Word to the wise
I was just browsing through some stories on nj.com, the Oregonian's parent company's website for New Jersey news, when my Firefox browser was overtaken by some malware. It appeared to be the same program that I encountered on The New York Times website a few weeks ago, only it seems even more vicious. At the moment, I can't run Firefox at all, on account of this piece of shinola. I don't know if OregonLive is similarly infected, but I'm not heading over there to find out for a while.
Comments (9)
It's something called GreenAV, a fake antivirus program scam. It weasels its way onto your computer via an ad on the site you're visiting -- in this case, an ad on nj.com. Bad news.
Posted by Jack Bog | October 17, 2009 11:48 PM
Gotta stay away from them porn sites...
Posted by Lawrence | October 18, 2009 8:57 AM
Use this opportunity to think about getting an Apple, Jack.
Posted by Donna Warnock | October 18, 2009 10:54 AM
I was browsing around on Oregonlive this a.m. and last night with Firefox. So far so good!
Posted by Usual Kevin | October 18, 2009 11:53 AM
getting an Apple, Jack.
I'm as ardent an adopter of Apple computers (not to mention fermented fruit drinks) as they come. But these browser-related malware episodes are not peculiar to the PC platform. Macs get them too.
Posted by Allan L. | October 18, 2009 11:58 AM
Jack, if you're using Firefox, add the following extensions:
NoScript (blocks Java Scripts, etc)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722
AdBlock Plus (Blocks ads)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
Both allow you to allow/disallow scripts and ads on the fly and remember the settings.
The key thing to remember is to only enable ads or scripts that you need to use a site and nothing more. Quite a lot of the scripts are tracking related, a few are a bit nastier than that.
Posted by Swede | October 18, 2009 1:45 PM
It's likely that FF is still running the script. Open your task manager and click on process. Find FF and manually shut it down (and all instances of FF). Then reopen and you should be fine.
Posted by RNR | October 18, 2009 2:53 PM
I did that; it was the only way to get the fake scan progress notices and fake virus warnings to stop. I also searched around and deleted several instances of a GreenAV .exe file that had downloaded to my computer. Nasty little bugger.
Posted by Jack Bog | October 18, 2009 2:59 PM
Jack, if your virus software is set up properly (ie like Mcafee) can't see how you would get a *.exe anywhere near your computer.
Whenever my Mcafee smells a *.exe from anywhere external it rears up asking me if I want that file and I say no.
Also it's worth dnloading Malwarebytes ( it's free)updating it regularly and then running that on a weekly (or so)basis.
I gave up on Adaware 'cos that was almost as bad as the stuff it was trying to stop.
I go to a ton of porn sites and never get anything nasty ;)
Posted by haha | October 18, 2009 9:43 PM