New Thoughts on Words

Aging & Attitude

   We are familiar with the expression, X marks the spot, used to reference lost treasure on a map, and the signature line on important documents. There is even a film by the name X Marks the Spot . The story concerns a newspaper reporter indebted to a gangster for raising the money to save his little girl’s life.

   In the computer age, however, the X of concern appears in the upper right corner of unwanted advertisements and pop-ups and nearly caused me a nervous breakdown on Friday.

   The nightmare begins when I log on to Word-Press to edit my next post, and a Shutterfly advertisement appears across the top of the work page. I had opened an account the previous evening, to compile a photo birthday book for my granddaughter, Alexandria. I think it is  pretty nervy of them, and feel overwhelmed, as more ads and pops up appear blocking my screen vision and ability to type. The dominant pop-up is an upgrade browser for Firefox.  and I attempt to upgrade, but cannot,  because VIPRE, identifies it as a bad file. I X out of every ad, but they immediately pop open again.   Are you following this?

   Let me recap; I cannot use my computer because I do not have the upgrade that Firefox requests and VIPRE is blocking the file.

   What to do? Call iyogi with whom I have a contract.

   After about an hour, iyogi detects 68 infractions using Malwarebytes.

   “How can that happen?”  I ask. Two days ago, I purchased VIPRE, an upgrade antivirus and firewall.

   The technician’s reply, “Madame, such infractions can only be avoided by purchasing Windows 8. “Madame would you like me to do that now.”

   Tension comes between us when I accuse him of trying to sell something. He is indignant at the suggestion and adamant that he is not a salesperson.

   I had Windows 7 three days ago. and no pop-ups or advertisements.

   What is different?  I opened a Shutterfly account, and switched to VIPRE.

   When the air clears and the infractions, cookies and temporary files removed, I make the mistake of commenting, I thought my computer  was  scheduled to do fragmenting, etc. and would check the settings.

   “Madame I can help you with that. There is a program, Keylogger, that will do all of that for you. Would you like me to install it now?” Said the tech.

   I politely answered, “No thank you.”

   “Madame, you simply do not understand how computers are working.” He persists.

   I get off phone saying, “My husband is in the kitchen waiting for me to cook dinner.”

   That he understands.

   Truth is, Mr. Wonderful cooks dinner.

   I question my decision to pay for and install VIPRE and phone to cancel the anti-virus program.  The purchase is within thirty days, so there is no problem.

   Next I download free versions of Malwaybytes and turn Windows firewall back on.

   Through this laborious process pop-ups continue and even appear in LinkedIn when I post my blog.  I tell Shutterfly to close my account. They do.

   The pop-ups and advertisements continue flying across my screen. I run a total scan a second time and have 68 new infractions, all the same from address,  pup.optional.conduit A.

   Yelling “I’m going to have a nervous break-down”  I type, What is pup-optional conduit A? in the search bar and have my answer. X marks the spot.

   PUP.Optional.Conduit.A is very dangerous malware that invades into user computer without taking their permission. This PUP.Optional.Conduit.A also results in messing up the entire computer system by displaying unwanted and fake ads. This potentially unwanted program used to slip into random computers through a series of channels, like freeware downloads, spam e-mail attachments, hacked websites etc. PUP.Optional.Conduit.A using malware to block anti-virus programs. PUP.Optional.Conduit.A can change the existing registry entries, and create the new corrupt entries so that it can launch itself each time you open the windows. Since this nasty threat is very dangerous and it unnoticed. It is strongly recommended to remove PUP.Optional.Conduit.A as soon as possible to prevent further damage from it.  (Instructions on how to remove this dangerous malware on Firefox can be found here.)

   Reading  about antivirus programs , I learn malware does a different kind of damage and Malwarebytes is not an antivirus program. I remove Malwarebytes and reinstalled VIPRE as a trial member.  Now I’m using VIPRE firewall, malware and antivirus programs. 

   This morning I run a full scan using VIPRE and remove 6 files that are of moderate risk, one of which is some sort of conduit toolbar. I have no pop-ups or advertisements yet, however I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo  confused. Help!

….just saying

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