Recent Malware Problems Have Kept Me From Posting
September 2nd 2009 19:23
Haven't Forgotten You!
Just wanted to let my readers know that I haven't forgotten my blog--or you! Lately, I've been kept quite busy battling a wicked PC Antispyware 2010 infection, contracted on August 8th; and though I managed to rid myself of the active infection about a week later, many problems lingered, including an inaccessible Windows Security Center (a problem I finally managed to correct just the other day, to my immense relief).
As you can imagine, I've spent a huge amount of time simply researching this malware online to learn all I can about its characteristics and how to correct the multitude of problems it creates on a PC--not to mention experimenting with and implementing various fixes--and it's been a fascinating, albeit often-frustrating education!
What Is PC Antispyware 2010?
PC Antispyware 2010 is a rogue antispyware program that causes alarming pop-ups to appear on your desktop (and even in front of web pages you visit) warning you of threats it has supposedly found on your PC and urging you to visit its website and register its "antispyware program," which you of course must pay for. The program claims to be scanning your computer, and to "prove" it, displays a status bar which shows the progress of the so-called scan. It's quite an alarming occurrence to see these windows continually popping up when you least expect them.
Characteristics of This Malware
PC Antispyware 2010 infiltrates so many different parts of your PC that it's extremely difficult to remove fully. It disables your antivirus and antispyware programs so they can't detect and remove it (or partly disables them so they appear to be doing something when in fact they are ineffective at removing the main infection). It can also prevent other anti-malware programs from being downloaded and/or run or disable access to their help files, which makes it difficult to replace your non-functioning programs to fight the malware infection.
It continually regenerates itself when you delete its files and places its main program into your PC's Startup menu so that every time you boot up, the malicious program reloads. PC Antispyware 2010 is caused by the Braviax virus (also called cru629) and is downloaded via several Trojans/Trojan downloaders. It also places rootkits (collections of hidden files that enable the program to do its dirty deeds) in various places on your PC, making it difficult to track down and fully remove this cyber menace.
Tips for Avoiding the Infection
This program is so persistent and so insidious that, once contracted, you have a real fight on your hands. So, please make every effort to avoid it! Be very careful what you download from the Internet, being sure it's from a trusted source. And never allow a Java (or other) program update to proceed when the update window suddenly pops up while you're surfing the Internet! (I've read that this is the way--or perhaps one way--PC Antispyware 2010 is downloaded, and I can easily believe this because I allowed a Java update while online at about the same time I contracted the infection.)
Be sure your Windows Firewall is turned on and your antivirus and antispyware programs are up-to-date--and use them to do periodic full scans of your PC fairly regularly, as well as regular quick scans--and be sure to run boot-time scans periodically as well, because PC Antispyware 2010 regenerates itself during bootup, and, of course, scans performed after bootup are ineffective at removing it from your boot menu.
More Info About PC Antispyware 2010 from K and Me at ShanKrila
For further information about PC Antispyware 2010, its symptoms, tips for its removal, and information specific to my experiences with it, visit my blogging buddy K-IntheHouse's post at ShanKrila, How to Remove PC AntiSpyware 2010? In this post, K--whose tagline for ShanKrila is "a blog where technology meets daily life"--answers my question about how to remove the malware, providing links to many helpful tools and resources.
I've also provided a great deal of information about my own experiences with the infection, as well as my discoveries, techniques, and triumphs in removing it, which you'll find in the Comments section of K's post. If you have contracted this infection, you may find some of this information helpful in resolving the multitude of issues you'll face in fully eradicating it. It's an ongoing process, and each time I discover something new about the malware or overcome another issue related to it, I update the info in a new comment at ShanKrila, with the object of helping others who may be struggling with this devious program (or who may simply want to learn more about it).
So, check out K's post and my associated comments, and arm yourself against PC Antispyware 2010!
To your PC's health!
Jeanne
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