MALWARE WARNING Flash Player Update Wheelers RV park site

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grashley

grashley

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Joined
May 7, 2015
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Location
Western Kentucky
I tried to go to the Wheeler RV site last night.  Page 1 was fine.  When I clicked on the Find Campground link, it took me to a page wanting to upgrade Flash Player.  OK,  Looked legit.  I did the "upgrade", which all looked normal, and after it was complete, BOOKING.COM was on my computer, along with Advanced PC Cleaner, wanting $39.99 to buy the program to remove malware.  It also changed my Safari homepage and will not allow a change.

BEWARE OF UNEXPECTED FLASH PLAYER UPGRADE, ESPECIALLY IF LAUNCHED FROM INSIDE AN UNRELATED PROGRAM!
 
Oh, man! I hate that kind of stuff.
What site was that? where you started?
May want to let them know that they may be compromised.
I NEVER let a random web site launch updates. You can't trust anybody, these days.

Depending on you operating system, you may be able to uninstall the browser, and start over.
 
This is becoming more and more common (Bundling crap ware with software updates).. When you update always look at the options.. Many times you have the option to not install the crap ware.
 
Adobe and Oracle are both really bad about that.
I can't count the number of times I've updated Java, and been in a hurry, and had to go back later to de-install McAfee Anti Virus.
 
DW updated Adobe yesterday after visiting a site and I just went in to check and had to delete all of the crap.
Thanks for posting Grashley
 
It is sketchy to use any kind of public wireless system because of how easy it is to hack them. I do a couple of things to help protect myself when on the road.
  • If using a public wireless network, I always use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service. Nord is the best I have found, but costs a yearly subscription. As a free alternative, the v47 of the Opera browser has built-in free VPN, and it actually works quite well. A true VPN client establishes a direct connection to the VPN server, then sends the data through that server in encrypted form. That way if you do online banking or anything you want to keep secure, your data is encripted by your PC before it ever gets into the wireless system.
  • My favorite and simplest way to circumvent Internet hacking is to use my phone as a wireless hotspot. I don't do video or audio streaming, so data usage is not that much of an issue, and my data is as secure as my phone is - of course, I use the VPN with my phone as well.
However, whenever you use public wireless there is always some kind of danger so I never use Internet Explorer (probably the worst browser in the world) - try using Firefox, Chrome, or Opera. I.E. allows any site to run scripts without your permission, which is most often the way that malware gets onto your system. The aforementioned browsers allow you to add script and adware blockers to your browser so you don't even get the ads, popups, etc.


Also keep in mind that most people use the built-in browsers in Windows, I.E. and Edge, so it should not be surprising that most hackers will target that browser to get into people's systems.
 
The problem started at the Wheeler RV Resort and Campground web site.  It happened on one other, but I did not "bite" on it, and do not remember which site.

I was at home on my wireless, password protected network.
 
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