Bad Judgment Calls

[Jaded_Goth]

5.39 am GMT.

I just made a staggeringly bad error of judgment.Feel like stir-fried crap,and it's probably going to take me the rest of the millenium to recover my composure..

It was all the more ignominious because it was public~as in GLOBAL.It'll have International ramifications,for sure.

Hear my confession-maybe I'll be able to sleep.

I advised a full reformat and reinstallation of Windows in a browser hijacking case.

I can't step out of my old school mentality.The system becomes compromised-knock it flat and rebuild from the ground up.
This somewhat defeats the objectives of putting up a fight,and vanquishing the malware.However,if it were my system,I'd reach for the NAVSO RLL cd without hesitation.
Personally,I refuse to allocate these hijacking maniacs the status and permission to cause me distress.Quite aside from the fact you can never be certain what systemic changes these trojans have implemented...

It was wholly inappropriate advise.The owner of the afflicted computer did not exhibit even a fundamental grasp of computer basics.A reinstall would have been ten times as distressing as having the hijack morph and rear its beastly head over and over.

There was neither an AV programme nor firewall in evidence (though perhaps they'd activated XP's inbuilt).

My ill-concieved "advise" will unquestionably plummet them into a cycle of infection/reformat.A living nightmare.

Has anyone here ever made a gargantuan error of judgment they'd care to admit to?

[Oddysey]

Jaded_Goth;

Nope, can't say as I have. Then again, I don't agree with you about the severity of your gaffe. Certainly you could have tried HiJack This, or CWS Shredder, but you say "re-install" like it was a bad thing. I don't agree at all. Even if your friend is a complete dummy (copyright, IDG Books), you aren't opening a can of worms here. See this thread for details on very quick unattended installations - also good for mighty quick restores, too.

What I can say is, I've never given advice that I wouldn't personally follow, and that I haven't tried myself. With a few exceptions where I Dilberted a boss or two. [lol] :P [lol]


Oddysey

[Kye-U]

Hmmm, I've once went into the BIOS setting of my dad's computer and somehow managed to destroy it so that even a Computer IT couldn't fix it...when I was 7...maybe it's a natural talent

Don't worry too much about telling that person to reformat, they probably do. Without an Antivirus/Firewall, they probably don't have Spyware Removers. Therefore, their computer will be like a spyware breeding ground.

I think you should get more sleep as well. Look less at HJ logs and look at Nature instead. Take a walk around your street, walk to a park, sit on the bench, and enjoy

[Ralph]

Kye-U , you offered great advice . For a young person , you really have your head screwed on right ! It took me 30 years to learn that . Get away from it all for even a few hours . Fortunately , I have nothing but woods where I live and commune with beauty daily . Refreshing , but still addicted to the pc ! Imaging has saved me numerous times . If I had to reformat I'd sooner chuck the damned thing . Too much to do better , and so little time .

[Kye-U]

Ralph Wrote:Kye-U , you offered great advice . For a young person , you really have your head screwed on right ! It took me 30 years to learn that . Get away from it all for even a few hours .

Thanks I'm very quiet in person, but I take all that time to think about things, in a philosophical way. I guess I've been building my own morales since I was 13, when my computer got hacked, and I realized that being that active led to my hacking. So I took a few years off, then got back on the computer, forced my dad to get a router, of which I selected (D-Link 614+), then I learned how to network my computers, set up the router/h. firewall, install s. firewalls on all of my computers. I won't allow myself to be hacked again. I learned a lot about computers in those 3 years

[Oddysey]

Kye-U;

Quote:Take a walk around your street, walk to a park, sit on the bench, and enjoy.

I know what a street is, but I just gotta ask - what's a "park"? [unsure]


Oddysey

[Kye-U]

Oddysey Wrote:I know what a street is, but I just gotta ask - what's a "park"? [unsure]

Quote:Park - A tract of ground kept in its natural state, about or adjacent to a residence, as for the preservation of game, for walking, riding, or the like. --Chaucer

I don't agree with the natural state part...it's more like...man-enhanced nature...

[Oddysey]

Kye-U;

I could carry this on, but then I'd be guilty of hijacking this thread. <_<

It was just another crazy moment in the heat of summer madness. Maybe tonight it'll cool down enough for me to actually do some valid work. Yeah, and maybe the ICANN will actually do some good for the Internet, too. That'll be the day.


Oddysey

[Jaded_Goth]

Thanks,all.

I'm over it already.Took Kye-U's advice.Slept like a log..erm,no..let's not mention logs for a while.

Suffice to say,it's in perspective now.It only amounted to an opinion,really.Since when was anyone compelled to follow the advice of a stranger on the Internet?There again,like Kye-U,I experienced a web- baptism of fire.A short,sharp shock that led me to better things.Not much phases me now.

[Jaded_Goth]

To bring the thread to an elegant conclusion,it was this type of nastiness:

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = file://C:\DOCUME~1\Default\LOCALS~1\Temp\sp.html
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = file://C:\DOCUME~1\Default\LOCALS~1\Temp\sp.html
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = file://C:\DOCUME~1\Default\LOCALS~1\Temp\sp.html
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = file://C:\DOCUME~1\Default\LOCALS~1\Temp\sp.html

That's a mere excerpt.A particularly malevolent combo of hijacking-trojan downloader which will wreak mayhem on your P.C.

I'd never feel safe again unless I wiped it into oblivion.