Category: spyware

A-Squared Emergency USB Stick – Portable Antivirus Kit

Paul

IT Security warfare is an interesting domain. It is a never ending race between the security software developers and malware writers. And since the security software always act after the development of the malware, they are always behind in this race.

But this fact poses a serious threat to the security of your system as a user. If you are not careful and regularly updating your antivirus applications, you might be late, and if the malware might get a chance to get the entry to your system, it can play havoc there.

Today’s Intelligent Malware…

Today’s malware are much more intelligent than their predecessors. They not only do the damage intended by their developers, but also make it difficult for security software to identify them. They try to disable your antivirus applications, they modify your system files so that you are not able to access the security software websites and forums, they hijack your browser homepages, they disable the update procedure of your security software and use all such tricks, which make their detection difficult.

What is the Solution?

In a such a situation, you need a security tool, which remains aloof from your system and can be used as and when required. A-Squared Emergency USB Stick is one such portable tool, which can be used in such a situation.
A-Squared Emergency USB Stick is a combination of two free security tools from the reputed security vendor EMSI. These tools are…

A-squared Free:

[ad]With a-squared Free you have got the powerful a-squared Scanner including graphical user interface. Search the infected PC for Trojans, Spyware, Adware, Worms, Dialers, Keyloggers and other malign programs.

a-squared Command line Scanner:

This scanner contains the same functionality as a-squared Free but without a graphical user interface. The command line tool is made for professional users and can be used perfectly for batch jobs

You can download this and save it in your USB Flash Drive. In some unfortunate instance, when the security software installed in your system is not able to detect any malware, and the malware damages your system files, then there are chances that this USB stick remains protected, because it may not have been inserted in your computer at the time when the malware has been doing its job.

Once you are aware about the presence of the malware, you can try to use this portable antivirus kit to clean your system. The command line tool coming with this portable antivirus toolkit is especially useful because many of the present day malware can potentially disable the GUI interface of the popular security software.

[Download A-Squared Emergency USB Stick]

[This is a Guest Post from Silki Garg, who enjoys writing about Internet and PC Security Issues. Check out her latest articles on ClamWin Portable Virus Remover and Windows Security Options Tool WinPatrol.]

Do you want a copy of SuperAntiSpyware software?

Paul

superantispyware1Bryce over at Technibble is giving away 10 licenses for this software and I couldn’t resist to talk about it here.  The Rules are simple and I will walk you through them one by one:

  1. Make a Comment on His post, anything just as long as it adds to the community.  No name calling, No harassing them, and try to not cuss.   I would appreciate it if you would reference back to this site so he knows who sent you to him.  You see I would love a lifetime Copy of this software my self. (Hint hint Bryce)

  2. Subscribe to his updates via Email — This one is really simple, just sign up to receive to his updates and you will be all set.   And your all set, for that one.

  3. Follow @Technibble and tweet:
    Just entered the SUPERAntiSpyware Pro License giveaway. http://bit.ly/tnsas You can win by following @Technibble and retweet. @Laforge129

If you do all three of these you can could win also.   The more you do the more chances you have to win.  I know people want to receive lifetime licenses for this product and I am one of them(Hint Hint).  Everyone who enters will be in the running to get a copy of these from Bryce.  He will pick the winners by email or twitter on July 3, 2009.  So you have all week to do this.   If you want to check the website out, here is the link.   I know if I get a copy, I will review this for my users and let them know how well this works.

Thank you Bryce, Good luck to all who enter.

And the Oscar goes to . . . Not these guys!

Paul

Sans Internet Storm is reporting on Anti-virus Scareware tactic. I’ll quote from them:

[ad#ad2-right]

ISC reader Gary wrote in to let us know that searching for “oscar presenters” and “oscar winners” with Google brings up a prominently ranked result on a web server in Poland, on a subdomain of “beepl”, which – surprise, surprise – includes a malicious JavaScript. The end result currently seems to reside on stabilitytracewebcom, and is yet another incarnation of the “Fake Anti-Virus Program” malware that we have covered repeatedly. Watch out, the EXE has a meager 6/39 on Virustotal.
[Via Sans]

I did my own research and it is true they are at least 3 sites with the .pl Domain that are used to send you to these fake sites. You should consider checking your system for possible viruses if you been to these sites and are worried. You should also report any site like this to Phishtank to fight this type of scare tactics. Please remember if you are worried about your system this is the best time to install software to prevent these types of scare tactics. Remember you don’t always have to buy software to be safe. There are free anti-virus and Firewall solutions at your fingertips, use them well. It is also a good idea to make sure you have the latest updates from Microsoft while your at it.

Tools for Virus Removal : The ones I like to use!

Paul

In this post I want to talk about virus removal tools that I like to use when I need to remove a virus.   Some thing to consider when using these tools are:

Each of these have to be dealt with differently because each requires something different.  Like rootkits if you have one installed and know that it is a rootkit you only options are to download some rootkit removers like:

  • Sopho’s Anti-rootkit remover —  This is good for those more known viruses and can remove several types of rootkits.   This isn’t the only one I use, but it is a part of group that does the rootkit removing for me.

  • Microsoft Rootkit Revealer —  This is good for proving there is a rootkit.  I’ve not seen it not detect a rootkit.  Most of the time when I find a rootkit from the other rootkit revealers this one actually dos better with information.

  • Panda Anti-Rootkit Remover — This one is another one I use when the other ones can’t remove it.  Each one does remove certain rootkit differently and works better than the other.

  • Aries Rootkit Remover from Lavasoft — This is good for those really tough rootkits but have some great benefits for removing some of the really tough rootkits.

These are the ones that work well with me when it comes to removing the rootkits.  I’ve not had one of these to remove a rootkit but that depends on how you deal with the virus in the first place.  Now for Anti-spyware and Anti-Virus software here are some of the tools that I suggest:

  • Hijackthis — Run it, and when you get the LOG file you will want to go to HijackThis Log Analysis Site 1 and HijackThis Log Analysis Site 2, and see what it says.  This is the best software because it will scan all of the registry and tells you like a wiki what might it be.

  • MSCONFIG — Sometimes it is hidden but if you check through the MSCONFIG for any files that might not need to load. Also check the services tab and see if there is any services that may not be needed.

  • Pctools Antivirus Free Software — This is a free software so what can I say.

  • AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5.503 — This is another free one that can remove viruses really easily. Download this and you don’t have to worry to much.

  • Avast Home Edition — AVG does better than this one but people seem to like this so I have to add this for people who like this better than the others.

  • Clamwin Free Anti-virus — This is a good one because this is open sourced and easily can help detect so many viruses. This is good for those people who like open sourced.

These are just  the ones that I like to recommend that does pretty good on removing the viruses but there are others that I recommend on my Malware Resources that people have recommend to me but I haven’t tried them out yet.    Some of the Spyware and Adware removal and here are some of my favorites:

  • SuperAntispyware — Easily remove pests such as WinFixer, SpyAxe, SpyFalcon, and thousands more! Repair broken Internet Connections, Desktops, Registry Editing and more with our unique Repair System.

  • Malwarebytes — can provide the needed assistance to remove the infection and restore the machine back to optimum performance.

  • Ad-Aware — This is a very good tool to get rid of some of the most annoying little viruses that try to fool you that you have a virus.

  • Windows Security Trojan Scanner — a Free online scanner to let you see if you might have a Trojan.

  • SmitFraudFix — A great little program to get rid of those Desktop hijacks, those programs that take over your browser or other file system.

If your current antimalware software let an infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of SUPERAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes License to protect your computer in the future. SUPERAntiSpyware Professional or Malwarebytes License features highly advanced Real-Time Protection to ensure protection from installation or re-installation of potential threats as you surf the Internet (Both are trusted Vendors by CCSS Forums).

These are just a few that I like to use when it comes to fighting those virus programs and the people behind the virus programs.   If you consider how hard it is sometimes to recognize a virus, you can see the problem with some of the programs they can sometimes  say a file is a virus and delete it and the next thing you know it won’t boot into Windows.  This is what needs to be considered whenever you see a warning on your system so you must be careful when you remove files.  You should always have backups that is what I always recommend because the likely hood of something terrible happening to your data.  You should come up with a way to back up your system every week like a sunday back or even a Monday while your at work backup.