An infection means someone can steal from your bank account
In the last 3.5 years, I’ve seen many infected PCs (seen many viruses, trojans, spyware, and recently rootkits as well)
My usual routine is to remove the infection, and then tell the customer to: (after I leave) change any passwords that could involve financial transactions.
In this case, the PC was the admin PC of a childcare centre. It was used for (amongst other things) transferring staff wages to their bank accounts.
The PC had AVG 8 installed, but it didn’t seem to prevent the infection.
After some hard work, I managed to remove all the nasties (Vundo, various trojans, TDSS kootkit, etc).
A few weeks later, I was talking with the customer, when she tells me that about 1 hour after I left, she got a call from the bank, saying that they detected a suspicious transfer of over AUD$15000 out of her account.
After that she went through a long and arduous process to prove to the bank that she didn’t transfer the money (stat. dec., police report, screenshots of an antivirus scan showing that her PC is clear of infection… changing passwords, cancelling credit cards, etc etc).
So please be careful, as an infection is not just an inconvenience, you can really get money stolen from your account.
Most computer techs already know this, but this is the first time I’ve actually heard of this happen with a customer.
Also remember that an antivirus/antispyware program cannot guarantee that you will not be infected.
It is always possible for an infection to start spreading on the internet, and then an antivirus/antispyware is able to detect it only a few days later.
This can easily happen if you use something like limewire, emule, or one of the many bittorrent programs, as you will get “new” files with brand new viruses…
This goes to show that people should be educated before using a computer.
wow that is so scary so if we are not careful with our computers now it would eventually ruined our savings account. wahhh
I see infections daily. It has gotten much worse in the past year. Many more viruses are installing themselves as critical system drivers so that even when you boot into safe mode, they cannot be removed.
Customers ask me what they can do to be totally certain that their PC is not infected. I tell them that with current desktop PCs it is not 100% certain that there is not something lurking.
For the extremely paranoid, I have set up a dual-boot system. –Linux for the banking transactions / online purchases etc…
As much as I hate to see it, there needs to be a central authority (similar to secure website CAs) which audits the safety of all software components which enter a desktop PC. Either that or a full redesign of the desktop computing platform.
Hi Paul. I’m not sure if there is an answer.
Its like saying: is there a solution to preventing crime? No, it can be minimised, but never eliminated… its a part of human society.
The central authority that you propose is the real-world equivalent of having a policeman or a soldier standing guard in front of every house in the country… it aint gonna happen.
A redesign of desktop systems will always have loopholes as well. Eg macs are not necessarily more secure, they are just such a small minority, that nobody bothers trying to write spyware for them.
There is one way to not get a PC infected: never connect it to the internet and never install software on it.
You can also guarantee you will never get mugged: lock yourself away in a prison cell.