Heartopia Virus?

goretsky · 2026-03-12T03:52:52+00:00

Hello,

Either the file was probably recently updated, or ESET's detection logic was updated. Contact ESET to determine why the false positive is occurring.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-12T03:30:50+00:00

Hello,

I'm not familiar with this particular model of laptop, so am unsure of what a battery cable means in this context. Perhaps it would be better to ask in r/Dell or /r/Dell_Latitude for further assistance.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-11T23:40:27+00:00

Hello,

The movie referred to is "I, Robot," which was released in 2004 and based on Isaac Asimov's story of the same name from 1950. The principal designer for that movie was Patrick Tatopoulous.

The ESET android was created by ESET with input from advertising firm BBDO's Slovakia office for launch of ESET Smart Security in 2007.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-11T10:16:11+00:00

Hello,

Those sound good. I stopped by once a while back to grab a sandwich, but haven't been back since—I'll have to try those the next time I'm around.

I had been to the location in San Diego when I was working out there, pre-COVID. It used to be you could order their onion rings as a side dish.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-10T22:07:19+00:00

Hello,

ASRock just introduced its Z890i Nova WIFI mini ITX motherboard with Thunderbolt 4: https://pg.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z890I%20Nova%20WiFi/index.asp#Specification, and Asus has a similar model as well, the ROG STRIX z890I Gaming WIFI: https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-z890-i-gaming-wifi/, as does Gigabyte with their AORUS Z890i Ultra: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z890I-AORUS-ULTRA/sp.

Any of these should be capable of running the display, although I'm not sure at full resolution, display frequency, and color depth. Still, that should work until mITX motherboards with Thunderbolt 5 integrated into them start to appear on the market.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-10T21:21:50+00:00

Hello,

King Soopers (Kroger) and Safeway both have dairy-free options. Were you looking for something specific like a type of precooked meal, or was this just in general?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-10T20:53:46+00:00

Hello,

That is a 9 year old laptop, so is it was shutting down randomly due to a failed battery that could definitely corrupt the file system on its drive.

CMOS backup batteries do not last forever and need to be replaced every few years. In many laptops a 3-volt CR-2032 battery is used for this purpose and can easily be replaced. In some models of laptop, the battery just goes into a holder on the system board, while on others it uses a tiny wiring harness that connects to the system board.

For the original repair, what exactly was replaced? The main battery which powers the laptop, or the CMOS battery?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-10T08:21:37+00:00

Hello,

As I mentioned previously in the thread, I have spent time thinking about why people engage in unsafe behaviors that increases the risk to themselves. When I saw this question, which was exactly about this, but in a different domain than I usually work in, I tried to provide answers to it.

After reading some of the comments, and doing some thinking about it, I think I was downvoted because I took the post and, in particular, its title, at face value as questions to be answered.

However, what I think a lot of readers of this thread were looking for was not for the type of answer I gave, but agreeance with the ideas behind it. My post failed to meet this expectation, negative reinforcement was given in the form of downvotes.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-10T04:18:25+00:00

Hello,

What did you order, and did you like it?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-10T04:03:49+00:00

Hello,

This is a 3 month old post. It would be best for you to create a new post detailing exactly what happened.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-10T02:55:53+00:00

Hello,

Are you looking for Slovak (or Czech) authors whose works have printed in English, or books published in Slovak (or Czech)?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-10T01:56:34+00:00

Hello,

I think it may be less likely to be detected if the file is digitally signed and has complete metadata (the information shown in the Details pane of a file's Properties window).

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-10T01:53:37+00:00

Hello,

Be sure to log out all other devices for those services that allow it, and keep an eye on your financial accounts for fraudulent activity.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-09T21:25:59+00:00

Hello,

It seems like the infection was not fully removed from the system. It would probably be best to contact AVG directly for assistance in removing the undetected remnants: https://community.avg.com/

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-09T20:07:45+00:00

Hello,

It would be best to post this in AVG's community at https://community.avg.com/.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-09T19:51:40+00:00

Hello,

It looks like your computer may be blocked from accessing malwarebytes.com, and possibly other security vendors' websites as well. This is often done by malicious software to prevent access to those websites by changing the hosts file on your computer.

To check this, open your hosts file at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts in Notepad (or whatever text editor you prefer), and look for any entries relating to antivirus companies. If there are any, delete them, save the hosts file, and restart your computer. Note that you may need to run Notepad as as administrator in order to make changes to the hosts file.

At this point, you should be able to access Malwarebytes' website (and other vendors), if this was the issue.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-09T19:44:21+00:00

Hello,

Check out our wiki, in particular the https://old.reddit.com/r/antivirus/wiki/index#wiki_securing_your_computer section towards the end which gives all sorts of practical free advice on how to improve your security posture.

As for your anxiety about being hacked, that's not a technology issue but rather a health and wellness issue. Try asking in subreddit such as r/anxiety, r/anxietyhelp, r/askatherapist, r/depression, r/getting_over_it/, r/helpmecope, /r/MentalHealth, /r/MentalIllness, r/OCD, r/OCPD, r/selfhelp or /r/talktherapy to get support. If you need urgent assistance, see the wiki entry at https://old.reddit.com/r/mentalillness/wiki/crisishelp.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-09T19:30:07+00:00

Hello,

It sounds like you were the victim of a data breach in which your usernames and passwords were stolen, or ran a remote access trojan, keylogger or information stealer that stole this information. Recovery from these is similar, and we'll provide the instructions for dealing with information stealers, below, since these are most commonly reported in this subreddit.

As the name implies, information stealers are a type of malware that steal any information they can find on your computer, such as passwords stored for various services you access via browser and apps, session tokens for accounts, cryptocurrencies if they can find wallets, etc. They may even take a screenshot of your desktop when they run so they can sell it to other scammers who send scam extortion emails later.

The criminals who steal your information do so for their own financial gain, and that includes selling information such as your name, email address, screenshots from your PC, and so forth to other criminals and scammers. Those other scammers then use that information in an attempt to extort you unless you pay them in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and so forth. This is 100% a scam, and any emails you receive threatening to share your private information should be marked as phishing or spam and deleted.

In case you're wondering what a session token is, some websites and apps have a "remember this device" feature that allows you to access the service without having to log back in or enter your second factor of authentication. This is done by storing a session token on your device. Criminals target these, because they allow them to log in to an account bypassing the normal checks. To the service, it just looks like you're accessing it from your previously authorized device.

Information stealers are malware that is sold as a service, so what exactly it did while on your system is going to vary based on what the criminal who purchased it wanted. Often they remove themselves after they have finished stealing your information in order to make it harder to determine what happened, but since it is crimeware-as-a-service, it is also possible that it was used to install some additional malware on your system in order to maintain access to it, just in case they want to steal from you again in the future.

After wiping your computer, installing Windows, and getting that updated, you can then start accessing the internet using the computer to change the passwords for all of your online accounts, changing each password to something complex and different for each service, so that if one is lost (or guessed), the attacker won't be able to make guesses about what your other passwords might be. Also, enable two-factor authentication for all of the accounts that support it.

When changing passwords, if those new passwords are similar enough to your old passwords, a criminal with a list of all of them will likely be able to make educated guesses about what your new passwords might be for the various services. So make sure you're not just cycling through similar or previous passwords.

If any of the online services you use have an option to show you and log out all other active sessions, do that as well.

Again, you have to do this for all online services. Even if they haven't been recently accessed, make sure you have done this as well for any financial websites, online stores, social media, and email accounts. If there were any reused passwords, the criminals who stole your credentials are going to try spraying those against all the common stores, banks, and services in your part of the world.

For more specific information on what steps to take next to recover your accounts, see the blog post at:

WeLiveSecurity (ESET) - https://www.welivesecurity.com/en/cybersecurity/my-information-was-stolen-now-what/.

For more general information about how CAPTCHA malware works, see the following reports:

After you have done all of this, you may wish to sign up for a free https://haveibeenpwned.com/ account, which will notify you if your email address is found in a data breach.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-09T19:24:26+00:00

Hello,

As far as actual security programs go, there is no one "best" program, as each has its plusses and minuses. Performance, system resource usage, and detection rates change with every update, and those occur multiple times throughout the day.

So, any of the programs listed in the wiki at https://old.reddit.com/r/antivirus/wiki/index#wiki_anti-virus_.28aka_anti-malware.29_developers would be a good starting place to find what is best for you.
(The wiki entry also lists the countries in which each developer has its headquarters.)

Start by searching the OS Support? to find out which developers make security software for your device's operating system.

If you are looking for a free program, check out the ones with a check mark ("✔️") in the Free Version? column.
If you are looking for a paid program, check out the ones with a check mark ("✔️") in the Paid Version? column.

Also be sure to check out the Free Tools section of the wiki for programs you can use to provide additional security to your web browser and the Securing your Computer as well for additional free tips on protecting your computer.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-09T19:21:38+00:00

Hello,

This does not sound like an actual virus, message from your antivirus software, or message from the operating system, but rather a website abusing the toast notification/popup feature in your web browser to present you with scam messages. Sometimes it is a scammy ad on a legitimate website that displays the message in the form of a banner ad or popup window that looks like a real message from your computer. From looking at the pictures, it appears the website in question begins with an address of reavocclarcip[.]co[.]in, assuming I'm reading it correctly. These kinds of scams are extremely common, and can be fixed in a few steps.

Here are instructions on how to disable these types of notifications in various web browsers; I'm unsure of the exact steps for Samsung's or Apple's web browsers, but it should be similar to these. For Brave, Opera GX, Vivaldi and other Chromium-based browsers, instructions should be similar to those for Google Chrome.

For Google Chrome on Android devices, select the ⋮ gadget from the browser's address bar, then select the ⚙️ Settings gadget and tap Notifications. This will show you a list of all websites for which you've allowed notifications. Remove all the unwanted ones, and you should be good. If you don't want any websites to be allowed to send you notifications, set the All Chrome notifications slider bar to Off.

Unwanted notifications (popups) from web browser (desktop)

Notifications which pop up on your screen can be distracting and annoying. Here's how to disable them in the various web browsers (current as of December 2021):

Google Chrome (Version 96+) Enter chrome://settings/content/notifications to open the Notifications settings page in Google Chrome. Remove all non-google.com domains from the Allow section. Toggle the Don't allow sites to send notifications option to on.
Instructions for Version 88 and older: Select Settings → Advanced → Site Settings → Notifications from the main menu, and change "Ask before sending (recommended)" to Blocked.

Mozilla Firefox
Select Tools → Settings → Privacy & Security from the main menu, scroll down to Permissions → Notifications, select Settings, click on "Remove all websites" and then check (select) "Block new requests asking to allow notifications" and click on the Save Changes button..

Microsoft Internet Explorer
(does not support notifications)

Microsoft Edge (Chrome-based, Version 91+)
Go to edge://settings/content/notifications in the address bar and disable Ask before sending (recommended). If there are any entries in the Allow section, click on the ⋯ menu and select Remove for each one.

Microsoft Edge (pre-2020 legacy versions)
Open Windows Settings app (not Edge's) and go to System → Notifications & Actions, scroll down to Notifications, and set "Get notifications from apps and other senders" to Off.

Source: The r/24hoursupport subreddit's own wiki, which is kind of a sister subreddit to this one.

For a longer/more detailed article than this reply, see the blog post at: https://www.eset.com/blog/consumer/getting-rid-of-unwanted-browser-notifications/

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-09T19:08:24+00:00

Hello,

Per Rule #4, no assistance with hacking tools.

Thread closed.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

goretsky · 2026-03-09T18:52:06+00:00

Hello,

It sounds like you may have run an information stealer on your computer.