Smarterware

Gina, great story and reminder to all of us. I do light office work and some computer nerd duties at a small screen printing company when they need a little extra help. I went in one day and there was a new anti-virus on the computer asking to be updated. Since I had installed the anti-virus, and anti-malware software on the computer it totally confused me and stopped me from clicking the “OK” button. I asked the business owner if he had installed a new anti-virus and he told me “no”. Like the rogue program on your friend’s computer It too would pop up a screen with a false list of problems after a “scan”. The more I tried to clean it out using my old tried and true methods, the worse the computer ran until it was completely unusable. I booted into safe mode, found and removed the executable, then I was able to reboot and download Malwarebytes. It cleaned the computer of any remaining traces of the rogue anti-virus. It was a truly frustrating, yet satisfying experience.

I was unable to find out how the rogue program made it on the computer, it was running Windows firewall, AVG, and Spybot S&D. My only guess is somebody was visiting porn sites.

Lucky!