Beware Antivira AV!

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Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 4:48 pm

This is like a software version of the 'Windows Service Centre' calls - basically holding your PC to ransom until you pay for the 'fix'.

I'm typing on my laptop right now, my desktop is busy being defucked after a nasty bout of malware took it over. It started with an exploit warning from Avast, which while telling me was otherwise useless to stop or remove it, then all sorts of warnings 'from Windows' telling me of exploits and attacks (The poor grammar told me it wasn't).

Quote:

Windows security alert
Windows reports that computer is infected. Antivirus software helps to protect your computer against viruses and other security threats. Click here for the scan your computer. Your system might be at risk now.

It then blocked the internet, and any program I used to try and remove it. An Avast scan was negative. All the time I got popup warning hell, even when I disconnected from the router.

I got back in with safe mode and did a system restore to yesterday, currently I'm downloading Malwarebytes.

Article here:
http://www.pcthreat.com/parasitebyid-16911en.html

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 5:04 pm

AVG has a recovery tool at its site. You could d/l it on your laptop, put it on a CD, then put the CD in your desktop and boot from that CD. It will supposedly clear up such problems. Don't forget that malware can often hide in your restore points. Malwarbytes is probably the best option though. Good luck. I know how frustrating that can be.

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 5:11 pm

Had that happen a while back. It was a royal PITA. The program reset my internet settings to route through a proxy, changed my computer settings which denied access to my AV programs and MWB, and a whole assortment of other crap.

IIRC, Windows Defender did the trick.

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 5:17 pm

Back on the PC, Malwarebytes found and removed 3 nasties, I also ran Ccleaner and Regsoft registry repair for good measure.

Fingers crossed all is well now. I dread to think what would've happened if Id clicked all those 'Click here for the scan your computer' messages.

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 5:39 pm

Happened to me last year too. Somewhere there's a thread here in GC about my travails. Ultimately I took the same approach you did -- malwarebytes in safe mode. Did a perfect job of cleaning things up. Thumbs up

Now I have that running full-time in the background, and I also downloaded no-script as a Firefox add-on. It can be a nuisance to have to grant permission for sites to load scripts but at least I have control.

Those are nasty viruses and the worst is that if some poor sucker actually pays for their "software" all that happens is they get a key to turn it off. But the virus is still on the system and can be remotely turned on again at any time. Not to mention they have your CC info. Evil or Very Mad

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

There are a few variations of this scare ware. My husband had one called Anti Virus Soft. He also removed it with Malwarebytes. There was a program called rkill to run first to stop the virus, because as Jose mentions, it changes your settings to prevent you from removing it.

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:14 pm

Spent two hours with one of those lovelies. Managed a fix by restoring back two weeks, but now i see in this thread mention of it hiding in restore points. I think its time to check out this malwarebytes you all are talking about.

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:48 pm

Same thing happened at work (15 PC's)

Had to reinstall the OS on 4 of the PC's before I got rid of it.
Twisted Evil

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 8:26 pm

They're clever, these viruses in that they seem to avoid being caught by any genuine AV software. Bit like the blaster worm in a way.

However they are the esence of simplicity to remove - boot to safe mode and go looking in amongst the user folders (in the application data folders; 1 or two to a user name) for a weirdly named folder - random letters. Delete it and you are fixed.

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 8:26 pm

I don't miss Windows one bit. I once watched Zone Alarm for about five minutes log all the external attempts at finding an open port on my machine when I did use that OS. It showed the firewall was blocking a hit about once every ten-fifteen seconds. Shocked

insults and more · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 8:38 pm

Go to http://www.knoppix.net/ and download an ISO, burn it to a CD or thumb drive.

In case your computer gets messed up, you'll be able to boot into a very minimal linux, mount your hard-drive, and salvage data and/or scan things.

This comes enormously in handy if you've got to very quickly get your stuff off the drive for a wipe. From within Knoppix you'll be able to get online, find and download antiviruses and data recovery programs from the repos, and transfer everything that needs to be saved.

It's a life-saver if your computer has crashed the day before a project is due, and you don't want to spend $300 for someone to spend a few hours drinking whiskey before spending the five minutes doing exactly what you'll be doing on Knoppix.

Note: Knoppix can mount Windows, other *nix, and Mac partitions.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^^^Amen!

Also check out Linux Mint. That's what I have been running for some time. I visit some nasty (non-porn) sites and have never been compromised.

It's free, and you can dual boot it with Windows. Or run it as a live cd and test it out, it will make no changes to your current setup.

Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 12:56 am

Thankfully I'm on a Mac and I do multiple backups during the week. I figure the most I'll ever lose is a day if something should happen.

My younger sister is on a PC and got some nasty virus and lost a lot of her stuff. No backup.

Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 2:19 am

I used to be lazy but ever since my scare ware attack I'm fanatic about backing up data files. I make nightly backups of all my main files, and weekly clones of my entire hard drive on an external hard drive that I store in another room of the house. It would be a bitch if my computer crashed, but I would be able to recreate my existing data and settings.

Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 4:27 am

Another reporting to the club Sad

. I did the malwarebytes fix as well. Luckily I had my hand dandy iphone to google how to fix it. Unfortunantly it came back in a matter of weeks guessing registry issue but I'm not a computer nerd like some of y'all so that may not be right. I ended up just reloading the OS. Now I just back everything up on my external drive. Even though you can fix it this is stil a huge PITA!

Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 5:28 pm

http://www.sandboxie.com/

Browsing the interwebs in a sandbox environment, I love it.

Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 5:39 pm

I'm on Linux Mint too Wink

But I don't visit porn sites, just a lot of bad websites Wink

one tip for the Windows users: try Trend Micro's Housecall ,, It's online & free ;-)sorry to advertise them, but I am/was a member of their PUG program, Power User Group - program Wink

I got 1 package with incentives coming from them in the mail tomorrow Very Happy

, have been getting it for several years, and even one year by some weird mistake somewhere in a computer who knows where, I Received a free computer, LMAO