Tech Help and Discussions

LeakerLocker forgoes using encryption, instead choosing threats to make money out of victims. A form of Android ransomware which threatens to send the victim's private information and web history to all of their contacts has been discovered in the official Google Play app store. Uncovered by researchers at McAfee, LeakerLocker doesn't actually encrypt the victims' files, but instead claims to have made a backup of data stored on the device and threatens to share it with all of the user's phone and email contacts. Those behind the malware demand $50 in exchange for not leaking personal data including photos, Facebook messages, web history, emails, location history…

Recently, Microsoft claimed that no known ransomware could penetrate the new Win10 Creators Update. Presenting new anti-ransomware protection features added in Win 10 CU, Robert Lefferts, Director of Program Management, Windows Enterprise and Security, said that no Windows 10 customer was affected by the recent WannaCry ransomware outbreak that took place in mid-May and no currently known ransomware strain can infect Windows 10. ZDNet decided to not listen, but look for themselves. They hired a pro hacker and wanted to see if such a bold claim would hold up. Spoiler alert: It didn't. "It's the macros, stupid!" They hired Matthew Hickey, a security resea…

Cybereason security researcher Amit Serper has found a way to prevent the Petya (NotPetya/SortaPetya/Petna) ransomware from infecting computers. The ransomware has been wreaking havoc across the globe today, locking hard drive MFT and MBR sections and preventing computers from booting. Unless victims opted to pay a ransom (which is now pointless and not recommended), there was no way to recover their systems. In the first hours of the attack, researchers believed this new ransomware was a new version of an older threat called Petya, but they later discovered that this was a new strain altogether, which borrowed some code from Petya, hence the reason why they recen…

Walmart has gotten a reputation as one of the most trusted retailers in the world, but they are under heavy fire after a new scheme was launched. The Illinois Sheriff’s Department has just issued a warning to the public about a new scheme where a victim receives a letter in the mail with a check. The letter reportedly tells the recipient that they have been accepted into the “Quality Control” at Walmart. It goes on to inform them of their new “responsibilities.” The check included requires activation with a user id and a password which is supplied in the letter. Once the recipient tries to deposit it into their bank account, the thugs responsible have acce…

Anyone ever encrypt a hard drive using PGP? Someone wants me to do that. Any advice, warning, etc?

I'm looking (for a friend) for a new computer. This is your typical home user who is replacing an XP machine. This Dell seems good to me. One thing I noticed is that it doesn't use an ATX power supply. It's using one of those slimline PSUs which I don't keep in stock. Anyone know if the ones Dell uses are proprietary? Also any other comments are appreciated. Dell Inspiron 3668 offers extensive storage and exceptional power in an innovative design that saves you space, without sacrificing performance. Processor: 7th Generation Intel Core i5-7400 processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.50 GHz) Memory: 8GB, 2400MHz, DDR4; up to 16GB (additional memory sold separately) Hard Dr…

Asus A43S Hey guys, this laptop originally came with win 7 but was upgraded to win 10 and was working slow so I did a reset. I am noticing that "sometimes" the browsers chrome, FF or IE will take a long time to open when I click on them. I am not understanding why only sometimes this is happening. The laptop is working great otherwise and when on the net, can anyone help solve this problem please?

When I run FRST a window pops up saying Exception EAccess Violation in module ERUNT.exe. I don't know why ERUNT would be invoked when FRST is run. MBAM and ESET say the machine is clean. Scan result of Farbar Recovery Scan Tool (FRST) (x64) Version: 05-06-2017 Ran by Arlene (administrator) on ARLENES-PC (06-06-2017 11:51:48) Running from C:\Users\Arlene\Desktop Loaded Profiles: Arlene (Available Profiles: Arlene & DefaultAppPool) Platform: Windows 10 Pro Version 1703 (X64) Language: English (United States) Internet Explorer Version 11 (Default browser: Edge) Boot Mode: Normal Tutorial for Farbar Recovery Scan Tool: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/33…

Hello guys, this Asus A43S laptop is showing OS [C], local disks E, F and G. It is originally a win7 laptop but was upgraded to win10 and I just did a reset. I am not seeing any partition which is showing the recovery partition. How can I best combine them all into just one so Local disk C BUT without erasing the Recovery partition please? F and G is empty. D is 128mb and E is 110mb. I am not seeing any entries with the word "recovery" in either of those 2 folders?

Hello Pete [or anyone else], my cousin's win10 laptop stopped going to the net. I ran the usual scans and cleaned out some stuff but still same deal so I am in need of some help please. Please see the reports but note that when I had first run mbam, I didn't pay attention to the language so it was in french and I could get the log therefore I am posting a screenshot of what it had found.

It's dangerous to go alone outside Google's protective walled garden, but it's the price you pay for free software. Ask almost any security expert, and they'll tell you switching on "unknown sources" on your Android phone or tablet is one of the worst things you can do for device security. But that's exactly what Amazon has asked its app store customers to do for years. The heart of the problem is Amazon's requirement to allow installations from "unknown sources" -- that is, any app or game that hasn't been carefully vetted by the Google Play app store. That's because while almost all of Amazon's apps are already in Google Play, the retail giant's own third…

An automated, prerecorded phone call that goes straight to voicemail may be slightly less annoying than a robocall that causes your phone to ring, but is it any less of a robocall? The Republican National Committee and the lobbyists at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce think these “ringless” robocalls are just fine, and have asked the FCC to allow telemarketers to use them. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act places restrictions on the use of prerecorded and autodialed calls to wireless phones, limit their use to emergencies and cases where the recipient has given prior consent to receiving the robocall. A company called All About The Message (AATM) has developed techn…

A total of 200 master keys can now be used by victims to decrypt and unlock their systems. The world has been rocked by WannaCry causing disruption and upheaval across core services and businesses alike over the past week, but there is good news for victims of Crysis with the release of 200 master keys to the public. Posted at the BleepingComputer forum, the keys can be used by victims of the ransomware as well as security firms in the creation of decryption tools. The keys, uploaded to Pastebin, have been confirmed as valid by security researchers. Users of the keys have also confirmed that they have regained access to the files. Ransomware is a partic…

I Installed uBlock on a W10 machine's Edge. I don't see it in the list of extensions. I've gone back to the store to reinstall it. The "Get" button is now greyed out which leads one to assume it's already installed. One one hand it doesn't seem to be installed because it's not in the extensions list. On the other, it seems it is installed because the "Get" button is greyed out. This is the first time I've installed uBlock on Edge. Can someone confirm that once uBlock is installed, it doesn't show up in the extension list? Thanks

Hello Pete or anyone else, I am having problems uninstalling the Symantec software from this win7 lenovo Thinkpad. I tried Revo Uninstaller which usually does the trick for hard to uninstall software but doesn't work, I tried a few articles off the net but nothing is working?

A security researcher says an audio driver is recording every keystroke entered, accessible to any person or malware that knows where to look. An audio driver installed in several HP laptops contains a keylogger-type feature that records every keystroke entered into the computer into a log file, according to a security researcher. Swiss security firm Modzero said in a security advisory posted Thursday that the keylogger activity was discovered in the Conexant HD audio driver package (version 1.0.0.46 and earlier), found on dozens of HP business and enterprise laptop models, including HP Elitebook, ProBook, and ZBook models -- including the latest Folio G1 laptop…

The decryptor works on .amnesia files on victims' devices A new decryption tool for ransomware victims has been released, this time for those affected by the Amnesia Ransomware. Over the weekend, Emsisoft announced they had a new decryptor ready for Amnesia, a ransomware that was spotted just earlier this month. According to the company's CTO and malware researcher Fabian Wosar, the malware has had another variant released called CryptoBoss. This new family of ransomware was named Amnesia based on the extension that gets added to encrypted files by the first variant (.amnesia). The CryptoBoss variant has yet to get a decryptor, but researchers are work…

This little machine had Trend Micro Maxium Security, AVG CloudCare and SuperAntiSpyware. It was running pretty slow. I uninstalled AVG using the AVG uninstaller. It was still slow. It's running pretty well now that the Trend software is not running. Ran Malwarebytes Antimalware. It found 1,964 threats which were all MindSpark and Ask in Chrome. They were quarantined. MBAM shows them in the quarantine, but there is no scan report available. That's strange. Can you take a look at the scan logs to remove any AVG items that remain and see if there's anything else to be concerned about? Thank you. Scan result of Farbar Recovery Scan Tool (FRST) (x64) Version: 03-05-…

A new tool against ransomware available for free The war against ransomware can claim another won battle as a new decrypter has been released for free by Emsisoft. This time, the decrypter works on the Cry128 strain from the CryptON ransomware family. Strains from the CryptON ransomware, such as the X3M and Nemesis, started popping up here and there back in December of last year. Security Researchers claim they are all put together using the same builder, which is the software application which automates the process of customizing a malware executable. The Cry128 strain that can now be decrypted with this free tool began appearing on April 22, 2017, so it…

Windows' system files were flagged as malicious, and Facebook was marked as a phishing site. A malware signature update issued by the company on Monday triggered the software into mistakenly flagging Windows system files as malware, melting down millions of managed systems around the world. The problem began in the afternoon on the US east coast when the antivirus product began falsely marking those files as W32.Trojan.Gen, otherwise known as generic malware. That moved crucial system files essential to the operating system's effective functioning to quarantine, making them unavailable to Windows. A thread on the company's website is already nine pages deep…

Hi, In my Action Center, I am being offered KB4015552 described as 'Optional' and 'April, 2017 Preview of Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7'. I understand that the previews are released on the third Tuesday of each month but will become part of the following month's Patch Tuesday update. This is the first time I have noticed a preview update being offered on my system so I am a little confused as to what is best for me to do. Is there any advantage in me downloading and installing this review version or would it be better to wait until the next Patch Tuesday offerings? I would welcome advice and comments. Cheers.

I've been using Macrium Reflect free versions for many years now and have found the program excellent for the creation of backup image files. On several occasions it has come to my rescue. I am now approaching a time when I should consider replacing the 160GB hard drive on my Windows 7 desktop with something of larger capacity. I would therefore be using the Macrium Reflect disk cloning option which seems straightforward enough. My question, however, relates to the replacement hard drive (it would be a tradition SATA HDD rather than SSD or hybrid). Should the drive be left unformatted for the operation or, as some drives come already formatted ntfs, can the drive b…