Computer security help needed- Possibly dumb questions.
 

I know I?m asking a lot for my first post. I usually just lurk but I need some help from smart people who know computers.

So I go away to visit my parents and leave my girlfriend the computer to herself. Her sister also comes over and uses it. Well they are both computer illiterate and when I returned home today the machine is wrecked with spy ware and Trojans and stuff (makes me wonder what sites they visited). Now to make things worse they turned off the firewall and virus checker ?because it was slowing the computer down? so god knows what?s happened to my lovely PC.

I run an AVG virus scan and it shits a brick with all the crap it finds, I then use spybot and Ad Aware and they go crazy too. Once everything is done I reboot and now I?m getting error messages on start up and my internet keeps dying. I do Hijack This and I think (I did a google search on some of the results) I had a keystroke logger installed!. My only option was a system reinstall and everything is now running fine. I?ve re-installed Xp SP2 and have all my anti-virus software running I?m a bit paranoid because I feel like my PC was raped with spy ware and viruses so I have a couple of questions I?d appreciate if you guys could help with. Please forgive me if they a re stupid.

1) Does a Destructive recovery destroy everything that could do my PC harm? I don?t use discs to format my PC, I just select ?System restore? and ?Destructive Recovery? and it is all built in. Couldn?t a virus or something nasty get into the windows re-install and thus hang around?

2) Can a virus, Trojan or key logger or other nasties get into my cable modem (NTL)? Weird question I know but I know my modem must have software installed on it as knows my broadband speed and setting etc. If it can get on there how do I get it out?

Any help would be appreciated.

- Daniel

Do not let your girlfriend and her sister use your PC again.
I would also find out what they were doing together, sounds a little umm kinky.

My machine now is password protected. She says she was just looking at music websites but I checked the IE history and she was on webcam sites. i'm worried!

hmm which ones?

This is exactly why I never let others use my computer when I'm not around :-/

Hmm.. Not always! If its too bad, the only thing that helps is a complete format!

Dont think so?!

Your girlfriend is a complete moron. Shutting down AV and Firewall because it slows the computer down? Kind of like saying I discontected the brakes on my car because it slows the car down. Get her on of those books on computers you know "The Stupid Whores Guide to Not Fucking Up Her Boyfriends Computer.

I mentioned the kinky part just because of that. Several cam places do not opperate properly when you try to send if your firewall is in place (assuming you do not know how to change the settings properly).

Just run spyware cleaners and one specifically for trojans since spyware cleaners wont always detect them all. No spyware cannot get into your modem.