The NeighborHood Nerd » spyware http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net Personalized Electronics Support - "If It Has An On Button, We Fix It!" Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:31:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Virus Removal Services http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/virus-removal-services/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/virus-removal-services/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:01:15 +0000 Alan http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/?p=590 We here at The Neighborhood Nerd are always looking out for new viruses and malware that can cause harm to your computers. We’d like t take a moment here and give out some free advice on how to avoid needing to call us for a virus removal at all.

Several things can be major factors in your computer’s security:

  • Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware software
    • Use of both Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware
    • Update regularly
    • Scan regularly
  • Computer Usage
    • Visiting adult or pirate websites
    • Using music download software (Limewire)
    • Play online gambling games (Party Poker)
    • Play “free” online games (Gamevance)
  • Computer’s specifications
    • Memory and Processor
    • Operating System
    • Number of installed programs

There are a number of broad categories to avoid when surfing websites. Avoiding these things will help greatly reduce you chances of getting infected.

  • Myspace: The main website is mostly clean, but any of the ads on the top or sides will have many different infections. Zwinky and the cursors and smileys specifically have some really nasty ones.
  • Party Poker: And other gambling sites like it are stuffed full of spyware
  • Pirate websites: places that support the downloading of illegal software generally don’t care about the law or what damage they do. Not many of these sites have viruses built into them, but it’s a large enough percentage to give note

Switching your browser from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome can also avoid many security vulnerabilities

]]> http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/virus-removal-services/feed/ 0 Total Security 2009 update http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/total-security-2009-update/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/total-security-2009-update/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:09:31 +0000 Alan http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/?p=298 We’ve now developed a reliable method for removing this latest version of System Security 2009. As with the last version, this particular virus requires the use of an external OS like a “bootable antivirus & recovery tool” or BART, and therefor this method is not reliable with systems that have Norton GoBack or disk encryption installed. Please fill out a service request form or call to schedule an appointment if you would like a Nerd to take care of your infection!

If you don’t already have an antispyware program to augment your security software, feel free to choose from this list of free and effective antispyware utilities.

]]> http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/total-security-2009-update/feed/ 0 New and aggressive malware http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/new-and-aggressive-malware/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/new-and-aggressive-malware/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:07:40 +0000 Alan http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/?p=252 In the last week I’ve come across two instances of a fake antispyware program based on the “System Security 2009″ series that was propagated several months ago. This new version carries the name “Total Security 2009″ and is far more aggressive. What’s more, it has been mutated to change the files it uses to implement its infection.

One of the things that makes this malware so insidious is that it will block any and every program from running, popping up with error boxes claiming every program you try to run is “infected”.

The only way to fix this kind of infection is to scan the infected HDD from another operating system, either by using a bootable antvirus & recovery tool (or BART), plugging the HDD into another computer with the right security software, or by destructive recovery (wipe the drive and re-install).

For those of you who use a drive encryption program like SecureDoc or Norton GoBack, this would be a very bad infection to contract as those types of programs inhibit the ability of any other system to read the data on that drive. Basically the only option you will have is to wipe the drive and reinstall because disinfection will be impossible.

Of the two instances I’ve come across so far, only one was successfully disinfected without destructive recovery. The other returned in full after about 3 days of incubation.

As always be mindful of what websites you visit, and dont click on popups or ads!

]]> http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/new-and-aggressive-malware/feed/ 1 Acrobat Infection Advisory http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/acrobat-infection-advisory/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://www.theneighborhoodnerd.net/acrobat-infection-advisory/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:48:56 +0000 Alan http://theneighborhoodnerd.net/?p=235 In the last couple of weeks we’ve seen a few infections pop up that were propagated via Adobe PDF files. The origin of these attacks seems to be from certain ads linked to delzzerro.cn and updatedate.cn. You will generally get a prompt to download or open a document called a PDF which is used with Adobe Acrobat Reader for a variety of purposes. This particular infection uses an exploit in this software to spring a trap on an unwary user which then allows the virus to install a fake antivirus program like the one shown in our Malware section above.

Ways to avoid infection:

  1. Keep Antivirus Software up to date
  2. If you are prompted to download an Adobe PDF document that you were not expecting, do not click “OK”
  3. Be sure to manually re-scan any PDF files with odd names like “536.pdf” or “856.pdf” or something similar

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

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