Is it possible to be safe off line?

I am posting in behalf of a colleague who has lost seven computers to a bootkit virus: even knowing the nature of the virus and that she was being stalked, and working with technicians to be absolutely safe, the last two new computers were hacked within a day of purchase. She was advised by the police and antivirus experts: to change her name, phone number, banking, credit cards, etc., and that she will never be able to go online again. She can live with that--she has been without a computer for 2 years now--but:

Recently she was also advised that unless she physically removes both the lan and wifi cards from any new computer, she will be hacked and infected again: offline. She was also advised that removal of the lan card could cause a computer to malfunction, so that this would have to be done--if possible--by the manufacturer.

Is it possible to be fully safe off line? If so, how?

(She was never without updated antivirus, anti-malware, and firewall. No one was able to figure out exactly the source the infection--she used new hardware, her own Windows XP Pro disc from Microsoft, no external drives, cd's or dvd's from before, etc. The last computer was Windows 7, with the OS installed, it lasted until the next day. Starting with computer number 3, she worked with MajorGeeks to eleminate the bootkit, but nothing succeeded.)

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

There is no way an Ethernet connection LAN card can be hacked unless it is connected to a router or broadband modem - as such, there is no need to remove it unless a child or other user in the house might accidentally connect it. You can also go into CONTROL PANEL > DEVICE MANAGER and disable both the Ethernet port and any built-in Wi-Fi card.

She should also scan all external storage devices (USB, SDHC, external HDD) with Malware Bytes or another quality virus/malware removal program - in some cases, viruses/malware can hide on external devices and infect any device they are connected to.

For more info. on how to scan and clean external storage devices, I would search the malware removal forum.

Hope this helps.

 

Thank you! That is exactly what I thought; however, the cyber crimes police in Australia, where she lives, advised her: no lan card, no wifi card.

Again, thank you.