Record 01: Important Information Request

[Mike]

Hello everyone

Since last night a couple of members have reported a problem with the forums. In this instance the forums are viewable, however, Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 on Windows based computers are saying that your computer is under attack from 'localhost' and then a string of rubbish using a 'Malicious Toolkit Variant' (or similar along those lines). This seems to have been an issue from about 22:00 on 10 October 2008.

Please can you let me know below if you have received this message, as your computer may have downloaded a JS Downloader trojan virus. We have taken steps to prevent this from happening again, however, if you have that message then further steps will need to be taken to ensure that your computer is free from any infection.

If you are worried, check that your computer is fully up to date (XP Service Pack 3 etc) and using up to date Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 3. Then run a virus scan using your normal anti virus protection system which will flag up any problems. If you need any help please let me know!

Thanks
Mike

[Mike]

The web hosting company servers were broken into and has caused some vandalism on our servers. This has been a problem from 00:00 on 11 October 2008. If you have not logged on to the forums between 00:00 and 16:00 you are unlikely to have had a problem.

[pammie]

yes, i have got this malicious intrusion attack message, I have had to turn off norton to access the forum. What do I do now?

It may be better to reply to my msn vose@hotmail.co.uk

Pammie

[John]

We're not out of the woods yet - I still can't get this forum via IE7, only via Firefox.

On Sue's computer it's the same. How about everybody else?

If anyone is having serious problems you may need to run "SmitFraudFix.exe" whilst in Safe Mode. We'll cover this with support as needed, just ask for assistance.

[John]

I can now access the forum with IE7, but it can take two or three attempts. Maybe some issues are being slowly resolved by the web hosting company.

Pammie, did you sort things out OK after our telephone chat?

[Mike]

Thanks for letting me know Pammie. I hope that John helped you to clean your computer of this amazingly cheeky bit of web vandalism. I can only apologise for the trouble and hope it is all fixed now. If you have any more problems please let me know.

[Ian Austen]

My AVG antivirus picked this up when I accessed the forum home page on 11th Oct 16:14. Luckily it disinfected immediately. Looks sorted now.

ian