DescentBB

my PC is running perfectly fine,
a prettymuch default setting standard win7ultimate setup,
running Microsoft Security Essentials,
and windows firewall is on.

but i've had a vague scare i'm having trouble explaining, and wish to eliminate the possibility that my PC's security has been compromised (Perhaps a way of remotely controlling my PC).

I guess i'd settle for simply scanning for evidence of a security breech. Coz it's possible this is just a fit of paranoia, and i'd rather not turn my smoothly running PC into a fortress full of layers of security software unless there's real evidence that i need it.
I mean, it'd leave evidence right? that's what i'm imagining. i just don't exactly know what to look for that MSE wouldn't have already obviously picked up on (assuming it's actually working - which it seems to be, since everything has been running smoothly)

So, what's the standard procedure?
(and incase you missed it, i have MSE installed and always have, and it's detection log still remains virginal (there have been, and remain, zero infection scares))

Malwarebytes seems to have a reputation for picking up anything that other security software might have missed. It's worth a scan just to see if something else pops up.

Yeah Malwarebytes is usually the first one on the list do to its reputation. It doesn't run a background service, great detection, and its free.

thx guys, full scanned and found nothing, which makes me feel better i guess.
the search for answers continues :[

Think you have a spy? get everyone safely off and blow the structure. Then rebuild.

Get all the data you care about saved on a disk. Just drag and drop it onto a disk. Then reformat the Windows drive.

Your saved data should be re scanned by a trusted computer to make sure no spys snuck on.

Now you re-install Windows and put your data back on. Install your drivers, updates, then your virii and malware scanners. Then you should be good for a month.

If you really want to go nuts, you can always download a few live cd scanners from the big av players (kaspersky does it, antivir does it, even microsoft has one), burn them to a cd and boot directly from the cd to scan your system offline which helps prevent anything from masking itself.

If you took Krom's advice and found nothing, then your system is clean.

But if you want to give yourself a peace mind without bogging down your system. Keep a couple of on-demand scanners handy and use them regularly or as you see fit. Malwarebytes is a good start and a keeper. Hitman Pro and Emsisoft Emergency Kit are two others known for being effective. Now Hitman Pro is only free for 30 days for infection removal. But many don't even activate the license and use it for regular scans. Well free for cookie removal at least.

There are some filter sets for adblock plus (firefox extension) that can block most tracking cookies from even downloading, which is way more effective in the long term than removing them manually (they quickly regenerate otherwise).

I have all cookies blocked in Firefox. The CS Lite add-on lets me pick which website I want to except cookies from. BetterPrivacy takes care of the LSO ones and is set to one second delete. I honestly don't remember the last time I saw a tracker.

Well something else is a proggy called "NoScript". Prevents hidden scripts from dodgy websites entering your system. Down side is it also may block java scripts from reputable site until of course you tell it that the website is trusted.

Ghostery is great for Firefox too. One more little tool to irritate the trackers.

I'm not sure you can ever be 100% sure you don't have any malware on your system unless you can check every single binary and make sure it matches what was supplied by the vendor, and delete anything unknown... but the chances you have something exotic are remote, so scans from something up-to-date are probably good enough.

What Isaac and Sirius said

Nospript works well

tunnelcat wrote:Ghostery is great for Firefox too. One more little tool to irritate the trackers.

Yet a company called Better Advertising bought Ghostery a few years ago.

Surprise.

http://blog.evidon.com/2010/01/19/bette ... -ghostery/

No reason to worry though.