Is there a new monster in the wild?

I have a variety of symptoms that correspond to some of those described by many of the posters here - but nothing consistent . . . changing settings in XP, Internet timeouts, intermittent browser (Firefox) hijacking, general system instability . . . crashes, hanging - the only thing that I haven't had has been the good old BSOD . . . but a black one has happened. Also the machine has shut down unexpectedly and instantly - and then not wanted to switch on again for 10 to 15 mins. (Or maybe it is 10 to 15 attempts, IYKWIM) Using a UPS, not "wall power", so there is no chance that it is the power going down spontaneously. I have entertained the idea of a problem with the PSU . . . but how to check all of this, I don't know, other than by throwing large bucks at it.

any ideas? Almost everyone I know locally to me (South Africa) is having problems that just do not conform to any specific pattern. Not sure of what is happening over the water . . .

 

:-o Yes . . . I have gathered that that is the protocol . . I was hoping for a more general reply from someone, reasons being:

a - Not my machine - belongs to my work - should I do anything that results in a loss of data (critical) or excessive downtime (also critical) I would be held responsible. No-one else here considers malware to be a factor.

b - This seems to be a phenomenon that is haunting a large amount of users known to me - and I am looking for some international feedback. We (ZA) have recently had an "upgrade" - an undersea optic cable linking us to the rest of the world, known to us as Seacom. This has been giving a problem of late, apparently it has to be "fixed" at sea off the coast of Kenya. No-one seems to have details. At the same time, the internet has been rather unstable here for a while, most of the blame is being placed on this event.

c - Our power in ZA has become unreliable, and (I suspect, but not owning an oscilloscope, cannot be sure) that it is also very dirty. This may be a contributing factor as well. Spikes do fly through UPS's.

d - There are too many "funnies" happening with very little official/informed comment being made, as far as I have noticed. I am of a mindset that sees patterns, and becomes suspicious. It would seem to me (uninformed and undereducated as I am, I have been a user since Win 3.1 first made it's appearance) that chaos seems to be reigning at this point: hence my search for a more "general" type of answer.

Without wanting to raise the "conspiracy" angle, I can't help but wonder if the (apparent) recent rash of confusing malware infections is the outworking of the Conficker-type scenario, and is an orchestrated attack launched from the Ukraine or elsewhere, or if it is all unrelated. I would really value some informed feedback. I couldn't find another place on the forums to post along these lines, and chose to so it here. I hope that it is not considered inappropriate.

 

We have no "IT Department" - just myself, my non-user boss and his relatively unsussed (technically) girlfriend.

Apart from that - the "bad situation" is one that is happening anyway - I am attempting to understand it; looking for knowledge, as it were. (The born pursuit of all geeks?) As I also pointed out, this is not something that is confined to the machine that I use at work. Perhaps I am at the wrong site entirely - if so, could you please direct me to another?

 

Sorry. Don't mean to be a timewaster.