O.T. --- Ok what kind of PC disease do I have?

[A.K. Boomer]

I have a alert box on my screen that I cant get rid of,

It says "unwise_.exe - No Disk" then has an X in the box and states "there is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive \Device\Hardisk1]DR3."


That's pretty much to the letter as its right in front of me right now so I just copied it down, Watch -- to stop me from trying to go for help it will recognize this and then try to kill me...

[ptjw7uk]

Quick search on the web shows it to be a virus!

Peter

[Evan]

The real problem is that you have this:




It isn't necessarily a virus. A lot of programs use the WISE Installer program and unwise.exe is the uninstaller. If tried to remove something it is now trying to finish the uninstallation.

[ptjw7uk]

Very true Evan but I think you missed the _ in the name intentionally so named to be at first glance a Wise file. On the web it says the file wants to reside in the fonts folder making it difficult to display on a search.

Peter

[Evan]

It appears you are correct. Format and reinstall may be the best option since the win32/heur trojan can open a back door for the installation of other software.

[A.K. Boomer]

Dear god, are you serious --- so whats format and re-install?

I cant close the box but I can tuck it away in the corner of the screen, do you think I could live out the remainder of my years just doing that or is it going to present some kinda problem -- is it like tooth decay or what?

Thanks you guys for helping a hillbilly.

[MTNGUN]

It appears you are correct. Format and reinstall may be the best option

LOL gotta love Windoze. ) Format and reinstall -- how many times have I done that ?

Hey, I actually booted into Windoze today, after Linux refused to format a particular pen drive. I hate to admit it, but Windoze is better at allowing any ol' media to connect to the computer. while Linux tends to be paranoid.

[Evan]

Boomer,

Do you use your computer for any sort of online transactions? Have you ever typed in your credit card number or a password to an account you wouldn't want others to have access to? If the answer is yes then not only should you wipe the system clean but you should cancel your current credit cards and get a new number for any that you have used on line as well as change all passwords that matter right away. The trojan horse you have steals all that information and sends it to people you don't want to meet.

If you don't take me seriously don't say you weren't warned. It could become very expensive. The average cost per case of identity theft ranges from 2000 to 10000 dollars.

[dp]

Boomer,

Do you use your computer for any sort of online transactions? Have you ever typed in your credit card number or a password to an account you wouldn't want others to have access to? If the answer is yes then not only should you wipe the system clean but you should cancel your current credit cards and get a new number for any that you have used on line as well as change all passwords that matter right away. The trojan horse you have steals all that information and sends it to people you don't want to meet.

If you don't take me seriously don't say you weren't warned. It could become very expensive. The average cost per case of identity theft ranges from 2000 to 10000 dollars.

Much higher for corporate/LLC theft. That doesn't even take into account the calendar time it takes to stop, let alone reverse the damage.

In many cases, increasing all the time, the biggest investment many people make is when they buy Windows. The dividends are payed to somebody else, unfortunately.

[psomero]

go here: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

download the new housecall beta executable and try running it

once it finishes (if your particular virii even allow it to start up), reboot and hit F8 before the windows loading screen pops up to get to the boot options menu. boot windows into safe mode and run the scanner again.

[Evan]

While it may be possible to remove the trojan program that doesn't mitigate the risk. The damage has already been done in terms of compromising your security. Also, most of these programs act as a background downloader for additional functions that aren't known to be malware and so won't show up in any sort of scan. The only way to be certain that the system is clean is to wipe clean and reinstall.

[psomero]

While it may be possible to remove the trojan program that doesn't mitigate the risk. The damage has already been done in terms of compromising your security. Also, most of these programs act as a background downloader for additional functions that aren't known to be malware and so won't show up in any sort of scan. The only way to be certain that the system is clean is to wipe clean and reinstall.

i agree, but it is nice to at least know what you have/had...

[rantbot]

I have a alert box on my screen that I cant get rid of,

It says "unwise_.exe - No Disk" then has an X in the box and states "there is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive \Device\Hardisk1]DR3."

Odd. If it's a trojan, why would it announce its presence? They usually keep a lower profile, so as to be able to do their nefarious work undisturbed.

[Evan]

Dumb programmer. Most viri and other malware that are discovered are found because of programming mistakes. The very first such worm was no exception. Released onto the net by the son of the director of the NSA he had accidentally programmed it to replicate every few seconds instead of every few days.

[A.K. Boomer]

Thanks you guys for taking the time, Update, I logged on this morning to read your advise -- while getting shook up with what you were saying I heard my hardrive "take off" and freaked out so I shut it down immediately -- then fired it up to try and work off line, started trying to run a scan with my current anti-virus/spy/firewall/ID theft/ pc repair ------- (defender pro)

It picked up the "unwise exe" and disinfected it, It scared the hell out of me cuz I had my speakers on loud and it made a sound like when Sigorny Weaver kills one of those alien things,,, I thought I was all set, logged on and it came back, I think most of this has been all my fault for a bunch of reasons, I kept getting this message from D. pro that I needed to update my signatures -- I thought the program did it automatically when I first bought the protection so assumed that my time was up and they wanted money -- so I kept canceling the request, well today I tried it and it downloaded all the upgrades for free (DUH) How long have I not updated? approx. 3 months ( duh with drool duh )

So -- then I re-run the program and it kills like 4 more, all the screaming was scary to listen to, at first it frightened me and then I started to enjoy it,

Then it comes across this; Net-worm.Win32.Kolabc.hki and says it cannot "disinfect"
but has a delete button instead --- so I hit it and it goes into a more advanced D. pro screen and it takes about 4 minutes to remove it,
after that it shut my comp. down and re-booted it --- the "unwise exe." box has not re-appeared which is good BUT two Net-worm.Win32.Kolabc.hki and the related files they were involved with had to be disinfected.

I researched a little about This bug and it stated it can be caught by file sharing programs --- I downloaded Jimmy hendrix "hey joe" off of limewire about two weeks ago? you think this could have been where I got it?

Anyways I don't own a credit card but do have a debit, and yes iv used it on-line but I never keep too much in there but it has a fluctuating credit they allow and I don't like that anyways (used to be stable but it seems that with all the banking troubles they change the cap about every month)
I been flying by the assumption that you cant squeeze blood out of a turnip but Iv never liked the limits they give me as its way to much and Iv never used it anyways so im going to the bank right now and will have them about totally eliminate it, what do think -- is this a good enough precaution for a hillbilly?

im also going to run the D. pro one more time to make sure things are clear.

I also wanted to add --- that day it happened I went to type to you guys about the windmills and everything I wrote was backwards! that was freaky...