I don't know how I got this.  Apparently I got it yesterday like everybody else.  It shows up as a "mindspark" pop up asking for permission to allow another site to be used or something.  There was an email with a PDF file.  At first I thought I didn't click on the PDF but now that I think of it I certainly might have.

I've had ongoing coverage from webroot for many years and I have never had any kind of computer infections.   I tried to run a Webroot scan and was unable to do that so I called Webroot.

The guy said that unfortunately I have a level five Trojan which is very bad. He said really only Windows 8 is vulnerable to this kind of Trojan.  It disabled all of my protection and has already created almost 1000 errors (i'm not sure what that means but the tech I talked to was shocked).

He said that all of my personal information has been shared with everybody. I have no protection right now at all for anything.  My privacy is gone.

He said I have no choice but to contact a level five technician to have it fixed. He said I could take it to one of several places or they could do it for me but however I wanted to do it it had to be done and it was going to cost some money

I could pay 200 for a 1 time fix, 250 for 5 fixes, or 279 for 10 fixes.  I chose the 254 five fixes since this is a big problem for windows eight. I've only had this computer for about four weeks.  And since the best protection available couldn't protect me from this, I thought the extra protection might be good.  I don't have to pay to get Webroot back, but i have to re-register.    They are also giving me one year free which is nice but it doesn't cover the expense of getting this Trojan removed from my computer.

I hope nothing bad happens from having my files all accessed/stolen.  

Has anybody else ever wondered if the level five technicians are creating some of these viruses, LOL?

It appears that all, or at least most, of the providers recieved the phishing email yesterday.  I dont download attachments unless I'm expecting/trust it, so just deleted the email.  

Did you download the attachment?

Bareback is not a good idea.

Bullshit aside, whichever technician you talked to is full of shit. There is no such thing as Level Five Trojan. I am in the Security business and I pretty much keep up with what is going on in the dark web and black hat and there is no discussion there. DHS Computer Emergency Response Team (US CERT) did not publish a warning, which they do.

The tech went online with me (doubled with me on my computer) and told me that they do not deal with level five Trojans and then he referred me to global web solutions.

He said that's why Webroot didn't cover it-new technology, it only works on Windows 8.

Honestly, I don't know how I got it but it seems to me that I remember getting an email with the PDF file and when I clicked on the file there was nothing there.  I assumed it was a potential client because that's what it looked like, like he was sending me a selfie or some kind of picture of himself or something.  I might have just opened it without even really thinking about it because I've had such good protection for years.  (The online kind, not the latex kind).

When I saw the other posts about other people getting this Trojan infection I assumed I got it the same way because I got it sometime yesterday afternoon or evening.

Sorry I don't know more but I thought it might be important to share this if somebody else has an annoying pop up like I did. It sounded to me like it could be really serious

GO somewhere else, they are BSing you.  

Your virus came from that email everyone got warned about yesterday. Never, ever click on anything that you don't know what it is and isn't from a trusted person.

From what I have gathered, the virus can wipe out all of Windows,,, then you will need it deleted and re-installed. I hope you have back ups!!!  

All a tech has to do is run a virus scan and remover, at this point. It is not that you have a 1000 viruses but rather the virus itself popping up the warnings. Now if you can't restart it and have Windows pop up, the you will have your whole computer wiped out and have to reinstall everything.

Like Anon said, there is no buzz going on about this virus in the dark hat society. Just some smuck who is targeting you gals directly. I have a guess who it is, twitterlady, but it might not be and that is unverified. As far as I know, this virus has been only sent to providers. I will keep an eye out to see if any special boards mention it, but so far nothing... and these people love gloating!

The virus is supposedly extracting information from the infected computers, but again that is unverified.

I agree that the phone rep was outright wrong on his assessments.  There is no level five trojan, and this: "He said that all of my personal information has been shared with everybody" is very unprofessional.  It is an overtly broad statement that no responsible phone rep should make (unless one is trying to fan fears and upsell services).  

There are many anti-malware forums out there that can help you out (I remember visiting MalwareTips when I was "volunteered" to help a friend with malware removal

I'm in the security business as well, and Symantec categorizes malware severity from Cat 1 to Cat 5, with Cat 1 being the least severe and Cat 5 the most severe. Webroot may use similar terminology as Symantec and the Webroot tech that Freya is using may not just be blowing smoke talking about about a level 5 trojan, although he shouldn't have made the loss of personal info statement. I agree that I haven't heard any chatter on this being a known big problem in the wild, but the fact that it's not a major panic in the open is of little comfort to those that already have it. Remember, this was first reported by Dolly of Miami Dolls who said that 2 of 3 Antivirus scanners didn't detect it, so whatever it is, it does appear to be nasty and may be new. It certainly looks like someone has decided to target the ladies of TER. Freya and others affected (infected), good luck,I hope you're able to get this straightened out. Everyone be careful.

What's a computer virus?  

 
Sorry, can't help but love my Macs

Use Linux (no, not the kid with the blanket from "Peanuts"--LinuX!).

Heck, in some ways even a Google Chromebook is a better computer security-wise than a Windows machine.  Yeah, you theoretically give up all your info to Google, but you're safe from all the malware.

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Webroot is a reputable company.  I've used them for protection on my last three computers because they were recommended by Best Buy.  Honestly, this is the first problem I've had on a computer in more than 10 years I think with Webroot protection

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...will be the day I ask the chef at my local McDonalds how to cook a steak. Roughly the same level of knowledge and qualifications regarding their respective subjects.

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Arch is too hard for me to install -- I'm remedial!

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Tour to Princeton NJ. Go to Institute for Advanced Studies. Ask for their "computer guy". Work out some trades.  

This will also work at Stanford and Cal Tech and Rice.

I have Windows 8 too, and this is how I use my computer.  Hopefully it can work for you too.  First let me start with your computer now.  I think you should go to Best Buy, Target or Wall Mart to get a few USBs, and then just copy and paste all your important files into the USBs, and once you are 100% sure you have all important files backed up, you just format the entire system with your Windows 8 CD.  99.8% of time all virus are gone after format.  And later on if you want to put the files in USB back in your computer, have your virus scan program check it first.  Or better yet, just go buy a cheap laptop(with acceptable capacity) that's on sales at BestBuy and put the files on USB back onto that one (after virus scan the files first), so this way your now formatted computer stays 100% not virus infected.  

I use my computer from "local accounts" instead of administer accounts.  This way it makes it more difficult for virus just get silently installed onto your computer because every time if something is going to get installed, it will always always ask you to enter your password before proceeding, and that's when you really hit your brake and think, "do I go ahead with this"?  I say 95% of time the answer will be no.  The only downside with using the computer this way is often you get scared and refuse when the computer is asking you do you want to installed this update which is a legit program for example like Adobe Reader, so some of the programs on your computer will not be razor sharp updated.  But it's ok, just learn a little bit about your computer and know what you need with your programs, and whenever you really need that certain program, just carefully go to the proper place online and download and update it.

The way to make a local account is to go to control panel, User Accounts and Family Safety, and I think if you are in administrator account, you can create administrator/local accounts, and "create a password" that you always use so no forget after creating the account.  Need to create a password so every time if something is going to get installed onto your computer you will be asked to type your password instead of just two clicks on ok button which often you will just click ok by mistake.

I always create back up files as I have new important documents, so if all this security measures still fails me or if I make a mistake myself, I just immediately format and get a new clean system again.

It also sounds like that "fix" is at least questionable.

Educate yourself by reading up about the virus on your computer, you will probably find you could have fixed it yourself.

It sounds like many people think  they've got superior antivirus software because they haven't had any computer viruses which is exactly what I thought for more than 10 years. Webroot has been around and has been considered reliable protection for a long time. This was a new Trojan and if it got passed my Webroot it might well have gotten past the other antivirus programs mentioned here.

I could probably learn to fix it myself but here's to hoping that I won't have to do this again for another 10 years and it was well worth my $250 to not have to be without my computer for a couple of days or to spend five hours trying to fix it myself.

I am almost positive I got this by clicking on the email that was mentioned several posts below. I remember seeing that email.  I opened the file and there was nothing there.  I tried to go back and find it but I cant.  I must have accidentally deleted it.  

That's why I wanted to add an update so if anybody else did open the pdf file associated with that email, I wanted them to know that this Trojan was very problematic and capable of getting by sophisticated antivirus protection and would probably require professional help to get it removed. I mean, if they are a regular computer user like me without the skills or the desire to learn the necessary skills to do it myself.

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Never use a computer Service in my life I went to a local Cc and got a 2 year ass degree.