Comments for How do I stop my computer from being a zombie?

Comment from Bob Greene on 2009-03-17

2009-03-18T05:37:24Z

In prescribing recovery for a machine already infected with malware, Leo counsels a backup for the infected machine before a complete format of its boot drive and reinstallation of Windows.

However, the logic of this escapes me, since the malware almost certainly will be imaged to the backup, and if the image is ever restored, so will be the malware.

The only possible defense of this approach is when the user has NO backup of any kind of system data, and must make one before the format, or lose the data. In that case, the user should restore selectively only the data required, but not the whole image.

Anyone contemplating this process should understand the difference between restoring a full image and a restoring selectively.

You're absolutely correct. The sad truth is that most people don't backup. And they should. It's scary. So I counsel a full image backup prior to a reformat/reinstall to capture any and all files and data that might be required later for individual, and careful, recovery.

- Leo
18-Mar-2009

]]>

A comment on: How do I stop my computer from being a zombie?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Duane on 2009-03-17

2009-03-17T19:28:33Z

I hate to prove my ignorance but I don't see what's good about an image backup to restore from a malware infection. I can see how you might restore data files but you can never use the image to restore anything that has to be installed. Can you? You're back to format, install, update etc. I would say this is almost impossible on a dial-up. You'd be old and gray before you finished and then it might happen again right away. That's why I like to deal face to face with local brick and mortar computer stores. They can fix things.

An image backup is useful in two ways: if you have an image taken from before the infection, you can restore your machine completely to that state in a single operation. If you do have to reformat and reinstall, you're guaranteed that all of the files that were only your machine are on your latest image backup, and thus you can extract and restore individual files, as needed - being careful not to restore infected files.

- Leo
18-Mar-2009

]]>

A comment on: How do I stop my computer from being a zombie?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from WOFTBO on 2009-03-17

2009-03-17T17:18:04Z

IF your solution is to wipe and rebuild the computer remember your backup maybe infected.
Use caution when restoring your backed up data.

]]>

A comment on: How do I stop my computer from being a zombie?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Mary on 2009-03-17

2009-03-17T17:07:53Z

The folks at Trend Micro have a couple of free tools that might help: HouseCall and RUBotted.

http:// www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/housecall

http:// www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/rubotted

]]>

A comment on: How do I stop my computer from being a zombie?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.