Virus Question

[Meteor_of_War]

Hi all. My PC was acting strange yesterday doing things it doesnt normally do like programs were not responding and i had to "end now" and it was taking an unusually long time to shut down so i ran a full system scan with Norton AV 2002 and i had 3 infected files. ;( Norton was unable to repair them so they are currently quarantined. I know it may not be a good idea to delete the files as certain other programs may stop working properly if i do. What should i do from here? Oh yeah my virus definitions are all updated as of yesterday.

 

[Shuzer]

Generally speaking, virused files are safe to delete. Leave them in quarentine for a few days, if everything's working fine, you can delete them (or leave them there, they won't hurt anything being quarentined). Normally, viruses are files you either end up getting by e-mail or shady files from not-so-trustworthy sites.

I wouldn't worry. Viruses hardly ever infect other files, and the chances of them infecting system files is very low. Leave them in quarentine for awhile, then delete later down the road if you wish.

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Thanks for the reply Shuzer.

Well all three of them are Trojans.:\ Which i thought can open up to something worse (hence the name).
But let me see if i got you right...if they're in quarantine they're no longer being used?, so if i leave them there for a week or so and everything seems to still work fine on my PC then it would be safe to delete them?

 

[NSPIRE]

Generally speaking, virused files are safe to delete. Leave them in quarentine for a few days, if everything's working fine, you can delete them (or leave them there, they won't hurt anything being quarentined). Normally, viruses are files you either end up getting by e-mail or shady files from not-so-trustworthy sites.

I wouldn't worry. Viruses hardly ever infect other files, and the chances of them infecting system files is very low. Leave them in quarentine for awhile, then delete later down the road if you wish.

Mhmm. From first hand experience :angel: (yeah yeah... I've worked with and used Trojans before) Trojans usually are not harmful, as long as the Server stays out of your computer; which is where they can do the real damage. I have yet to hear of or see a Trojan that infects other files... so that shouldn't be a problem. I'd just directly delete them yourself.

 

[Shuzer]

Thanks for the reply Shuzer.

Well all three of them are Trojans.:\ Which i thought can open up to something worse (hence the name).
But let me see if i got you right...if they're in quarantine they're no longer being used?, so if i leave them there for a week or so and everything seems to still work fine on my PC then it would be safe to delete them?

Yep, quarentine is just that, quarentine. No longer in use and sectioned off so they're no harm to your system. What types of files were they, anyhow?

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Thanks for the reply Nspire, so if Norton identifies them all as Trojans then they are not really infected files that were originally on my PC, but files that were downloaded? In that case i will just delete them.

Shuzer, the files are as follows:

Unknown0000.data
you[1].htm
you[1].js

 

[Majestic XII]

I remember the days when i was happy to get a virus... it was something fun back then

 

[The Dark Elf]

I wouldn't worry. Viruses hardly ever infect other files, and the chances of them infecting system files is very low.

Shuzer, think about what your posting before you post it

 

[Shuzer]

Shuzer, think about what your posting before you post it

It's true, though; they often times spawn NEW files, but they hardly ever infect other files.. I've had viruses infect other files, but never system files (barring it wasn't one of the huge viruses that companies usually put a patch out for within a week of them coming out, but I've never caught one of those, and he said his definitions were up to date).

Besides, I said leave them in quarentine and delete them down the road.. not to unquarentine them and let them sit as it won't affect anything

BTW, those are fine to delete Meteor

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I downloaded this program Trojan Remover. It's supposed to be good for removing trojans that Norton cant fix or quarantine. I will keep this for any future problems. As for the ones i have quarantined now, i'll just go ahead and delete them. I had a friend of mine look into them and they're not serious, just pesky trojans picked up from browsing web sites. Why Norton auto-protect didnt pick them up as soon as i came across them is beyond me.

Thanks again.

 

[Retro_X]

with personal experience, i think PC-Cillin is a very good program, it picked up viruses/trojans/worms that Norton didn't. i think that's kinda strange.

but get a Firewall and your virus up and running well before you connect to the internet or
a buddy's computer!!

 

[The Dark Elf]

Norton is notorious for missing 9/10 malicious files but catching things that are safe. I wouldn't put your trust in it if I were you. I hate to think if thats how bad their VK is, what their firewall might be like.

 

[Shuzer]

Norton is notorious for missing 9/10 malicious files but catching things that are safe. I wouldn't put your trust in it if I were you. I hate to think if thats how bad their VK is, what their firewall might be like.

Are you sure? Norton has always kept my system virus clean, even while checking with a different virus scanner.

If there was such a problem, I'm sure the latest versions of Norton don't have such a security hole anymore. I'm running NAV 2k3, haven't had any (noticeable) problems yet. Even while I was running NAV 2k2, I had no problems.

 

[Meteor_of_War]

with personal experience, i think PC-Cillin is a very good program, it picked up viruses/trojans/worms that Norton didn't. i think that's kinda strange.

but get a Firewall and your virus up and running well before you connect to the internet or
a buddy's computer!!

Although i've heard there's better AV software than Norton out there, i've been pretty satsified with Norton 2002 since i started using it 2 years ago. Before these Trojans Norton found the other day, i've only been infected with a virus one other time since using Norton 2002. Also i use a Linksys firewall/router, hopefully that can be considered good enough.