[at-l] OT - Trojan Horses

[taurodea at gmail.com (Stephanie)]

You might think about going to another computer (friends, library,
cafe) and changing all your passwords on any sites you use, especially
those that have your banking information stored. When you make a new
password, don't use a word that's in the dictionary. Instead, pick a
nonsensical word with at least one capitalized letter and one number.
Harder to remember, but safer for you. You can write down all your
passwords and keep them in a bin by the computer for easy access.

Assuming you're running Windows, hopefully a new-ish version, hit
Ctrl+Alt+Del and a list of programs that are running in the background
will pop up. (On XP, it's under the Processes tab.)

Then head to Google and start looking up each process, name by name,
including the extension ".exe". If you run across anything suspicious,
note it.

Then head over to http://forums.techguy.org/ - they are fantastic free
helpers who are very patient and will work with you to figure out
what's happening and fix it. The helpers get rated by the people
they've helped, so it's unlikely you'll get bad advice. Find the right
forum for your problem, tell them what happened, let them know if you
found anything suspicious in your background programs, and see what
they say. These guys fixed my computer a year ago when I thought it
was beyond hope.

Good luck!
Steph


-- 
Service guarantees citizenship!