Sasser Worm - Something That Happened To Me...

[Andrew D. Gable]

Today, I was on the Internet when a screen came up - there was no X or anything, just a screen - that said the Sasser Worm was detected, and to click to scan/disinfect. I picked no, as this looked a bit fishy to me. Should I have hit yes? Or, like I'm thinking, is this how the worm hits your computer?

 

[MythosaAkira]

Today, I was on the Internet when a screen came up - there was no X or anything, just a screen - that said the Sasser Worm was detected, and to click to scan/disinfect. I picked no, as this looked a bit fishy to me. Should I have hit yes? Or, like I'm thinking, is this how the worm hits your computer?

Do you have some sort of anti-virus program normally running in the background (Norton's, Trend Micro, etc.)? Otherwise, that doesn't sound normal.

If you were using IE without a pop-up blocker, depending on where you were, it could have been a pop-up trying to prey on fear/uncertainy/doubt. Kind of like those pop-ups that try to appear like standard Windows dialog boxes and warn you to click on them to remove a virus, porn, spam, etc.

 

[RangerWickett]

Whenever a screen pops up, I always check to see if my mouse cursor changes to a 'click this link' sorta cursor, no matter where I move it. Thus, is the window one big link, or are only certain parts of it clickable?

If you're in doubt, just Alt+F4 to close the whole damned thing. It's safer than risking a click on something suspicious, and you can always disconnect from the internet and run your antivirus software manually.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Installing a firewall like ZoneAlarm and a spayware program is a big plus.

 

[WingOver]

I would recommend downloading and running Ad-Aware to get rid of any spyware that may be on your computer:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Then I would install and use a pop-up blocker to prevent future problems:
http://toolbar.google.com/
http://toolbar.msn.com/

This site has excellent on-line security tests (shield's up):
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

One of the best measures you can take is installing a router as a hardware firewall between your computer and cable/dsl modem.

 

[XCorvis]

Also, a free decent virus scanner, just in case you don't have one.
http://www.grisoft.com

 

[Davin]

FYI - there's a second virus running around at the same time (through email, I think?) that claims to repair Sasser, but instead it infects you with a different virus. (This is from TV news. Check it out yourself with your favorite AV site.)

 

[Eternalknight]

Yep, apparently it is another variant of Netsky.

 

[herald]

To block this virus from getting on your machine, get a firewall and block ports 445, 5554 and 9996 (That is if you don't block that already). As stated before, good antivirus is important, I prefer Trend Micro Internet Security at the moment.

Always remember though, You need both a firewall and antivirus, evewn on dialup. If you have broadband, I recommend a cable/dsl router, if on dialup, a software firewall.

 

[MythosaAkira]

Then I would install and use a pop-up blocker to prevent future problems:
http://toolbar.google.com/
http://toolbar.msn.com/

Or you could switch from IE to Mozilla and have pop-up blocking built-in

Not to mention tabbed-browsing and a bunch of other nifty features...