The Computer Buzz

February 4th, 2010

Nome and Paul Van Middlesworth - owners - The Computer Factory
 

Don’t Invite Vampires

Part of the lore surrounding vampires is this axiom, “a vampire cannot enter your home unless invited by a member of the household.” Consequently, vampires spend a great deal of time and energy on ruses and ploys designed to trick unsuspecting household members into offering that invitation. Once the vampire gains entrance, it’s “game on.” In order to drink the blood of his human adversaries the vampire with his supernatural powers must overcome the arsenal of defensive weapons employed by his not so defenseless victims. Even if he survives the holy water, crucifixes and garlic, a sharp wooden stake can trump his immortality in a nanosecond.

Not so with viruses. Garlic and crucifixes have no effect and both holy water and the sharp wooden stake will kill your computer but not the virus. There is, however, one part of the vampire legend that is useful, the invitation part. Nearly all “malware” infections require some sort of invitation from the user. Like vampires, virus authors must trick you into inviting them in.

By now most of us are sophisticated enough to avoid falling for the Nigerian millionaire ruse, the stranded relative scam or the email from Pay Pal or your bank asking for verification of all your personal data. The “invitations” that can fool us are much more clever and subtle. The “Internet Security 2010” malware family is a typical example.

Under a variety of official sounding names this beast rides into your PC on a Trojan horse. The horse could be an e-mail attachment from your best friend, a penile enhancement blurb, your uncle’s Facebook page or a selection of Bible Verses from your church’s web site. The Trojan can be a legitimate appearing dialogue box urging you to update some common third party application like Adobe Flash/Reader, Java, Quick Time or Real Player. Never accept an invitation to upgrade from a screen prompt. Always go to the application’s web site for updates.

Upon entry, the infection will identify itself by name and warn you that your PC needs immediate attention. Following its instructions will infect your PC. Trying to get rid of it by clicking the X will also infect your PC. Your best hope is to hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Windows task manager. Then click the “applications” tab. Next “end task” on the phony alert. After it is closed, shut your PC down and re-boot into “safe mode” (hit the F8 key while the PC boots to bring up the “safe mode” option). Now run your scan programs. Be aware that some malware infections put an icon on your desktop that looks a lot like your virus scan’s icon.

If you’re lucky, the virus and spyware programs will be able to purge your PC. If the scans won’t run, it indicates an entrenched infection that must be removed with an external scan. That’s when you call us.

Infections caught early can usually be removed before Windows becomes corrupt. Continuing to use an infected PC on the WWW will eventually corrupt Windows and require a reinstallation of Windows and applications.