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To: anializer who wrote (89543)	11/2/2008 2:42:45 AM
From: benwood	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

I'm wondering two things: How do you know it was a virus and not identity theft (i.e. stolen password); And why don't you just reformat and reinstall your software? That entire process would be less than a day. I have been reading about a new breed of virus which installs as a root kit (deeply embedded in the registry) and also imprints itself into the boot sector. This virus recognizes over one thousand financial institutions and diverts DNS requests (that is, the request to 'find' your bank's web) to special password stealing web pages that look very authentic. That is, you type 'fidelity.com' into your address bar, and you don't actually end up on the Fidelity web site. Perhaps you were so infected. The report I read said that malware detectors are not finding these, although I don't recall which, if any, virus scanners could protect you. But chances are if you were infected with one of these, you will continue to have problems (and stolen passwords) until you reformat and reinstall. Oh, the release mentioned that 300,000 passwords (or was it people) have been compromised in this manner. And in this context, a person would have a virus that leads to identity theft. edit: I see Botox has posted a link to that report -- up to 500000 stolen accounts now. That's kind of a serious problem.