Category: XP

Microsoft kills a fake antivirus tool from 994,061 computers!

Paul

According to Arstechnica and I’ll quote:

[ad#ad2-left]Win32/FakeSecSen has gone by various names, including Micro Antivirus 2009, MS Antivirus, Spyware Preventer, Vista Antivirus 2008, Advanced Antivirus, System Antivirus 2008, Ultimate Antivirus 2008, Windows Antivirus, XPert Antivirus, Power Antivirus, and Ultra Antivirus 2009. Furthermore, it is skinnable, so each of these variants has a different GUI, although the basic functionality is the same: bother users with warnings of malware until they pay up.

The Microsoft Malware Protection Center recently released some data on how the removal tool performed this month: FakeSecSen was removed from 994,061 machines. That number isn’t the highest Microsoft has recorded before, and the number of removals depends on which malware Microsoft adds each month and how widespread it is.

[via Arstechnica]

This seemed to of happened this month with the usual Windows update.  If you haven’t updated your system just yet you should.   This troublesome fake virus seems to have been killed  from several systems.  This could effectively make it harder for these guys who ever designed this program to make money.  I hope microsoft does even more virus removals in next month.  If you still want to try to get rid of these viruses don’t forget to check out my tips on Virus removal.

How to disable autorun the easy way!!!

Paul

I read a report from Cnet about USB devices spreading Virus and I will quote:

The bad guys are intentionally developing new flavors of malware designed to propagate through USB devices,” said Gunter Ollmann, chief security strategist for IBM’s ISS security division. “They are today’s floppy drives.”

[ad#ad2-right]An infected computer can spread a virus to a clean USB thumb drive that is inserted. That USB drive will then be spreading the virus onto other computers if the operating system on those machines has an AutoRun-type feature enabled. The AutoRun function in Windows launches installers and other programs automatically when a flash drive or CD is inserted. The Mac has an equivalent function, according to Ollmann.

[Via Cnet]

In order to disable “autorun“, which in Vista is called Autoplay. In order to disable Autoplay from starting when you insert media into your computer here is how you do it:

You will need to be Logged in as Administrator before this can be done:

Next click start and type “Autoplay” without quotes. It will bring up a screen but all you have to worry about is this:

Vista autorun

You will need to make sure there  is no check mark for “Use AutoPlay for all media and Devices”.   Click save and close.

[ad#ad2-left]Once that is done, you will have no more Autoruns from USB devices.  If you want to disable Autorun in XP, I’d suggest reading some of these articles for XP.

These are just a few and are really nice to articles but there are others out there that might be more to your liking.  I suggest searching Google for them.   I hope this helps you out!!!

AVG Detected a False Positive

Paul3 Replies

[ad#ad2-left]According to Security and The Net:

An update for the AVG virus scanner released yesterday contained an incorrect virus signature, which led it to think user32.dll contained the Trojan Horses PSW.Banker4.APSA or Generic9TBN. AVG then recommended deleting this file; this causes the affected systems to either stop booting or go into a continuous reboot cycle. So far, the problem only appears to affect Windows XP, but there is no guarantee that other versions of Windows don’t have the same issue.

[Via Security and The Net]


[ad#ad2-right]I bring this up because this is a false positive according to AVG. AVG since sent out another update to there Database and you can go and update the database to get rid of this problem. If you need to restore that DLL check out the article Security and The Net, they got some excellent suggestions on fixing the problem.

If you’ve not been affected by this yet, you probably won’t be. It is yet unknown how many people have been affected. I’m blogging about this to tell people about this and to warn people that not all of warnings from AVG are true and that is why you should always ask before you delete or do anything to your system. I always USE google when it comes to these types of questions

Antivirus Professional 2008 uses Scare tactics

Paul

[ad#ad2-right-1]

We came across a rogue today called Antivirus Professional 2008 that uses GeoIP Lookup as part of its scare tactics. This site uses Flash and script to create the effect of an online scan, that then attempts to push an installer at the visitor. The NoScript extension for Mozilla Firefox is an excellent way to mitigate against this kind of garbage.

[Via F-secure]

It seems that there is a site out there, that seems to be trying to scare you into downloading there software. If you have any questions about this site please feel free to check out what I’ve found out:

Registration Service Provided By: ESTDOMAINS INC
Contact: 1.3027224217
Website: http://www.estdomains.com
Domain Name: ANTIVIRUS-ONLINE-SCANNER.COM
Registrant:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Creation Date: 07-Jun-2008
Expiration Date: 07-Jun-2009
Domain servers in listed order:
ns2.antivirus-online-scanner.com
ns1.antivirus-online-scanner.com
Administrative Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Technical Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Billing Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732


[ad#ad2-right]Now as you can see this site is located in Russia, and if that’s the case it is probably some virus itself to take control of your system to do what they want with it. So you best advice is if you think you have a virus then check out my recommendations these are all free to download and try. Unlike this site, they are legitimate and actually do what they promise.  If you want to email them you can but It don’t think it will help.

*UPDATE on that Website*

According to F-secure that site is now Suspended.  Great job guys.  We are now fighting these people even better than I’d thought.

Is Vista just Windows 7?

Paul

[ad#ad2-left]According to Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols from Computer World, He talks about how Microsoft is scared on Linux and that people are flocking to remove Vista off there Machines. I say otherwise, you see according to some experts like Mark Hall from Computer World, he states Vista is better than Mac OS X. So why do people say one thing and do another?

Now I know Vista isn’t what people expected and that it had high expectations when they first released it.  I think that is due to the fact Microsoft tried so hard to make Vista seem more than it actually was.  Now According to Ina Fried from CNET her post was about Windows 7: A better Vista?. In her post she talked about the features of Windows 7, and how Windows 7 is almost like Vista. I tend to agree because of the look from screenshots I’ve seen to make me think it will be Version 2 of Vista. I don’t think it is anything that will change from Vista to Windows 7. It will however be more ready to boot up and shutdown that is according to what Microsoft said to Ina.

What is Windows 7 going to have?  Some reports are saying:

[ad#ad2-right]I did some research and everything so far is either confirmed to be in this next release of Window 7 or is speculation.  I don’t know if these are true.  I do know however everything they talked about is looking to me to be like Vista Version 2.  Nothing they’ve said so far couldn’t of been an update like a service to pack to fix all these things people are wanting right now.  Vista to be faster, have better battery life, be lean, be embedded, better Uac, and boot faster.

Now I could be wrong but that is everything Vista could of done and still is possible to do!!  If only Microsoft would do what is needed people wouldn’t be wanting Windows 7.  Although I suspect people will have there hopes broken, or complain about it when it comes out.  I suspect the ones who want Windows 7 will be saying Vista is great!!  I will just have to watch what happens in the future!!