sudden increase in attacks on computer

I suspect that the number of attacks hasn't changed much, but the warnings have become more public in order to get you to renew.

Who's the maker and what specific attacks are being made?

Stlight said:

I looked at the history but there is no information on who made the attackes. The listings are Interusion prevention, next listing unauthorized access blocked. this is Norton.

Click to expand...

OK, this does sound like a sub renewal "incentive". The report should have included what IP the attack came from, what port(s) the attack came in on, and duration, etc.

Personally, I've always found Norton to be a big pain in the arse. It gets in the way of everything, and slows even fast systems down. I have set up all my Windows clients with AVG free, which works just fine for most of them, and isn't as intrusive as Norton.

PC Mag has an article you may want to look at, which compares the coming year's antivirus products. Good luck!

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372364,00.asp#fbid=CSEQzwjAILB

Stlight said:

.

Sis had set us up with MSN, since we can update the Norton system and we can update MSN. They, clever people, have their downloads set up to stop when you turn the computer off and whenyou turn it start where they left off not start at the beginning again.

I am ready to be warned that this is not the way to go, though I'm hoping it will do.

Click to expand...

1. Don't use two background security/antivirus programs, say Norton and Microsoft Security Essentials (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials). They'll step on each others' toes. Pick one. Personally, though I no longer support Windows professionally, I'd look at Microsoft Security Essentials.

2. Do use on a regular basis some of the free open source scanning tools, like Malware bytes, etc. http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free

Stlight said:

I began getting notices that the security had warded off an attack

Click to expand...

Remember that what software calls 'an attack' may be quite different to what you and I call an 'attack'.

If Norton made front doors you'd be getting an automatic notice everytime someone passed in the street.

"Hey - today I stopped 200 different attacks! There were lots of people on the street who glanced at your front door! I just totally saved you from that brutal assault that would have occurred if I hadn't been there!!"

Basically any message that doesn't look 100% like a 'typical' web surfing action gets counted as 'an attack'.

Mac
(PS: Yes - I know I oversimplified things immensely. It's an analogy.)

If you can renew, do. If you can't right now, perhaps a "system restore" back to June ??

It's possible you have been malwared - a tiny program in your registry which is targetting your computer for attacks. Do as deep a scan as you can, find a program that cleans your registry of unrecognised files (many AVGs do both of these now but make sure it is up to date with the latest definitions), clear all cookies from your system and see if that solves the issue.

If you're on dialup then you are going to have problems getting your antivirus updates properly. The update files have gotten pretty huge and now that you're behind, you are going to need to take a USB flashdrive to a high speed connection and download an offline update package (if one exists). Norton usually has these available so if you head to a public library, that's probably going to work out best.

Microsoft Security Essentials is fantastic for an antivirus program but you really need to be on broadband to get the initial program loaded and your definitions installed. Afterwards it should run okay over dialup.

I agree with Medievalist. Check if you have more than one anti-virus programs. They would conflict and cause problems. I paid for Panda Pro 2012 without realizing Microsoft Security Essentials is also an AV program. I booted Panda and re-installed my OS. MSE is the program most 'geeks' advise us to use. I'm a technical dunce, so I do what the big guys advise.

I've also found Advanced System Care 4 cleaned up many errors on my PC.

Stlight said:

I don't understand. Why would I need a system restore back to June?

Click to expand...

I've done this several times. If you system restore to a date in the past, the notices will stop because technically your system will think it's June, not October. I've had to do this a couple of times for various reasons. First time was per Dell Tech Support's suggestion. I'm not that savvy, so maybe others who are will chime in on the downside of such "tricks".

I've used it when my computer has multiple invasions and won't launch google or much else.

Magdalen said:

If you system restore to a date in the past, the notices will stop because technically your system will think it's June, not October.

Click to expand...

It turns your system back to the state it was in at the date that you choose to restore back to. Meaning, it will delete any software and updates installed since that chosen date.

If your antivirus program stops complaining, then it's because malware installed after that point got at least partially deleted too, though that's unreliable because often, modern malware will install hidden, protected files to special areas of your hard drive, only to reinstall themselves at your next boot.

It will not touch your data files. But you will have to go and reapply any system updates, as well as reinstall software that got taken out.

Stlight said:

I looked at the history but there is no information on who made the attackes. The listings are Interusion prevention, next listing unauthorized access blocked. this is Norton.

Click to expand...

I've had Norton for ages, I never get these notices that I'm under attack, even when it comes time to renew, even when that time passed by a few months and I couldn't renew because of unemployment and no money.

As someone else suggested, I think you might have maleware that is causing that.

And unlike Thor, I've never had any issues with Norton being a hog.

I don't think malware would be nagging to "renew" unless it is masquerading as Nortoncrud, which would certainly be a new twist. Norton is good enough at nagging.

Download Microsoft Security Essentials. Go off line, to be safer during the changeover (unplug your modem, temprorarily disable wireless connection, or whatever you have to do). Uninstall Norton. Install MSE. Go back on line and let MSE get updates. Scan. Breathe freely.

I don't use MSE for geeky personal reasons, but I have run it and it's good.

You don't ever have to get stuck with what your computer came with. A computer's not like a magazine; you can rip the ads out without destroying the other side of the page

BTW, possibly unrelated but I heard on the news this morning that an increase in cyberattacks has been noted recently. So it may have nothing to do with your PC but merely an increase in external attacks...

You should consider using a non-admin level account for daily, ordianary computer use. Keep an admin account but don't use it all the time.

Have any of you considered using something other than Windows as an operating system?

Tettsuo said:

Have any of you considered using something other than Windows as an operating system?

Click to expand...

Let's not engage in a platform throw-down, m'kay?

There are valid reasons for using any OS.

RE : Attacks on computer

Hi there,

I do computer security for a living so I'd consider myself to be reasonably well-versed on all this stuff. Here are a few comments :

(1.) Don't forget that if your computer (or router) has a TCP/IP address on the public Internet, it's going to get "attacked" -- in the sense of being probed for exploitable vulnerabilities (e.g. software bugs that a hacker can leverage to break in to your private LAN, or your PC, or both) -- by malicious parties on the Net, constantly. This is not a matter of "if" or "when" but rather "how many". (Personally, I think that all such creeps who do this should be shot, but then that's just me.) ;-)

(2.) Paradoxically, if you got "pwned" by a virus and are on a dial-up connection, you have a huge safety factor right there, because (I know how ludicrous that this sounds, but it's the truth), a lot of malicious software will test your PC's network bandwidth to see if you "qualify" (in the sense of having a fast enough connection) to be on their "zombie" botnet (network of compromised PCs which the criminals then rent out to still more crooks, for various untoward purposes). Since you are on dial-up, you probably aren't worth the effort to them, to spend a lot of time on.

(3.) I can verify and echo the other comments regarding Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) -- it's an excellent, free program and in particular has a lower RAM and CPU footprint than a lot of the commercial alternatives (e.g. McAfee, Symantec, etc.) for which you have to pay. Make sure that you un-install all other AV programs before you install MSE, though, as they do not get along well, together.

(4.) I have no intention to (re)start the drearily familiar "computer operating system flame wars" here (been there, done that), however I do have to mention that Microsoft Windows is significantly more vulnerable to malicious software than other operating systems. (If you have to use Windows, I would strongly suggest upgrading to Windows 7, which, though still vulnerable, is considerably more robust than XP... don't even touch Vista, which is a bit of a "dog".)

Incidentally, I use Ubuntu Linux on almost all my own computers; it's free, relatively very secure and quite easy to install (at least if you know anything about computers -- if not, I'd get someone who is computer-savvy to help you with it).

(5.) If you are going to use Windows, I'd use Google Chrome, Opera or Mozilla Firefox for Web surfing... not Internet Explorer. Here again, IE version 8 is better than previous versions, but all iterations of the Microsoft browser are much more likely to be successfully attacked by Web-based malware, than the alternatives.

(6.) An excellent resource for everyone to read, regardless of what software you use, is Microsoft's "Own Your Space: Keep Yourself and Your Stuff Safe Online" book, which can be freely downloaded in .pdf format. (I'm not putting the URL for it in here since I'm not sure if doing so is permitted under AW policy, but you can search for the title on Google or Yahoo and you will end up at the right place, which is the "Microsoft Safety & Security Center".) This is one computer security book that no family should be without!

Best regards, hope this helps