backdoor is extremely dangerous it means someone has access to his pc and can utilize it and get info from it through that backdoor. As to banking info yes It could be if any banking was done on that pc.

He needs to get to LzD and get help with a clean up and find out what the best options are for it.

Raven or anyone..
yes AVG said he had backdoor.. it is in quarantine.. does that make it any safer for now? I found out he took off zone alarm as he said it was slowing him down. What do you know about comodo virus detector & firewall? What a mess he has gotten into now.. What about this Trojan chifor?
Dar

that laptop is NOT safe even if it says it is in quarantine the fact that someone did have control of his pc lets you know that they could have already installed things in it so that they now can continue to have access to it. Backdoored computers are not to be trusted and in most cases the advice is to fully wipe them clean and reformat, but if it also has rootkits which it may they may live through a reformat. My advice again is go to LzD and ask for help and let them see what is still there and what needs to be done. I would not put that pc back on line till it is secure.

I am not a fan of comodo due to some of their questionable business connections and practices in the past year. I want the company that handles the security on my pc to be fully above board so I no longer recommend their products and many of the help forums have removed them from the recommended list.
You might look at outpost, or online armor or pc tools, but if zone alarm is configured properly it should not slow him down, I think what was likely slowing him down was all the infection on the computer and the fact that it was backdoored and who knows what the hacker was using his computer to do when he had control of it.

IF I have to get him another computer which operating System is best..Vista or windows 7? He wants window 7 but is that the best? I sure hope I don't have to get another one or at least maybe his can be fixed as a stand by.

I want my XP Media center edition as long as things work on it. I don't like changes.
Dar

in a choice of vista and windows 7 hands down windows 7. I would go with home premium. But you should be able to have his hard drive wiped clean and fully reformatted and still use it, would have to check it for rootkits of course, but really with a backdoor that is really the only way to feel safe with it, and make darn sure you guys are changing all passwords to everything including all your email accounts and log in passwords to very strong hard ones that are NOT words but combo of letters and numbers, from some other computer not the infected one.

does he have the discs from the pc so that it can be restored back to how it was originally then updated from there? if so if he wants to just get a new hard drive and reload it all on a new hard drive that is one way to know it is clean and you keep your operating system that you like. I don't think you need to get a new pc, just get this one cleaned up fully or change out to a new hard drive and reload your windows on it and start fresh. People do that all the time. But with out the proper security programs on a computer and understanding where to go to and not go to and how to be safe nothing will do much good so making sure all that happens is essential. Can not take off security programs, can not let them go with out the updates and with out the regular scans. And all the other stuff like java and adobe etc all have to be kept updated too or it leaves you open to vulnerabilities. Lots of work I know but it is essential.
The other option is to put linux on his computer and he would not have to worry as much about infections, would mean learning a new operating system but he would have to learn new with windows 7 also. One good thing with linux is that it is free and with a live cd is easy to try it out and see how it feels.

Thanks for the reply.. I called the bank & explained the problem to them.. They don't want me to change the bank password from mine even though my name is also on the account. The only clean computer he can use is mine BUT I am about 800 miles away. I don't know how to change any of the passwords from mine but maybe can find out if I can or not..and how. I'll try...

(*if so if he wants to just get a new hard drive and reload it all on a new hard drive that is one way to know it is clean and you keep your operating system that you like*)

Won't doing the above also put the virus on the new harddrive? getting a new HD seems a good way to go. He has the XP disk but I'll still have to pay someone to do everything. A friend of ours knows a man who will come to your house & do everything for $99 plus parts. I don't think he will rip us off. maybe even get the parts at a discount(I HOPE)

He posted at LanZdown. Most of the post there seem old. maybe I'm not looking in the right place or he didn't post in the right place. I forward your post (E-Mail) on to him. Maybe now he realizes things I'm been warning him about is important.
Thanks,
Dar

putting in a new hard drive and installing his original xp from the disc will not in any way have the infection on it. That would be a new clean disc and install. Hard drives are pretty inexpensive, just have to know what type the pc takes so he gets one that will plug right in there are 2 types. $99 sounds very reasonable, I would not go with a used hard drive though, you may end up with someone else's trouble. His may well be able to be cleaned up and used also that would depend on just what infections are there. The link below is to a 500Gig western digital new internal hard drive which is only $49. So you can see they are not expensive and you can get a smaller size for much less of course.

At LzD you want to post in the top section under Analysis and Malware removal, however I see that Corrine has responded to his post and to a prior post he had there.

Here is a link that might be useful: hard drive

Raven,
Apparently I misunderstood what U were saying.. I KNOW it won't put the virus on the new hard drive. I thought U meant load ALL the programs back on the new one from the old hard drive (*and reload it ALL on a new hard drive*) Maybe it is safe to load some back on from the old one. I think things like bookmarks are clean. I know very little about this & any virus as U can tell. He probably knows less. As far as doing most things he is better than me if he doesn't get upset.
I do believe he has learned a VERY IMPORTANT lesson through this.
Thanks,
Dar

Sugar, I think what Raven was telling you is to use the original disks, or the rescue disks to restore back to the condition when the computer was new. That's how I restored my XP operating system to a new hard drive. No danger in that at all. I personally would not attempt to restore ANYTHING from the infected hard drive.

grams,
I know now.. I just misunderstood something. His bookmarks are safe as they aren't on his hard drive. He has the neatest bookmarks I have ever seen. They are HTML on a website where his bible program is. He has spent MANY hours or rather YEARS doing them. He has a program that finds all broken links. Mine are just a mess but I do keep them saved on a flash drive which reminds me I need to update them.

He said nothing suspicious has happen since he put the firewall on. I know the virus is still there..guess the person behind is messing in someone else's computer right now.
No telling what damage has been done.

This computer was a used one so don't know how old it is
but he has had it about 8 or 9 years.. it has been a good one. I guess it is worth spending a few dollars on.
Dar

yes I did mean use the original restore discs or the actual xp discs.
His bookmarks would be fine, I use xmarks which stores all of them on a website as well so if something happens I can always just load xmarks into my browser and it reloads all of my bookmarks.
Usually you can salvage some files too if you put them on a flash drive and then scan the heck out of that to make sure there is no infection in them, just depends on what it is and whether you can scan it well enough to feel safe.

I was going to tell you if you go over to Lzd and read through the pages of help that the person tss210 went through because of a backdoor on the computer it makes you realize just how much you could go through and still have to reformat anyway. That was some amazing work on that thread though. Clark76 really gave some great instructions on how to retrieve some of the files from the drive using linux after the drive was unbootable from the infection.
Awesome helpers over there.

One thing that worries me when a known hacker has been in control of a pc like we know he was on your sons is what might he have put on that pc, many of them use a pc like that to store porn on or worse, they can use them to send out spam, and of course it all comes right back traced to his pc and his ip address. So if it happens to be illegal in any way guess who will be the one arrested and blamed? the pc owner. It has happened quite a few times. Usually one of the first things they will do is install programs on the pc hidden of course like keyloggers so they know exactly when he types in passwords etc. Those kinds of programs can be very hard to find.

I sure hate it happened to him but it may be a lesson hard learned that security programs are extremely important and so is learning how to surf safely and keeping everything on the pc fully patched and updated.
I think after he gets it back as he wants it he should use or have someone help him use one of the free imagaing programs and image the drive in that state so if something happens he can always just reload that image.

After reading Raven's post we decided it was best for him to just go off line. He is doing a few thing OFF line.
My friend just wants me to order one from WalMart & she will pick it up. The only one I see under $600 is the one described below & it is only $308.. sounds awful cheap but I like cheap if it works good. What I don't like is only phone support if something goes wrong.. his hands are so shaky from medications. He said unless it is custom most are like that now.. I know Dell is.
He does no heavy gaming..just games like scrabble.
Can a virus be in a text file? He wants to save a few text files he has..he is doing it off line. I hope he can save them safely. Please tell me what U think of this computer..
Thanks for all the help,
Dar
____________________________________________________________

# Key Features & BenefitsAMD Sempron LE-1300 processor
2.30 GHz, 1600 MHz system bus, 512 KB L2 Cache
# 2 GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM memory
Enough memory to handle today's most memory-hungry applications
# 320 GB SATA hard drive
Store your music, videos, photos and documents with plenty of space to spare
# SuperMulti DVD burner with LightScribe technology
Play and create CDs and DVDs with this DVD/CD burner drive
# Wired Ethernet
Connect to a broadband modem with 10/100 Ethernet. Includes 56K modem
# NIVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE Graphics with 895 MB graphics memory

Additional Features
# 6 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x headphone, 2 x microphone ports, 1 x VGA port, 1 x LAN port
# AC power supply included

David called me kinda worried. He wants to know is there any danger of this person hacking into the new computer even with a firewall. He will have the same IP #.. I think that is what he called it. He'll have the same modem.. same everything but computer. Probably needs to change user name too.. Already changed the password on the bank account from my computer... having more trouble changing user name but somehow that has to be done for other reasons..
What he really wants to know is .. what is the best firewall? He seems to think he needs better than a free one.

I told him if he needs help with this new computer he is gonna have to sign up here & do his own posting :)
Dar

I think for what he uses one for that should do fine, I personally prefer the AMD processors, the one in that pc is the lower end processor which would be similar to the celeron in Intel, if he does not do any heavy applications and just basically surfs, emails, and games like scrabble like you mention it should be ok. It will not be as fast as some of the bigger processors of course but compared to the one he has which is pretty old now he will see this one should definitely be faster.
Unless something from the old pc is loaded onto the new one that would give the hacker access he should not be able to get into the new one. What operating system is on this new one?
One thing he can do is if he does not have a router between the modem and the pc (assuming he is not on dial up) he could put one in and that would give additional security since it has a built in hardware firewall, then go with a good software firewall. I still like zone alarm but there are other good ones like Outpost, and Online armor I am sure someone can jump in and give some options. I just as I mentioned recommend comodo personally. He could ask at LzD which they would recommend also. With zone alarm you now have to watch out that you do get the free one not the trial one and also do not get any of the extra freebies they offer at install like toolbars.
For some ideas here is the latest firewall poll over at BBR forums, you can see the results there and read the comments for more info.
Firewall Poll 2010

Besides having good programs that he keeps updated and runs for his security layer he has to use something like the secunia tool to make sure everything else is updated because now days many of the infections are happening due to holes in java, adobe, and other apps that have to be regularly updated and patched. Using firefox with ad block plus and subscriptions to easylist and also using noscript add on would help too.

Raven,
What he wants to save is some style sheets for his bible site. The bookmarks he has bookmark toolbar.. address book ..some e-mails.
please let us know if these are safe..if not he won't do it.
I haven't sent him your letter yet but will do as soon as I finish here.
Thanks,
Dar

Dar I would put them on a thumb drive and scan them with malwarebytes and a good AV before putting them on the new pc if nothing shows up then yes I think they will be safe.
I would not chance putting anything on it with out doing both an updated malwarebytes scan and an AV scan. Especially any emails since so much junk can be in emails.