Virus Issue: What It Is, How You Can Help

by Chris Fontecchio on Mar 9, 2011 1:53 PM EST in Housekeeping

Two days ago I passed on an alert regarding virus warnings people have been receiving from the front page of the Podium Cafe and other SBN sites. In sum, the warning is fake and the directions in the warning are attempting to get you to install a virus. Closing the browser -- preferably by force-quit -- makes it go away, and the message pops up only occasionally, and only if you have a browser with no script-blocking functions. But it's still a potential threat and we have had one report of infection, which is one more than I'd ever hoped to have.

What to do and how to help... On the flip:

SBN has isolated the problem but they're still working on fully eradicating it. In that light, they are asking people to send them information if and when they experience the virus warning. Here is what we would greatly appreciate from folks:

Above all else, if you are willing and able to enter into a screen share session with the SBN tech team, email them at support@sbnation.com as soon as possible to set up a time.
Take a screen shot of everything abnormal you see.
Make a record of the following when you experience the problem, and email this info to support@sbnation.com. Needed info:
- What browser/OS are you using?
- What page were you on?
- When day did you first see this?
- How many times have you seen it since?
- Has it happened on any other sites? Which ones?
- Did you click on anything after it redirected you to the virus scan screen?

Thank you so much for bearing with us through this. As I said, you're not at any real risk of infection if you've read this and closed out your browser. Also, only a few people are seeing it. But it's still bad. Any info you tech experts want to offer, feel free to email our team. Thanks!

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Also,

I keep an industrial size bottle of Germ-X right here next to my keyboard for extra protection.

Anyhoo, I’ve had that virus thing twice now, both times at home on my PC. Never at work (MS IE) and not on my new Mac at home. If I ever experience it again, I’ll take the above course of action.

A bike should have a voice... it should speak to you, and you should hear it, and what it should say is: "Attack!" - sminer

by swells on Mar 9, 2011 2:18 PM EST reply actions

And if that doesn't work

we’ll just send Drew out to fix your computer.

by Sui Juris on Mar 9, 2011 2:50 PM EST reply actions

He’ll only turn it off and then turn it on again.

pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway

by fmk on Mar 9, 2011 2:54 PM EST up reply actions

In the military

we call that a “P-O-R” (Power-On-Reset) = works prolly 80% of the time.

A bike should have a voice... it should speak to you, and you should hear it, and what it should say is: "Attack!" - sminer

by swells on Mar 9, 2011 3:02 PM EST up reply actions

Is it true that the military tech book says that the correct way to turn a puter on is to tickle its diodes?

pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway

by fmk on Mar 9, 2011 3:19 PM EST up reply actions

Love that from "The I.T. Crowd"...

Answers phone.
Hello, this is IT.
Have you turned it off and on?
Hang up phone.

by JustJoshinYa on Mar 9, 2011 7:26 PM EST up reply actions

I'm here to fix compyooter

A bike should have a voice... it should speak to you, and you should hear it, and what it should say is: "Attack!" - sminer

by swells on Mar 9, 2011 3:06 PM EST up reply actions

Ah, you've met Drew already?

by Jens on Mar 9, 2011 3:31 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

Don't be fatuous, Jens

Jens! Voigt puts the 'laughter' in 'manslaughter'

by Jimbo... on Mar 9, 2011 6:04 PM EST up reply actions

Don't think it'll affect Mac users

but here is how to make a screenshot: press Cmd-Shift-3 (⌘⇧3).

by tedvdw on Mar 9, 2011 2:54 PM EST reply actions

ya mean you don't have a handy button that just says "PrtScrn"?

"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind

by umwolverine on Mar 9, 2011 4:52 PM EST up reply actions

One of the things I miss, moving from pc to mac laptop!

although I do love the options for printing part of the screen & the cleverness of how my mac does it!

by Sarah Connolly on Mar 9, 2011 4:58 PM EST up reply actions

The only thing I really miss is the forward delete key

That kills me all the time – and its even worse on the ipad.

by platypus on Mar 9, 2011 9:29 PM EST up reply actions

It is there on full-size (separate, wired) keyboards but not on laptop or wireless, alas.

by tedvdw on Mar 9, 2011 11:52 PM EST up reply actions

No

Also, no virus scanner and no viruses. No annoying “Your computer might not be protected” warnings. No endless “Are you sure?” popups. No constant rebooting between updates. For that matter, no constant updates. And best of all: no Internet Explorer.

by tedvdw on Mar 9, 2011 5:58 PM EST up reply actions

Also, no money

left after buying one.
(i’m just jealous, really)

I like tinkering with the boys.
- majope

by tgsgirl on Mar 9, 2011 6:10 PM EST up reply actions

Yep.

The twice I’ve bought a computer I concluded I simply couldn’t afford one.

"There is nobody doing it for the money. Everybody is doing it because they want to ride bikes." Lizzie Armitstead

by civetta on Mar 9, 2011 6:19 PM EST up reply actions

ja

Spendy, though mine has lasted a rather long time.

by Jen See on Mar 9, 2011 6:26 PM EST up reply actions

"lasted"

requiring a rather loose interpretation of the word, of course.

by Sui Juris on Mar 9, 2011 7:24 PM EST up reply actions

hey, it still turns on

most of the time! and really, who needs letters on the keys? overrated!

by Jen See on Mar 9, 2011 8:05 PM EST up reply actions

btw

thanks for the additions. yay :)

by Jen See on Mar 9, 2011 8:05 PM EST up reply actions

My six year old laptop

keeps advising me to buy a new battery, cause the current one is deader than Dotty’s cycling career. I keep ignoring it.

I like tinkering with the boys.
- majope

by tgsgirl on Mar 9, 2011 6:37 PM EST up reply actions

The letters are worn off my keyboard ;)

by Jen See on Mar 9, 2011 6:40 PM EST up reply actions

Mine has a great big hole in middle of keyboard

I have to huddle all the keys up in one corner for fear of them falling off.

I used to dream of worn-off letters.

by Jens on Mar 9, 2011 7:13 PM EST up reply actions

Is this turning into that Monty Python sketch?

pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway

by fmk on Mar 9, 2011 7:17 PM EST up reply actions

Ha :D

The dudes can attest, I’m not lying! There are very few letters left. Also, the spacebar seems to be sticking.

by Jen See on Mar 9, 2011 8:06 PM EST up reply actions

My phone is now more advanced than my computer

and I’m not sure how to feel about that…

It's Timofey MOZGOD time
Ujiri for MVE
GALLO!!!

by Phil H. on Mar 9, 2011 9:08 PM EST up reply actions

Convergence, young Phil

It’s the wave of the future, assuming the future was 2008, that is

Jens! Voigt puts the 'laughter' in 'manslaughter'

by Jimbo... on Mar 10, 2011 1:08 AM EST up reply actions

my lap top and my phone are now smarter than I will ever be.

Anyone who has every thought a working Photojournalist has a glam job needs to rethink...

by Christopher See on Mar 10, 2011 9:33 AM EST up reply actions

My spatula

is smarter than Drew.

If cobble delusions are wrong, who wants to be right? -JFS PGH

by Chris Fontecchio on Mar 10, 2011 11:38 AM EST up reply actions

that's really not saying much

"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind

by umwolverine on Mar 10, 2011 4:36 PM EST up reply actions

This is why you get work to pay for it...

by JustJoshinYa on Mar 9, 2011 7:28 PM EST up reply actions

Probably not in the British public sector at this point in time.

Indeed, my work computer is so hopeless I quite often take my own laptop in.

"There is nobody doing it for the money. Everybody is doing it because they want to ride bikes." Lizzie Armitstead

by civetta on Mar 10, 2011 5:24 PM EST up reply actions

But they do have this nasty habit

of falling apart just a day or two after the warranty expires

by Monty. on Mar 9, 2011 6:14 PM EST up reply actions

It's sorta like a toaster for words.

Turn it on, toast up some words, turn it off.

by Jen See on Mar 9, 2011 6:18 PM EST up reply actions

Here's my experience

I’ve got an old copy of Opera (10.56 if you want to be precise) that I use almost exclusively for Podium Cafe, mainly because Opera 11 and all the clever scripts here seemed to get themselves into a treacle wrestling match. A couple of days ago I started it up, came here via a bookmark, logged on, then saw that the address bar at the top was saying:

http://www.podiumcafe.com/?q=http://www.evilaliv3.org/&login=1299435040

And according to my history that was on the 6th March at 20:37 Uk time. No redirect or anything like that, no pop-up warnings, but I’d never seen that evilaliv3.org bit so I had a quick look to see what I could find then did a virus scan.

by Monty. on Mar 9, 2011 5:48 PM EST reply actions