John,

> While writing this, I have received information that Litmus.exe IS, in
> fact, a trojan that makes the system accessible by ICQ. I have not and
> will not install ICQ.

The Symantec notice posted in this list indicates it USES irc, but says
nothing about method of transport to your system.  Not ICQ, installations,
email attachments, nothing.  And ICQ is not the same as irc -- similar
functionality in some ways, but not the same.

> But here's the bottom line. At some point the beonex's install files
> have been compromised and I have been infected with a trojan that came
> with the beonex install.

If you're right, then there are many of us who were not targeted as you
were.  Does anyone at Beonex or Mozilla know you & like you so well as to
add a John Sesson specific trojan install to the package?  I doubt it.  So,
what do you do in the way of emailing, browsing, irc, chat, etc.?  There are
too many on this list who didn't pick it up for you to be right as to the
source.  For instance, where & when did you DL ZA?  There was a known trojan
version of the installer -- I forget where, but not on ZoneLabs' site.  And,
although many AV suites include some trojan definitions, what do you use
besides that to capture trojans?  Because it's also possible that the trojan
came in long before and had a timed activation.

I can understand your anger and your frustration.  But, from all the other
posts, it's misdirected.  You can certainly choose whatever browser you
want.  I don't have a problem with that.  I use the things I use because
they work & they work MY way.  But, once you've calmed down, you do need to
do several things.  1) Find out how Litmus REALLY got into your system so
that you can prevent a recurrance of such things.  2) Get a good trojan
detection program/suite such as BOClean, TDS3 or Tauscan to protect yourself
in the future. And, 3) enjoy life.

Bill Kraski


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