I have Microsoft Security Essentials installed. A trogan or virus has hijacked my email address book---it has sent emails to everyone in my address book. How do I handle this problem?
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You may have to change your email address (and you contacts may as well).
If you find this behavior does not stop once you are certain the computer is clean, then you may have to change addresses if the spam is annoying enough, or just wait it out.
Point I'm trying to make: Cleaning the system may not make the behavior stop in case the mail is being forged elsewhere, and not on your computer.
Your recipients can check the mail - sometimes it is obvious that the mail is not coming from your account.
What email program are you using? Are we talking about a local address book, or on some kind of online service?
To answer your initial question: Most current antivirus programs only play catch-up: When a new version of a virus is found somewhere, then the antivirus vendor tries to collect samples, analyze the code and determine patterns that can help to recognize the virus. These virus definitions are then distributed to the users. This process can take several days, so there may always be a time span from the moment a new virus is planted in the wild until all AV solutions recognize it. (Especially for users who update the AV only manually.)
There are also other ways to get access to address book information. One example is when facebook or LinkedIn asks for your gmail password "to search for your friends". (It think both of these try to behave well, but I'd NEVER give up my email login information to any online service)- Oh, if someone got hold of your facebook login (or at least a session cookie), then they could harvest email addresses from all your contacts...
It could be useful to find out, from where your friends receive spam. For this, you'd need digital copies of email they recieved "from you". The interesting part is not the "payload" of the mail, but in the hidden headers, where one can find tracing time stamps. If these trail back to your computer, then you have an infection.
Thank you so much for your reply----a very good explanation------I'm very careful about my attachments and facebook, etc. It seems a virus (or something) grabbed my address book and sent emails to every person in it---I will try to ck the "payload" of the mail in the hidden headers-----I have scanned my computer with quite a few anti-virus programs, anti-malware, etc----nothing shows up-----it shows I'm clear----I will wait and see if this happens again. Thank you again for your reply. It was helpful. :-)
Thank you----that was my original question---I'm running Microsoft Essentials----anti-virus, etc--------I was wondering why Essentials allowed a virus thru to my eamil program---I'm very careful about opening attachments, etc. Thanks again for your reply.
If you're asking for technical help, please be sure to include all your system info, including operating system, model number, and any other specifics related to the problem. Also please exercise your best judgment when posting in the forums--revealing personal information such as your e-mail address, telephone number, and address is not recommended.
why does essiantials let a virus thru to my email?