I think I have opened the sobig.f virus in my hotmail account and it keeps seding emails to my contacts. How do I stop it, and will it effect any of my other transactions like internet banking/shopping, is it safe?

Question

I think I have opened the sobig.f virus in my hotmail account and it keeps seding emails to my contacts. How do I stop it, and will it effect any of my other transactions like internet banking/shopping, is it safe To continue using my ipad ?

Answer 1

This isn't due to malware. There is no known malware capable of infecting an iPad that has not been jailbroken (ie, hacked to allow apps from outside the App Store).
As lizdance40 says, your Hotmail account has been hacked remotely. Change the password immediately. Hotmail accounts are popular targets, but as long as you choose a good password, and make sure that password is not the same as a password you use with any other account, you should be safe.
I disagree with lizdance40's statement that you have to abandon the account and create a new e-mail address. If a hacker is able to get back in even after changing the password, the problem is not with the account itself. There's another vulnerability of some kind somewhere. Perhaps the account allows hackers to leave a "back door" to get back in (such as with GMail's delegation feature), in which case any such feature needs to be reviewed and have settings changed. Perhaps you are checking mail in an insecure manner while on an insecure network (ie, a wireless network that requires no password). Perhaps you are using a password on multiple accounts, and a different account has been compromised. Perhaps a hacker has used knowledge gained by prior access to your account to achieve "social hacking" (ie, convincing a tech to give him access because he has "forgotten the password"). There are many scenarios, but there's no good reason to abandon the account entirely.