Reply to: geek malware Q

[rootsnall]

Careful on the banking passwords - Brits use the same password for everything

I am a little guilty of that, hence the , but luckily they force you to improve the password in most cases and have extra criteria.

Managed to setup the pop3 account ( ta Moscow Mule ) and after quite a few issues and crashes I've got everything downloaded onto my pc. Potential disaster averted, virtually all my useful work related docs are attached to emails.

[Sysman]

Is it likely they have cracked my password from scratch, or have I entered it into a dodgy lookalike webpage they directed me to ?

Perhaps it's time to tighten up my banking passwords

There are brute force password crackers out there, though I have no idea if they work with hotmail.

Careful on the banking passwords - Brits use the same password for everything

[Tarquin Farquhar]

I'm using Microsoft Security Essentials (on windows 7).
Compared to AVG and Avast it actually seems to be the most active in flagging suspicious files, programs and connections.
At the same time it is also the most discrete in terms of hiding away and only popping up when it needs to alert you.

discreet

[cojak]

<makes note not to argue with Tarquin on use of the English language. Or Latin, for that matter...>

[Tarquin Farquhar]

This also leads onto the semantics of is it 'virii' or 'viruses', but that's a conversation to be had with a pedant.

There is no reason whatever why it might be virii.

The original Latin word is second declension neuter. 2nd decl neuter nouns (in fact all neuter nouns AFAIK) normally form a plural with -a, which would suggest vira.

But 2nd decl nouns ending -us normally form a plural with -i, so viri (not virii).

But really it's an English word, so the plural should be viruses.

[cojak]

And of course there's FF3.5/NoScript to stop it from happening again...

[cojak]

I'm just about to install Spybot, that flags any suspicious activity quite well.

[Moscow Mule]

Any clever ways of downloading all your emails ( and more importantly their attachments ) ?

You used to get free pop access with a standard hotmail account (so you could download messages to a pc). Don't know if that is the case know or not though.

I think outlook express will still allow you to connect even if you've got a newer account, and you should be able to bulk copy your folders to something local from there.

[Spacecadet]

AVG let me down a couple of months ago


I'm now trying Avast.

I'm using Microsoft Security Essentials (on windows 7).
Compared to AVG and Avast it actually seems to be the most active in flagging suspicious files, programs and connections.
At the same time it is also the most discrete in terms of hiding away and only popping up when it needs to alert you.

[scotspine]

I would love a peek a your therapist's notes.

yes, i spotted that one but thought it best not to say anything given sy's current suspicions (read 'persecution complex') of me. dunno quite what emot to use either come to think of it..., i'll try

[Numpty]

Two unrelated words separated by a number is best, i.e. Tom69Sheep

I would love a peek a your therapist's notes.

[rootsnall]

http://windowslivehelp.com/community/t/175648.aspx

I had looked through some of that this morning. There was nothing in my signature. It doesn't give a precise 'fix' as such but is the same issue. I've just removed 34 cookies via Ad-aware, hopefully that has sorted any hangover !? I thought using the Delete All option in the Internet Options of IE tidied up all the cookies but obviously not, it appears to have missed some.

Ta for the various replies.

Is it likely they have cracked my password from scratch, or have I entered it into a dodgy lookalike webpage they directed me to ?

Perhaps it's time to tighten up my banking passwords

[rootsnall]

Your account has been hijacked. Change your password to something sensible. Two unrelated words separated by a number is best, i.e. Tom69Sheep

All your emails are lost.

Your email address list can be recovered. You have to contact Hotmail to do that though.

I've had the same password since email was invented, so I've had a good run. Now changed.

I haven't lost my emails, that would of really stuffed me up, just the address list.

Any clever ways of downloading all your emails ( and more importantly their attachments ) ?

[basshead]

http://windowslivehelp.com/community/t/175648.aspx

[threaded]

Has anybody else been a victim of sending out the email below to their address list ( via hotmail account ), and then losing their address list. The freebie Avast virus s/w I'm running has done a good job for a few years but I guess may have missed the virus / malware. The problem looks fairly wide spread but I can't see a remedy or proper explanation via google. Another hotmail account using this same laptop looks fine. Is it possible they have hacked into hotmail itself rather than my account ? There is nothing in my Sent folder relating to the email and everything else on the laptop looks OK. I guess I should change my password as a bare minimum !?

********** don't click on the link !!!!!!!

hey,
how are you ?
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Happy new year
Regards

Your account has been hijacked. Change your password to something sensible. Two unrelated words separated by a number is best, i.e. Tom69Sheep

All your emails are lost.

Your email address list can be recovered. You have to contact Hotmail to do that though.