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WARNING!!!

by Italics · 1/26/2010

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I
Italics
I'm posting this here where most of you will see it...



Anyone familiar with the virus "Internet security 2010?"



If you don't believe me, google it... it's been a HUGE problem for tons of people on the internet lately.



In short, it's a virus that gives you fake prompts telling you your computer is infected... it does all of this so you will purchase it's software. Lots of nasty trojans block off your task manager and other basic applications to keep you from getting rid of it.



Well, I just visited mwcboard.com (the direct link, as opposed to jumping straight to the forums, as I usually do) on my wife's computer, and I instantaneous had this piece of crap virus installed onto my computer (is also appears on your desktop, which is mightily annoying).



Again, just google "internet secruity 2010 virus" and you will immediately see pages after pages about it... it really can do some potentially fatal damage to your computer.

Anyway, I am not accusing mwcboard of purposely having hidden malware on it... this sort of malware crap can appear just about anywhere.

Just thought I'd warn all of you ahead of time to not go directly to the actual website. I suppose it could have come from somewhere else, but she visits the same old websites every day (facebook, google, wikipedia, facebook) and rarely goes elsewhere, and so it's no coincidence to me that her computer got this crap as soon as I visited a different website.
M
Mars


I got it mysteriously sometime last week. My laptop is still messed to hell. Won't open the task manager when I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL. Won't shut down without holding the power button. Won't close programs that freeze. Randomly quits Mozilla Firefox. Etc, etc, etc. I need to spend some $$$ sometime soon to get it fixed professionally.
I
Italics
Mars wrote:


I got it mysteriously sometime last week. My laptop is still messed to hell. Won't open the task manager when I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL. Won't shut down without holding the power button. Won't close programs that freeze. Randomly quits Mozilla Firefox. Etc, etc, etc. I need to spend some $$$ sometime soon to get it fixed professionally.


downloading, running, and doing a quick scan with malwarebytes supposedly is the best solution for this... i'm running it on the wife's laptop, but the scan is going horribly slow.



I'm just going to abort it in the middle of the scan and remove what it's found so far... hope it helps.



But that makes me even more suspicious of mwcboard.com now that you have it as well. Somebody ought to notify the mods (i already posted this there just to warn people)
I
Italics
EDIT - Mars, you DEFINITELY need to download malwarebytes (free version) and run the quick scan. Make sure you click the "automatically update" box during the setup. It took awhile, but finally the scan finished. Removed all the malicious files it found (had to restart computer). Everything is absolutely fine now.



This software works great... don't waste money having someone else do this for you.
M
Mars
Italics wrote:
downloading, running, and doing a quick scan with malwarebytes supposedly is the best solution for this... i'm running it on the wife's laptop, but the scan is going horribly slow.

This is what Google said to do as well. I did it, and it helped some, but it didn't find/fix everything.
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Italics
Mars wrote:
downloading, running, and doing a quick scan with malwarebytes supposedly is the best solution for this... i'm running it on the wife's laptop, but the scan is going horribly slow.

This is what Google said to do as well. I did it, and it helped some, but it didn't find/fix everything.


I'd recommend scanning again.



You can also try running a program called rkill... it will stop all the processes of the virus (which should help you to do think like open your task manager)



Or you could system restore...



BYU-I has a free computer help desk, and the guys there are actually really good. Maybe Provo has one as well?
G
Guest
I also recommend that everyone post only here and not at MWCboards!
U
Ungoy
My mother-in-law was infected with this virus as well. Unfortunately, I'm the only person my mother-in-law knows who knows computers, and so it fell on me to remove it. I highly recommend malwarebytes as Italics pointed out. Also I found that things went more smoothly if I rebooted first, and then launched task manager as soon as the desktop loads, before the trojans start running, then I start killing processes that are unfamiliar before they can take over the computer. Doing this allowed me to remain in full control of the computer while running the virus scan, and helped to make things run more smoothly, not to mention it kept the annoying popups from showing up. Be advised though, my mother-in-law is using an antiquated Pentium 3 933Mhz, so I had more time to launch task manager before the other processes started to take over. Once I cleaned her computer, she still complained that her PC is so slow. Everything is slow. She doesn't believe me when I tell her that her computer is out of date and that her hardware is slowing her down. She's under the impression that her computer is worth as much now as when she bought it. Maybe I should tell her that I have a Pentium 3 CPU that has been converted into a refrigerator magnet. :)
J
JamieVallen
Dang it's good to have a Mac... just kidding but I'm guessing I can't get it with mac or can I?
S
scott715
I had it a week ago. I could not fix it so I turned it over to the professionals. I wish this post was here then. I would have tried that program.



I just got a Nigerian Scam email. Can I send him the virus? I don't know how. Anyways why does the government not shut this virus down? they should be able to trace where the blackmail payment goes to?
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G
Gunk
In the mean time, DO NOT buy anything online, check your bank account or log in to any email accounts where personal information is stored. Odds are there is a key logging or screen capturing virus embedded with the virus sending information back to the mother ship.



In addition to running a scan, get yourself a firewall that filters both inbound and outbound traffic. Odds are the Trojan has also compromised your computer so it's now part of a botnet. An outbound firewall will stop, or should stop the hacker from using your machine to spit out spam. Typically computers experience a sudden decline in performance once hit by a virus/trojan because the hacker is using their computer as a spam machine.



If you want to be absolutely sure your machine is no longer infected, save all your important files to a USB drive or external hard drive, wipe your computer clean and reinstall the OS. It will take you a few hours and you'll have to reinstall all your applications, but your machine will be clean. It's also something you can do yourself. If you take it to a professional place they'll likely just do the same thing. They'll migrate all your files and applications to a server, wipe your computer clean, migrate everything back and charge you an arm and a leg.



I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to this, but the going rate for someone's ID on the black market is about $15. Only way a hacker could sell them that cheap is if they were getting a lot of them.



Another option for scanning your machine is to go to one of the big anti virus vendors (Symantec, McAfee, ZoneAlarm) and install a 15 day trial period of their product. You can then scan all you want, get your machine clean and not purchase the product after the trial. IMO, though, $50 on a security suite is worth it.
C
CougarPeasant
All good suggestions. Another is to run your antispyware and antivirus in SAFE MODE, but only after you've installed the most recent updates. While in safe mode, no viruses are supposed to load nor can they hide themselves. Ive done this enough times when I think I've gotten something and sure enough, safe mode is a great way to go without having to reinstall.



It's also helpful to reinstall Windows about 1-2 times each year just to keep it stable.



Good luck
K
kiwibacon
CougarPeasant wrote:
All good suggestions. Another is to run your antispyware and antivirus in SAFE MODE, but only after you've installed the most recent updates. While in safe mode, no viruses are supposed to load nor can they hide themselves. Ive done this enough times when I think I've gotten something and sure enough, safe mode is a great way to go without having to reinstall.



It's also helpful to reinstall Windows about 1-2 times each year just to keep it stable.



Good luck

Some of the nasty ones will actually not allow you to boot in safe mode.
M
Mars
Italics wrote:
Anyone familiar with the virus "Internet security 2010?" ...Well, I just visited mwcboard.com (the direct link, as opposed to jumping straight to the forums, as I usually do) on my wife's computer, and I instantaneous had this piece of crap virus installed onto my computer (is also appears on your desktop, which is mightily annoying).

Just wondering how you know you got it from MWCboard.com ?
K
kiwibacon
hawkwing wrote:
I also recommend that everyone post only here and not at MWCboards!

Agreed...Italics, stop posting at MWCboard...your computer will thank you...
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M
Mars


So the Geek Squad wants $200 to fix my computer. Sounds like highway robbery to me. Should I just wipe my drive and re-install Windows? And what information should I save to an external hard drive if this is the case?
S
snoscythe
Mars wrote:


So the Geek Squad wants $200 to fix my computer. Sounds like highway robbery to me. Should I just wipe my drive and re-install Windows? And what information should I save to an external hard drive if this is the case?


Are you in Utah County? If so, try calling Steve at Integrated Technologies:



http://www.itiservice.com/



We finally outsourced all of our IT stuff to Steve a couple years ago. Sharp guy, reasonable rates, and turns work around pretty fast. Plus, I've always been partial to local guys who have their wife as the receptionist.
C
CougarPeasant
kiwibacon wrote:
All good suggestions. Another is to run your antispyware and antivirus in SAFE MODE, but only after you've installed the most recent updates. While in safe mode, no viruses are supposed to load nor can they hide themselves. Ive done this enough times when I think I've gotten something and sure enough, safe mode is a great way to go without having to reinstall.



It's also helpful to reinstall Windows about 1-2 times each year just to keep it stable.



Good luck

Some of the nasty ones will actually not allow you to boot in safe mode.


It helps to have a boot disc then. ALso, one can run their anti-virus as a boot disc too. Norton allows that.
C
CAFB_04-12
I've heard that some viruses can survive a hard drive reformat by stuffing themselves in a corner while the thing thinks it's erasing itself, then relaunches after the re-boot. Is that true? That's some H1N1 right there.
Q
Qman
CAFB_04-12 wrote:
I've heard that some viruses can survive a hard drive reformat by stuffing themselves in a corner while the thing thinks it's erasing itself, then relaunches after the re-boot. Is that true? That's some H1N1 right there.




Possible in theory but incredibly difficult in execution. To fix this just reformat your hard drive before reinstalling.



Another possible solution would be use a linux boot cd to move your files; scan them and then reinstall the operation system of your choice.



For MAC users viruses are coming your way with a larger share of users.
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