Hotmail/outlook virus.

[ivorito]

Just seen that earlier today my Hotmail account sent an email to all of the people I have previously emailed with a single link. I think its fair to say that it is a virus. As soon as I found out, I sent an email to all of those that received the original, clarifying it was not me and telling them not to follow the link. I also changed my outlook password and deleted all my contacts. Is there anything else I can do to stop this happening again? Although I don't send many emails it is a little embarrassing! I'm on a macbook and my windows partition got a virus the other day... rather than spending a lot of time to remove it, I just deleted the partition so I'm amusing my email details were obtained then? Anything else to do?
Thanks

 

[demonix]

Did you have that e-mail account linked into an e-mail client on that partition, or did you access it when it was infected.

It might be that whomever sent that link might have hacked into your account (depending on how easy the password is get) and sent out all those spam messages (if you check the e-mail headers (if there hasn't been any clean up) from the sent messages, and if the IP address of the sender doesn't match your current IP address then I would be more certain that it was a hack and not a virus that caused it).

 

[ivorito]

Did you have that e-mail account linked into an e-mail client on that partition, or did you access it when it was infected.

It might be that whomever sent that link might have hacked into your account (depending on how easy the password is get) and sent out all those spam messages (if you check the e-mail headers (if there hasn't been any clean up) from the sent messages, and if the IP address of the sender doesn't match your current IP address then I would be more certain that it was a hack and not a virus that caused it).

Thanks for the response.
I didn't use an email client, only hotmail via chrome or firefox though I'm unsure if I had it open at the time of getting the virus. The virus was a trojan which when it came into action locked my computer and said it was the police, asking for 100 pounds or so to "unlock" my computer. Not allowing me to boot in safe mode or restore windows to previous version, so bit of a bummer! But I'm not sure if I was using my email address when that happened.
I'm using apples own mail client on this partition, but I'm pretty sure that is trustworthy!

How can I find the IP address that the email was sent from?

Thanks again.

 

[Mr-White]

Be more careful, I've had that ransomware before and the only reason I got it was I ignored the Chrome warning the site was dodgy and then stupidly authorised java to run. Lesson learnt.

Also don't be naive to think Apple don't get viruses.

MW

 

[ivorito]

Be more careful, I've had that ransomware before and the only reason I got it was I ignored the Chrome warning the site was dodgy and then stupidly authorised java to run. Lesson learnt.

Also don't be naive to think Apple don't get viruses.

MW

Yeah its not fun is it. Bit of a nasty surprise, I didn't lose any important work or anything but when I'm on a standalone windows pc I'm a lot more careful.

I'm not being naive, I know that they can get viruses but I haven't changed how I use my mac at all recently. I think as it was less than a week after the windows virus thing I would presume it is from there.

 

[Mr-White]

I was lucky to have a dual boot system so all I did was log into that and deleted my user profile in the infected Windows 7.

Since I installed Windows 8 I now use the principle of least privileges, where I use a bog standard account as my every day account and have a second admin account which I use to elevate my privileges to when required.

MW

 

[ivorito]

I was lucky to have a dual boot system so all I did was log into that and deleted my user profile in the infected Windows 7.

Since I installed Windows 8 I now use the principle of least privileges, where I use a bog standard account as my every day account and have a second admin account which I use to elevate my privileges to when required.

MW

Sounds like a good plan, I will definitely be doing that on my next pc. Thanks.

 

[demonix]

Thanks for the response.
I didn't use an email client, only hotmail via chrome or firefox though I'm unsure if I had it open at the time of getting the virus. The virus was a trojan which when it came into action locked my computer and said it was the police, asking for 100 pounds or so to "unlock" my computer. Not allowing me to boot in safe mode or restore windows to previous version, so bit of a bummer! But I'm not sure if I was using my email address when that happened.
I'm using apples own mail client on this partition, but I'm pretty sure that is trustworthy!

How can I find the IP address that the email was sent from?

Thanks again.

Then it would be a hack as ransomware won't harvest user IDs and passwords.

To find the IP address, just open the sent message (if the sent folder hasn't been cleared out by the spammer) then click the ... button and select the view message source option (the X-Originating-IP line will tell you the IP address of the sender).

All you'll need to do is change the password, and everything should be fine.

 

[ivorito]

Then it would be a hack as ransomware won't harvest user IDs and passwords.

To find the IP address, just open the sent message (if the sent folder hasn't been cleared out by the spammer) then click the ... button and select the view message source option (the X-Originating-IP line will tell you the IP address of the sender).

All you'll need to do is change the password, and everything should be fine.

Thanks for the response. I couldn't find the ip address of any of the sent messages. I can find the ip of someone that sent me a message, but there was no X-Originating-IP line, only X-Originating-email which of course said my own. Doesn't seem to matter too much, as my password is now changed.

Sorry for bothering you, but do you happen to know how to delete the account's email contact history? Sorry I had no idea how to put it. I have deleted my contacts but I think the email was sent to anyone I had previously emailed too. I have no need to contact a bunch of people in the future and I just want to avoid bothering them in the future again.

Thanks