Internet Scare Ware Solution

[Colin Leake]

Scare ware is a term that has been coined of late to describe a new and rapidly developing hazard that is effecting many internet users. Those who develop it are some or the cleverest computer programmers in the World and use some of the most powerful computers in the Word. It's implications should never be underestimated. The information that follows comes from my son who is the Computer System Architect for one of the largest international banks in the world. If you are thinking you will not be attacked because your computer has protection from the likes of Norton or McAffe think again. My computer has a high degree of protection and you can imagine the degree of protection his has. Despite this we have both been attacked severial times and the last two attacks took between 6 and 8 hours to deal with. He has also had six of his staff attacked as well, all of whom are highly skilled computer experts.

 

When it first made an appearance it simply looked like a very convincing official message telling you that you had a problem with you computer and telling you to log on to fix it. Once you did so you were hooked and would then be told you need to buy software to fix the problem. The advice to avoid this early version was simply to ignore it and most definatly not click onto any part of it. Simply ignore it and carry on using your computer as normal as you do not have a problem.

 

With the latest version things have moved on. What they now do is to block all of the programs you would normally use such as email, and word etc. and tell you that your computer hard disc is not responding, your memory is corrupted etc. None of this is true but because you can't access programs it certainly looks as if they are. If this happens there are three golden rules. Firstly do not click on anything or any buttons, they may well not do what you expect! Secondly don't agree to pay for anything. They may or may not fix the problem for you but even if they do they will leave elements in your computer that can be utilized later. Also payment would need to be by credit or debit card and believe me these are not the sort of people you should be sending those details to! Thirdly don't assume your computer is knackered and dash out and buy a new one. There is almost certainly nothing wrong with it.

 

So on the face of it you would seem to be up a gum tree as it were with a computer that is useless. Fortunately the one thing they can't block is your access to the internet since they need this to make it possible for their scheme to work and this will allow you access to some tools that will enable to to restore your computer, comprehensively get rid off all malware bugs and provide some protection against the problem coming back.

 

Use a search engine to log on to the following two web sites. Malwarebytes' and Spybot. These sites are both registered as charities but they receive most of their backing from commercial operations who have vested interests in protecting the integrity of the web. Both are free but you will be invited to make a contribution to their running expenses when you log on. If you do you may be sure they are secure and safe. They are manned full time by experts devoted to countering the problem and are constantly being updated. The whole process is going to take 6 to 8 hours but for much of this time you can just leave the computer to get on with.

 

Down load both into you computer and install them following their step by step instructions. Use the Malwarebytes' site first and select the quick scan option. This will take about one hour so you can take time off for a cup of tea. When this process is completed it will either automatically delete what it has found or tell you and ask you to select an option to do so I can't remember which. You should now find your computer is operating as normal but you will not have completely sanitized it at this point so you need to keep going.

 

Come out of this programme and go into Spybot. This has severial options but the first one you need is the one that enables to to build a wall to prevent any new incoming attack that may take place whilst you are attacking the remains of the malware on your computer. Whilst it does this you will see it graphically building a brick wall! This will take about one hour or may be a little less. Once you have done this the next step is to tell it do do a full search. This will take around two hours and it will find any problems that the original quick search failed to find and list them for you. You can then elect to deal with these. This is quite a quick process at the end of which it will show what problems it has been able to deal with. It will also tell you that some could not be dealt with because they were attached to files you were using. Now you need to do a restart on your computer and open only Spybot. Next tell it to perform a full search and destroy. Two hours later you will have a computer that has been fully sanitized and is well protected by the new wall you have built.

 

The threat is constantly evolving and if you want to maintain the best possible protection for you computer you will need to log on to Spybot and download the latest updates and rebuild the wall at least once a week. Takes about an hour but remember once you have set the process in motion you don't have to stay watching the computer. Just to put your mind at rest both these sites are very safe and in case they should remove anything they should not have done in error they hold what they have removed in tempory files.

 

What can you do to protect your computer. Using Spybot to build and maintain a wall is the best option but if you don't want to go that far then the best advice we have at the moment is to use Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 as your browser. One its many advantages is that it has an Anti-Malware function built in that is updated every 24 hours. It's not yet fullproof but it will greatly improve your chances and is getting better all the time.

 

Finally you may feel the need to call in outside help if the problem strikes but remember that because of the time it takes that may be expensive and it is perfectly possible to carry out the work yourself. If you do take this route I suggest you show them this as many may not know how to cure the problem. I know of one case where a consultant effectively gave up and recommended buying a new computer.

 

I hope if not alarmed to many and that you don't come across the problem but at least you now know that all is not lost and how to deal with it.

 

 

 

[spospe]

Colin, double posting (here and on Chatterbox) dilutes the replies and reduces the benefit to Forum readers. I read Chatterbox first and hence my comments are there and not here :-(

[Colin Leake]

spospe - 2010-11-22 5:18 PM

 

Colin, double posting (here and on Chatterbox) dilutes the replies and reduces the benefit to Forum readers. I read Chatterbox first and hence my comments are there and not here :-(

 

I double posted as not everyone looks at chatter box and I wanted to spread the information as widely as possible