What kind of attack, malware is this?

I was just curious to what it could've been...

Recently, I was unable to access specific websites such as my yahoo email, CNN, and certain others. This went on for weeks, (until a reformat ). I know it wasn't because their servers were down or overloaded because it's a very slim chance that the same specific websites over a long period of time wouldn't be accessible.

Was this a Denial of Service attack?
Any ideas?

Jeff

 

Maybe those websites had been added to your hosts file.

 

Thanks SpikeyB!

Good to know.
I'll check that file's contents if it happens again.

Jeff

 

Malware changing the HOSTS file is a very definite possibility.. there's a lot of worms and other malware out there that are still doing this to make it hard for you to disinfect (hard to disinfect when you can't get to a website to download a disinfection tool).. in addition some of these will attempt to kill security software and other tools used in remvoing malware.

 

Hi Notok,

Yes, the HOSTS file is a popular target.
I guess I could make a backup copy of the file so that if it gets infected, just delete the infected file and reinstall the clean one in its place.

I thought my Spyware Doctor would protect the host file from infection.

Jeff

 

If you have all the "On-Guard" settings on, it should.. I suppose it's possible that it got it when it was down, though. There are other possibilities, but that's the most common one.

 

spyware blaster can be keeping backups of hostfiles, so does spybot also winpatrol and spybot can lock host files from attack, i think..

 

Oops, I don't think I had it set right , but fixed it.
Thanks Notok!

Thanks chocolate doodle. I didn't have any of those running when it happened but good info to have.

By the way, I just sent you a post to your thread, "What's the best download spot"

Thanks,
Jeff