAT

Family Blogs - Blog Catalog Blog Directory