Anti-Trojan

Malware Silently Alters Router Settings – Change Your Router Passwords

October 31, 2008 By Terry Stockdale

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Not your password for Windows — you may or may not change that, based on your personal preference (or if at work, based on the requirements of your employer’s network).

I’m talking about changing your passwords on your wireless routers and wired routers.

Whether you use a Linksys router, a DLink router, a Belkin route, or one of the many other brands of routers , whether you use wireless or regular Ethernet connnections with your router, change the password from the default password — now!

In my security articles on routers, I have long recommended that you change the router’s password. Sure, it can’t be accessed from the Internet side of the router, but if you manage to pick up some automated malware or a trojan that gives remote control of your computer to someone else, you may find your router subverted. It may run all of your requests through their system, so they can log and analyze your actions, passwords, etc.

Well, the automated malware that I’ve long predicted has now been found in the wild.

Continue reading Malware Silently Alters Router Settings – Change Your Router Passwords

Filed Under: Anti-spam, Anti-spyware, Anti-Trojan, Anti-virus, Networking, Patches, Security Fixes, Security Issues, Terry's Computer Tips, Vista, Windows XP

Adware Ties into Internet Explorer

March 28, 2008 By Terry Stockdale

This week, I received a query from a reader about a warning message he was receiving:

Hi Terry , I was wondering if perhaps you can help me , I have this very annoying adware that occurs EVERYTIME at startup …. not-a-virus:Adware.Win32.BHO.cr Now althugh this doesn’t appeato be causing any problem on my PC and I get delete it , it is still annoying to do this everytime . Is there anything you can suggest to REMOVE this adware from startup . Pls note : I am not computer savvy and my experience is limited , so I would need exact steps If you could help me , it would be greatly appreciated Regards

I’m not familiar with this particular message, but a little quick searching via Google showed that a number of people had posted similar questions on forums — and they all seemed to use

Continue reading Adware Ties into Internet Explorer

Filed Under: Anti-adware, Anti-spyware, Anti-Trojan, Anti-virus, Security, Security Fixes, System, Terry's Computer Tips, Vista, Windows XP

ActiveX or No ActiveX

April 6, 2007 By Terry Stockdale

I received a question from a subscriber who asked:

A number of times I have seen you refer disparagingly of “Active-x controls”.
I have seen downloads that require Active X to run properly. I have read the definition of the program, but, I guess I am just dense. What is this thing, and why do you consider it so insidious?
Admittedly, I’m technical-challenged, but can this program be explained?
What does one do as an alternative, if the program you want to download, requires Active-X to run?

Active-X controls are downloadable programs that have full capabilities to do anything on your computer. I’m not sure why Microsoft chose such the innocuous word “control” for a program that originally had few or no security constraints imposed upon it.