attention! urgent! virus on auctiva.com; Trojan-Clicker.HTML.IFrame.kr

THANKS FOR FIXING THE PROBLEM, AUCTIVA GUYS! (and gals)

I know this was a huge problem.

To all other posters WHINING that it took Auctiva a few days and WHINING that their computers got infected:

DEAL WITH IT. This is a risk you run accessing the internet and not running the appropriately updated AV software on your OWN computer. Don't go blaming Auctiva. It's not their fault. Take responsibility for your OWN actions. Or lack thereof. Do you blame the bus company when you're late for a job interview because the bus got caught in a traffic jam? No. If you did things right, you had an alternate plan (left earlier, knowing you COULD get caught in a jam).

And don't complain that you "lost a $1,200 computer". Get real. Rebuild. Use your backed up data (which you had, right?) And move on. Get back to business. Stuff happens. Deal with it.

My only complaint to Auctiva in all this is that they probably should have been forthcoming in the beginning and shut down the website earlier, instead of trying to "fix the airplane while it was still flying".
Once again, great job Auctiva. Thanks. [B]

I'll tell you why I'M whining, and HOW my computer was impacted.
I went to the site, got the google warning and it stopped me dead in my tracks. SO, I backdoored my way into the community forum to find out what the problem was. This was Saturday and the notice said they had "found the problem" and it would be fixed by Saturday afternoon. I cleared my cache, etc., assuming that I was probably getting an old warning. Mind you, I've NEVER had a warning from GOOGLE regarding the trust issues of ANY site, so I really thought auctiva had it under control and google was just splashing up a screen due to server loss of auctiva.
I still got the warning. Later that evening, I went back to the forum, and found that tech support had again said they were aware of the problem, that it was a few servers down, and the issue was in the MIDDLE of being fixed.
There was absolutely NO mention of a virus on their news thread. There WAS mention of it by some users, but I assumed the users were getting the same thing I was getting. There was my first problem: Assuming that auctiva REALLY DID have it under control, and google was over-reacting with some new "add-on" page. Trusting Auctiva, I continued through ALL the virus pages from google (bottom right- trust this site and ignore warning- or something to that effect). I ended up IN auctiva's site where I could view pics and see the little red box at the top of my screen. I was a little scared that I was warned so many times as I went into the site. So, I checked the red box at the top of Auctiva again. Still the same thing-server down, we're working to fix it-.
OK-so this virus thing is bogus, and it's just a server thing. I HAVE to get things listed...ALL my pictures are up on auctiva, etc. You know, the same old thing: I have to pay my bills, so I will hustle through all this BS.
NOT! BTW, I DO have the AVAST 4.8 home edition that is consistently updated. AVAST never detected anything until I was OFF the website.
My screen went BLACK and blinked off and on, and my hard drive was making a loud grinding noise.
HAD AUCTIVA TOLD US, EVEN HINTED TO US, THAT THEIR SITE REALLY WAS COMPROMISED by HACKING and their LOYAL CUSTOMERS SHOULD STAY AWAY UNTIL THEY EMAILED US THAT it was TOTALLY Fixed!!!!
I think I have every reason to add my story to the forum on how auctiva SCREWED up. Every single time they have a problem, they take the eBay way out, of "cut and paste: We know there is a problem, things are slow, we are working to fix it, we will be back up at so-and-so time". Shut down the site, give us real answers and YOU deal with the repercussions, Auctiva...NOT us.

Got bills to pay too. Not listing these past few days will definitely hurt at the end of this week. But, since my computer is how I list, when I saw the warnings, I left it alone.

Not all the responsibility is Auctiva's. With all those warning signs, I don't believe it is at all.

AUCTIVA DIDN'T WARN US! Auctiva said it was OK. AUCTIVA said NOTHING about viruses or trojans until the next day!

hey Happi, guess you were wrong!

Really? I hadn't noticed!

Yep, I have bills to pay too.
but... think about it for a moment....
Do you REALLY want to depend on a FREE solution to make sure you make money to pay your bills? That's just not very good business sense.

I'm sorry about all the people who got hit by this virus/malware and did not have an adequate AV solution and/or a backup of their data. Those are the top 2 things you need to have if you use a computer to make your living.

Make sure you have alternate ways to list your stuff and make money. What are you going to do if Auctiva folds tomorrow? Yes, I'll be inconvenienced, but I won't be out of business like it sounds you guys would be without Auctiva.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Auctiva, used them for 4 years now, but there's no way I'll have my entire business and livelihood depend on them. That, IMHO, would be just dumb.

My $0.02

This is true. The only thing that I ever thought about is losing ebay. So, I have other venues. I have been playing with some other programs. Gonna go see what I can do.

As someone who looks after about a dozen PC's and Laptops for friends and family i have come across a wide range of Anti Virus Software and how effective they are.

One of the common threads i see here has been repeated on pc's and laptops that i had to fix and sort out when i was first brought them to look at.

The common denominators? 1. All infested with Virus' and Trojans... 2. Each machine was running Norton!

In my experience, not only is Norton one of the least user friendly pieces of Security Software i've come across but it also regularly fails to detect virus's until long after they have installed themselves,compromised security and let in others so that the system is well and truly infested. I believe part of this is down to it being overly complicated and not very user friendly. This can lead to users inadvertantly letting the bad stuff in without realising. I wont even get started on the cost of it! Save to say that i refused a free Norton package when i bought my latest Windows Vista Business Laptop and went on to persuade the salesperson to ditch it from their own PC!

Uninstalling can also be a nightmare too.

I always recommend AVG Free Anti Virus and Zone Alarm free firewall, along with Spybot Search & destroy, also free. 3 of the best pieces of security software u will ever find and all user friendly.

to those using Norton and whose pcs were infested and had to wipe it all and start again, - the chances are that you were already infested but only became aware of it because you were suddenly aware of the problem with Auctiva.

This is a good time for everyone to review your security practices, and also avoid most of the file sharing sites too which are infested. keep your eye on things, review security and employ the best defence and u should get earlier warnings and be able to take action to stop anything ending up on your PC.

First of all, a terms of service violation has occurred. PERIOD. Second of all, this affected MILLIONS of dollars of ALL of our income, not just one or two of us. And as long as the time keeps going by, where we haven't heard from a legal speaking agent from Auctiva, as to whether our personal information has been compromised, THAT issue is something an Attorney General's office may have to "get over".

So, these 3 programs are good for a brand new (2weeks out of the box) computer?

Never mind. I see that you put it on your new laptop. So, I am downloading now. I had no idea that Norton won't work.

do those 3 free ones you mention work well with Kaspersky? I've hated Norton & Panda & McAfree for a long time. So far I love Kaspersky but nothing is infallible.

Hmm, I have mcafee on the other computer.

I would have LOST a couple of thousand if my auctions had gone down. I commend them for keeping the auctions and pictures up and running.

Being as honest as possible this is a no win situation for everyone. It is now in the past. Tomorrow is not yet here. Either keep worrying about what was or start looking forwards to what can and will be. I myself am going full speed ahead. My new laptop is in the box downstairs. As soon as all is totally normal again it will be up and running.

I listed and started 50 auctions on Sunday as a result of Auctiva being up and running. I actually signed up and tried Inkfrog. It was so complicated I canceled and came back. I know I need a backup but I have found nothing to compare to Auctiva.

I agree. And it is not Auctiva's fault all this happened. I was able to about 20 listings Sunday and have been working all day to try to get caught up on what I need to do.

I also signed up for inkfrog. And within an hour - cancelled. I think I will look for a backup - just to pull out when needed. I have an ebay account that I use when I need 'fast' cash. I went to it today and listed 500 items. So, that will help me out.

I am on our new computer. But, I have 3 other programs that someone suggested running. On the old computer, my virus program had expired for about a month. This whole mess motivated me to renew it! It did get a virus. But, was easy to remove.

I did get an answer to my help request:

Hello,

Thanks for contacting us regarding this matter, and I'm sorry to hear about your trouble with this. Auctiva website is running very slow at the moment as a result of which you may not be ale to access it as usual there may be some intermittent problems while accessing the Auctiva website. Our technical team is aware of the issue and they are working hard to resolve it as soon as possible. I do not have any ETA as to when this issue will be resolved but hopefully it will not take much time to get the things back to normal.

We apologize for any inconveniences this issue is causing. In the mean time, if there is anything further I can do to assist you, please don't hesitate to ask!

Sincerely,
Auctiva Support.

But, I am still able to get in and do some listings, which will start tomorrow.

<holding my breathe - crossing my fingers - praying this is over finally>

Charity1974: If you use the 3 pieces of security software i recommended then you won't need Kaspersky. if you did use them all with it then AVG and ZoneAlarm would conflict with Kaspersky because they do similar jobs and would cause no end of problems for you.

It would be the same if you ran Windows Firewall with any other firewall.

Only have one firewall and one anti virus running. you can have multiple Ad and Spyware programs running such as Spybot, Adaware and Windows defender but trying it with firewalls and Anti Virus software will cause more trouble than you need.

AVG Free

Zone Alarm Free

spybot

When you download AVG and ZoneAlarm, make sure you choose the free options, don't go for trialpay or the 15 day full version trials. The basic free versions are good enough.

Also, make sure you uncheck the toolbar add in options. whilst they are good, you don't need them and they just clutter up your toolbar.

If anyone needs any help/advice, just shout.

Ebay - TheFozShop

Hi Laura

Took me ages to find this message. I'd forgotten where i'd posted! lol

yup, FozzyBear is me, and that description is me all over! I was on a site called Feesch for many years (chat forum site) and many on there would say that description of me was perfect! Especially the bad jokes!

As for Downloading the Anti Virus and other security software, they are from safe sources so you shouldn't need to scan them with your current anti virus. Though it has been known for Anti Virus software to flag rivals as potentially harmful in the past!

You will need to uninstall your existing security software. This can either be done by going to Start/Programs then the name of your software and using the softwares own uninstaller or by going to Start/Control Panel/Add-remove software and clicking the uninstall button on the relevant software.

ZoneAlarm will tell you it can not detect any anti Virus software when you have AVG installed, kind of a case like that, but its only their way of trying to scare you into paying for their full product which has anti Virus. No need to when both free versions work so well together. AVG also has its own firewall on the paid version.

An Anti virus programme is only as strong as its weakest link - the pc user - same with firewalls and anti spy/adware. Its quite easy to bypass their protection and infect yourself. Most common way is via infected software cd's and USB storage devices. If you don't scan them first, they get in easily. Zipped/Compressed files can also hide some virus's so its wise to download only from known safe sources. Or use a secondary hard drive as a test bed for opening the files. at least then u dont lose your operating sysem should one pop up.

I don't use p2p file sharing networks as they are the worst spreaders of virus's and other problems. Kazaa and Limewire are among the worst ive come across for this by experience of sorting out others pc's. Official ones like BBC's iPlayer are safe (so far).

Using 3 Anti Virus programs as someone said is no guarantee of safer security, in fact, it could compromise security by causing conflicts with the programs and so ending up not scanning properly. Even worse is having more than one firewall on the same pc. It can stop some programs from running, cause others to crash and once you have fiddled around with the various settings to try and allow programs to access the internet through all the firewalls, u run the risk of opening holes in your security so you may as well have none running.

Its possible you may be infected so get the software running asap. also, in the news section there is a list of what to do and how to do it from the tech guys on Auctiva. they recommend Avast Anti virus because it picks up something the others didn't - that was about a week ago now - so AVG should be up to date. Always set your Anti virus to update at least one a day anyway. It may be worth as a precaution downloading Avast, running the scan, deal with any infection, then uninstall and install AVG. run a full scan again. Though as i say, its highly likely AVG will be up to date with whatever Avast was picking up.

I will be sending out your purchase on Monday too, ty for buying :). Ive just listed some St Patricks Day and St Georges Day stock and will shortly be doing some Easter too, not that im advertising or touting for business. lol

Anyway, i hope this helps. if you need any advice just fozzybear@ymail.com click here to email me.

Good luck and hopefully u will be virus free

quote:

Originally posted by www.WindmillTrading.com:
THANKS FOR FIXING THE PROBLEM, AUCTIVA GUYS! (and gals)

I know this was a huge problem.

To all other posters WHINING that it took Auctiva a few days and WHINING that their computers got infected:

DEAL WITH IT. This is a risk you run accessing the internet and not running the appropriately updated AV software on your OWN computer. Don't go blaming Auctiva. It's not their fault. Take responsibility for your OWN actions. Or lack thereof. Do you blame the bus company when you're late for a job interview because the bus got caught in a traffic jam? No. If you did things right, you had an alternate plan (left earlier, knowing you COULD get caught in a jam).

And don't complain that you "lost a $1,200 computer". Get real. Rebuild. Use your backed up data (which you had, right?) And move on. Get back to business. Stuff happens. Deal with it.

My only complaint to Auctiva in all this is that they probably should have been forthcoming in the beginning and shut down the website earlier, instead of trying to "fix the airplane while it was still flying".
Once again, great job Auctiva. Thanks. [B]

and auctiva shouldn't have been protected to prevent this from happening? People come here trusting the site to be safe. You tell then to just deal with it? Your analogy is ridiculous. People had the right to be upset