Random Fix - Computer Help » Security

Beware of Christmas scams (viruses and spyware)

Ryan — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 08:22:42 +0000

It looks like the Storm Worm has made a revival. My good friend Steven over at www.securityzone.org has reported that a possibly new variant of the Storm Worm is going around right now. The main theme is revolved around Christmas. If you start to see Christmas greeting cards or various Christmas e-mail, please be careful. The card will possibly mention http://www.merrychristmasdude.com (please do not visit this LINK!!!!!!!!!!) Always take precaution, keep your antivirus program up to date, never give out any pertinent information such as your name, address, phone number, social security number as well as your credit card number to people you do not know.

C:\Windows\System32\koos.exe

Ryan — Fri, 11 May 2007 08:22:48 +0000

Are you having a hard time trying to remove a file called koos.exe? The symptoms are: your firewall tells you koos.exe is trying to call out. Along with antivirus programs telling you koos.exe is a virus.

Koos.exe is a Trojan and it acts like a rootkit. You’re going to want to use AVG’s Anti-Rootkit software to remove it. I used it tonight and it worked well.

Ad-Aware 2007 coming soon

Ryan — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:07:16 +0000

Every time I install Ad-Aware on a client’s computer I notice during the update portion it says that they are currently beta testing a new version of Ad-Aware. Sure enough, it looks like they have a July launch date.

If you don’t know what Ad-Aware is, it is an antispyware program that I believe inspired many others to join the antispyware game. I recall many years ago of having a computer that had multiple pop ups and viruses. I was referred by a tech forum to download and install Ad-Aware. At that time, when spyware was in its infancy stages, I was able to use Ad-Aware and Ad-Aware ONLY and this took care of the entire spyware problem. As we all know, spyware creators have become much more evil and have learned many ways to bypass Ad-Aware’s once effective cleaning methods. Then came along Spybot Search and Destroy and then the rest is history. Many others came out and brought newer and stronger packages to the front lines of this huge and nasty battle [Editor's note, I really like Spy Sweeper].

Apparently the new version of Ad-Aware is updated and supposedly packs a nice punch. I hope so, as their once great antispyware software is now relegated to being one of the most recognized but probably the least effective. I’m for anything that battles spyware though, that’s for sure.

New MySpace virus going around

Ryan — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:49:59 +0000

Beware for any MySpace page that displays: “This profile contains adult content. CLICK HERE to install MS Viewer.”

What you’ll get is far from adult content. You will be infected with a variant of the Zlob Trojan.

Source: F-Secure Blog