Very Intrusive Virus: Caution

[louie54]

I created this thread to warn the people of DreamViews about a very... very... invasive program that automatically downloads to your computer acting like an anti-spyware program. It is a fraud and it is EXTREMELY difficult to get rid of. The program is called: Antivirus Live The program is set up so that you can't do anything else but respond to it. Apparantly it's a scam for you to pay $50 to get rid of the so called viruses that you don't have. It even affects Task Manager. If you hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete, it closes about 2 seconds later with an alert pop-up saying that it is affected. Same goes with just about every program including regedit. Plus, even if you may think that it's gone... don't be fooled, because once you restart your computer, it comes back right on. The program will also cancel antivirus programs that you may already have on your computer. McAfee for example will no longer function. Talk about a nightmare. How do I know if I have it? -Trust me, you'll know... Trust me. If you are still unsure though, here's a picture. How do I prepare to get rid of it? -If you download Windows Defender, it will tell you right away when it detects something alienated. The trick is to wait for the pop-up from Antivirus Live and continue to wait, and the program will automatically take care of it. This will allow you to take further action and actually use the computer. I strongly recommend clicking the link and downloading this program because it maybe one of the only few programs that will help you. What next? -Do NOT restart your computer because you will have the program all over again. The next thing you need to do is download Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). Once you have it, you need to run a FULL SCAN. NOT A QUICK SCAN. After a couple of hours, it should detect about 3 foreign items. Make sure they get deleted. And then...? -I will not say it again. DO NOT RESTART your computer. Especially after those long hours of a full scan. The next thing you should do is download SpyBot Search and Destroy and run another full scan. This should take care of the remaining things MSE couldn't. The scan should bring up about 10 items. After that, make sure the items are deleted. Finally! -Your computer should be free of this stupid program. You should now be able to restart your computer. You will know you don't have it anymore if the program doesn't load again after restarting. What if I already have it before I download Windows Defender? -There are a couple of ways to go about doing this. 1. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and hold it and as quick as you can, go to processes and delete the first thing on the list that isn't task manager. You need to do this within about 1/4 of a second. The trick is to have your finger on the delete button and just keep hitting it when task manager pops up. 2. Restart your computer in SafeMode. When you turn on your computer and that picture of whatever is the brand name of your computer is up and loading, hit F8 (tap it several times if you feel it's necessary). Doing this and logging on will allow you to use your computer without anything invasive popping up. Note that it is normal for your desktop to look strange. Well, I hope this helps. If you have anymore questions, you can ask or Google it. There's more information there about it. All the programs I provided links for are free and just because they are free doesn't mean that they suck. So don't worry. All has failed... What now? -I would suggest to reboot your computer. Make sure to save any important files to a CD or floppy disk. This requires a Windows CD. DO NOT run the Repair and Fix, it will do nothing. If you don't wish to reboot Windows, I would continue to search Google. Good luck

[Tyler]

Thanks for the warning

[Maria92]

Sounds kind of like the fake Alpha Antivirus program...one of my co-workers got it by simply visiting an msn page about the Denver Broncs. It downloaded to his system and ran right on start-up. We killed the process with the task manager, then manually uninstalled it. It was a pain in the ass to get rid of. Thanks for the alert, mate.

[Marvo]

All has failed... What now? -I would suggest to reboot your computer. Make sure to save any important files to a CD or floppy disk. This requires a Windows CD. DO NOT run the Repair and Fix, it will do nothing. If you don't wish to reboot Windows, I would continue to search Google. Good luck Rebooting your computer is serious business.

[Awakening]

wth, a virus that needs 3 programs to get ride of.

[Muggler]

Thank you for the warning. You can save a whole lot a agony and distress just by telling someone about something.

[Marvo]

You guys should listen to the Security Now! podcast if you really want to keep up with the computer security news, and also learn a thing or two. You don't have to listen to all their podcasts, just take a recent one. They had a podcast about this particular virus not so long ago. http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm It is hosted by Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson.

[louie54]

Well I'm glad this is getting across to some of you. Rebooting your computer definetly is a last resort, but this thing is that bad. Thanks for providing that link Marvo, I'll have to check it out sometime.

[Ynot]

Another leak Keep bailing water.....

[TweaK]

Well I'm glad this is getting across to some of you. Rebooting your computer definetly is a last resort, but this thing is that bad. Thanks for providing that link Marvo, I'll have to check it out sometime. You mean reformatting. There's a huge small difference.

[slayer]

You mean you've never had a fake anti-virus appear on your computer? I just ran a virus scanner and it got rid of it without trouble :/

[louie54]

You mean you've never had a fake anti-virus appear on your computer? I just ran a virus scanner and it got rid of it without trouble :/ I have but it wasn't anything like this. This thing won't let you open anything. And sure reformatting, we'll go with that. Or maybe reinstalling windows.

[Maria92]

I have but it wasn't anything like this. This thing won't let you open anything. And sure reformatting, we'll go with that. Or maybe reinstalling windows. If it's anything like the Alpha virus, then yeah, it'll dig in and put up a big fight, probably disabling conventional anti-virus scanners, even the task manager. I'm surprised the sneaky bastard isn't using a rootkit, too. I use AVG, Ad-Aware, Spybot, and CCleaner. Also, this website has some pretty cool stuff, including free alternates to the task manager, so you can still disable the program if need be.

[Ynot]

Serious question.... Why do you all put up with such a poor operating system? I mean, corporate networks entrenched in IE and MS Office are one thing, but come on OP is a damn novel, requiring use of three separate security tools, and then there's a suggestion to listen to a security podcast Christ almighty....

[Maria92]

Serious question.... Why do you all put up with such a poor operating system? I mean, corporate networks entrenched in IE and MS Office are one thing, but come on OP is a damn novel, requiring use of three separate security tools, and then there's a suggestion to listen to a security podcast Christ almighty.... Ah, but if we all switched to Mac or Linux, hackers would target those Operating Systems, too. Besides, I find Windows to be more user-friendly anyway (probably because it's so wide-spread). Maybe in the future...maybe...

[Ynot]

Ah, but if we all switched to Mac or Linux, hackers would target those Operating Systems, too. I don't want to re-hash old arguments, as I've said this many times before, but don't you think hackers target them already? Linux runs most servers (online banking, financial data, yadda, yadda) Criminals would be far better off targeting those, instead of one man's home Windows PC Windows is full of security holes that is the only reason it's targeted but anyway....

[khh]

And most servers are being taken care of by professionals. At any rate, a lot of the viruses for Windows relies on user stupidity.

[Maria92]

I don't want to re-hash old arguments, as I've said this many times before, but don't you think hackers target them already? Linux runs most servers (online banking, financial data, yadda, yadda) Criminals would be far better off targeting those, instead of one man's home Windows PC Windows is full of security holes that is the only reason it's targeted but anyway.... Yeah, and I'm sure the 90% Windows User Base has absolutely nothing to do with it. Think big scale...it would be far easier to commandeer large numbers of computers and build a massive network to do one's bidding than try to take on a major corporation all alone.

[Ynot]

At any rate, a lot of the viruses for Windows relies on user stupidity. All the more reason to move the stupid users to a more robust system Anyway, I wrote a long thing on the Ubuntu forums detailing this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...62#post8424962

[Shift]

I had that last May. I had to keep killing it, trying to uninstall. I think I eventually just found the .dll file it was using, copied one from The Sims, and named it what it was installing as so that it couldn't install itself. Luckily I'd just backed up so a simple reformat was good enough a bit later.

[Marvo]

Alternatively you could try staying away from websites that trash your computer. I haven't had a real virus that actually actively did anything to my system for years. Ynot, that podcast isn't Windows only. It's mainly Windows, of course, but they also talk about general security protocols that are being used across most, if not all, operating systems. Until all of my games, and other software I use, is working as quickly and as easily as on Windows, then I'm not changing.

[Ynot]

Alternatively you could try staying away from websites that trash your computer. and how do you even know where's safe? http://gizmodo.com/5390520/apologies...ads-on-gizmodo sorry but we had some malware running on our site in ad boxes for a little while last week.......And we would have noticed sooner except everyone on staff is on OS X or Linux for production machines

[ninja9578]

Ah, but if we all switched to Mac or Linux, hackers would target those Operating Systems, too. Besides, I find Windows to be more user-friendly anyway (probably because it's so wide-spread). Maybe in the future...maybe... Hackers don't target those because they're next to impossible to crack. UNIX's security is embedded in it's OS, not put on top of it. Windows' security is like a guy with a baseball bat. He's protected, but you've got to buy the bat, and you can't ever put the bat down. UNIX is like a master karate instructor, his security is embedded in himself and doesn't need anything from the user.

[Marvo]

and how do you even know where's safe? http://gizmodo.com/5390520/apologies...ads-on-gizmodo I actually encountered that very same problem on another site. Avast stopped it.

[Maria92]

Hackers don't target those because they're next to impossible to crack. UNIX's security is embedded in it's OS, not put on top of it. Windows' security is like a guy with a baseball bat. He's protected, but you've got to buy the bat, and you can't ever put the bat down. UNIX is like a master karate instructor, his security is embedded in himself and doesn't need anything from the user. True, true...but if the user base was large enough, there would be an increased incentive to try and hack those systems. It would only slow the hackers down...they would still get through. Right now, though, the small-ish user base isn't worth the effort. If they had enough targets, though, then it would be worth it to scour the system for security flaws and develop a spreading virus.