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NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:47:08 -0600
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 06:47:13 -0800
From: Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
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Subject: Re: U.S. warns on Java software as security concerns escalate
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On 1/15/2013 12:23 AM, Roedy Green wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Jan 2013 07:48:51 -0500, emf <emfril@gmail.com> wrote,
> quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said :
>
>> U.S. warns on Java software as security concerns escalate
>
> I just got hit by a virus, the first time ever.  It was what the RCMP
> call "scareware".  It suddenly popped up, locked screen, claiming I
> had broken some law and must wire them $100 to unlock my computer.
> If I failed to do so within 24 hours they would erase my hard drives.
> They would also erase them it detected any attempts to remove it.
>
> I follow all the usual rules to avoid infection. I figure it must have
> got via running an unsigned Java applet or some JavaScript code.
>
> Any way I got rid of it by booting to safe mode and running the Ace
> Utilities and had a look at code configured to run at startup.  I
> noticed a suspicious runcff.lnk from Microsoft, disabled it and all
> seems to be ok.
>
> The police were very ho hum, saying there were a rash of such attacks,
> and they wanted to treat them like ordinary virus attacks. I guess
> they figured nobody would be stupid enough to fall for  the extortion.
> Apparently some variants claim to have found kiddie porn or accuse of
> random crimes.
>

The scary thing about this is how much it could cost in support service
fees for an ordinary computer user who does not know how to boot in safe
mode etc.

Patricia