I came across a strange case of computer malware recently. On my laptop many sites started downloading slowly and also flashing a message saying "Your flash player is out of date. Update it now." If you chose to update, it will take you to a page that will tell you that it was a different build of the player that had many advantages over the original one from Adobe. Very gentlemanly! It told you it was not the original! It went on to say that if you were not happy with this build you could uninstall it anytime by going to such and such menu and option. Again, very gentlemanly and disarming albeit a little too much and so a little suspicious. It also had e-Trust logo appearing at the bottom on the right. But this logo was just an image and was not clickable. If you hovered your mouse pointer on the download button, the URL displayed at the bottom showed that it would download a file named setup.exe!
I closed this tab that looked fishy and gentlemanly in equal measures. Then I went to Adobe's site to update my flash player. Lo and behold! It says that Chrome - the browser that I use - automatically updates the built-in flash player! Could it be a problem with my browser? I opened IE but the behavior of websites remained the same.
Then came the big shock! Access to my Google services stopped. Whenever I tried to open a sub-domain on Google, I got a message that a secure connection to the server was not possible! Being denied access to Google services is almost as bad as being denied access to your bank accounts. I was feeling terrible and abandoned my laptop and tried to access my Google account on my Android phone. There too some server error message was flashed and access denied. I tried many things including deletion of my Google account on my phone. But then I was not allowed to add it back for the obvious reason that Google servers were not available! I used the browser on the phone. I could visit Google search and Google news but not specific services associated with my account and logging in was not possible for want of a secure connection. But then I found the same messages about out-of-date flash player appearing in the browser on my phone too! I jumped to my tab. And it too was behaving the same way.
I googled and found many people suggesting the same things that I had tried earlier and also such extreme steps as reloading the operating system or flashing your phone to factory settings! However I was lucky to reach a site which suggested that in such a case the malware is probably resident in the router. This sounded logical as all the devices were affected in the same way.
So I put a pin in the hole on the router and reset it. Next I needed the password on the router to set up the wireless. But it had been restored to factory default. I was glad to have a 3G data connection on my phone. I browsed and found out the default password for my router, set up the wifi again, and presto! everything was back to normal and the internet access speed improved too.
Now, dear readers, I am very curious to find out what kind of malware was that setup.exe and what could be the total number of malware targeting routers. Any information on this topic will be appreciated. And if you are innocent of such knowledge, beware of any message in your Chrome browser telling you to update your flash player!
I closed this tab that looked fishy and gentlemanly in equal measures. Then I went to Adobe's site to update my flash player. Lo and behold! It says that Chrome - the browser that I use - automatically updates the built-in flash player! Could it be a problem with my browser? I opened IE but the behavior of websites remained the same.
Then came the big shock! Access to my Google services stopped. Whenever I tried to open a sub-domain on Google, I got a message that a secure connection to the server was not possible! Being denied access to Google services is almost as bad as being denied access to your bank accounts. I was feeling terrible and abandoned my laptop and tried to access my Google account on my Android phone. There too some server error message was flashed and access denied. I tried many things including deletion of my Google account on my phone. But then I was not allowed to add it back for the obvious reason that Google servers were not available! I used the browser on the phone. I could visit Google search and Google news but not specific services associated with my account and logging in was not possible for want of a secure connection. But then I found the same messages about out-of-date flash player appearing in the browser on my phone too! I jumped to my tab. And it too was behaving the same way.
I googled and found many people suggesting the same things that I had tried earlier and also such extreme steps as reloading the operating system or flashing your phone to factory settings! However I was lucky to reach a site which suggested that in such a case the malware is probably resident in the router. This sounded logical as all the devices were affected in the same way.
So I put a pin in the hole on the router and reset it. Next I needed the password on the router to set up the wireless. But it had been restored to factory default. I was glad to have a 3G data connection on my phone. I browsed and found out the default password for my router, set up the wifi again, and presto! everything was back to normal and the internet access speed improved too.
Now, dear readers, I am very curious to find out what kind of malware was that setup.exe and what could be the total number of malware targeting routers. Any information on this topic will be appreciated. And if you are innocent of such knowledge, beware of any message in your Chrome browser telling you to update your flash player!
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