Nasty Virus named "spyware guard 2008"

[ldelacruz]

I somehow got this nasty virus last week and it took me about 16 hours to get rid of it. I am not going to mention any names but my Son and his Friend borrowed my laptop. It was really creative and was not detected by the major antivirus programs. (Norton, McAfee, CA etc.) It has been around since October and they still don't have a solution for it.

Although I was able to get it removed my PC now has issues and is much slower. The 2 programs I had to use are free programs called Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware Pro. They are free but they had the updates to remove the virus.

From what I have read the way it is delivered is by a pop up. When you visit an infected website a pop up that looks like a windows security alert warns you that you may have a virus and click here to remove it. It will disable all the antivirus programs, block you from updating them and block their websites so you can't go to them for support. It was also smart enough to not allow any programs to install.

Anyway just a reminder to be careful and not click on anything you are not sure of.

[robert t]

I had it last month, had to reload the operating system. It would not let me do windows updates or go to any sites like Trend Micro systems free house call scan.

[Coelus]

We got it at home last month too. My daughter was going to download an unzipping utility and found a dummy site that a free download with a very similar name...

Thanks for the heads up on the shareware.

[r_kasmir]

I had one like that last year, I say like that because that one wouldn't even let me boot into safe mode, it would just restart my computer. Smart me went into msdos.sys and made safe mode the default startup.. big mistake all the computer would do was reboot until i pulled the plug.
Then 2 months ago my wife's laptop got it, I just wiped it and reinstalled everything. Right after I did that, I got one on this desktop. I didn't want to wipe it, to much to reinstall. I found that if I killed the internet connection and ran the zonealarm antivirus-spyware and system mechanic's malicious detection software the virus or whatever it was wanted to be connected. After all that finished I up my zonealarm firewall to max, then reconnected the internet and so far almost 2 month later no problems.

[Cajungaltx]

From the wife of a geek.... give each person who has access to your computers a user name, and then limit what they can do on the computer. My 11 year old has a laptop - and she has limited user access on it - her user account lets her 'use' the computer, but she can't install a darned thing... which has kept that computer running virus free for quite some time now.

I highly recommend the use of user accounts... *grin*

[ldelacruz]

Originally Posted by Cajungaltx

From the wife of a geek.... give each person who has access to your computers a user name, and then limit what they can do on the computer. My 11 year old has a laptop - and she has limited user access on it - her user account lets her 'use' the computer, but she can't install a darned thing... which has kept that computer running virus free for quite some time now.

I highly recommend the use of user accounts... *grin*

It was a blessing in disquise and taught me a real lesson. My kids got their own laptops for Christmas but before they could use them I installed the freeware antispy programs and updated all the antivirus softwares. I also setup user only accounts on their laptops and I now use a user only account. Your Husband has good advice and that is exactly what I did. I just don't know why I didn't do it sooner.

As far as the freewares that will help remove it, you can't just install them and let them run but you have to do several detailed steps. Give me a shout if you ever run into this virus and I will give you the steps.

[Dobick]

Just wanted to give a big +1 to malwarebytes...

It has never failed to remove the nastiest of the "fake spyware guards" that I have come across.

On the few occasions where someone has actually sent in payment, and further installed the program, I have had to use malwarebytes in conjuction with a program called combofix. Combofix is not for the feint of heart though, as it really gets in there and starts killing stuff.

90% of the time, malwarebytes has been able to rid the computer fully.

[LWimages]

Originally Posted by Cajungaltx

From the wife of a geek.... give each person who has access to your computers a user name, and then limit what they can do on the computer. My 11 year old has a laptop - and she has limited user access on it - her user account lets her 'use' the computer, but she can't install a darned thing... which has kept that computer running virus free for quite some time now.

I highly recommend the use of user accounts... *grin*

Coming from being a Unix admin, this has always been the way we allow multiple users access to our system.
I use a Mac for my personal use at home, and that is also how it is setup.
All my accounts are just regular user accounts.
This is not a start of which OS is better.

I like Vista, as now the user account security feature has been improved.

[Coelus]

My 11 year old has a laptop - and she has limited user access on it

Mine is 17, I try to give her a little leeway. Some lessons are better learned the hard way.

[nastytrucker]

+1 for Malwarebytes

Thats a good program, I was getting some pop ups after downloading a bogus CODEC and it cleaned my computer up nicely after a full update and scan.

[mdougals]

Originally Posted by ldelacruz

It was a blessing in disquise and taught me a real lesson. My kids got their own laptops for Christmas but before they could use them I installed the freeware antispy programs and updated all the antivirus softwares. I also setup user only accounts on their laptops and I now use a user only account. Your Husband has good advice and that is exactly what I did. I just don't know why I didn't do it sooner.

As far as the freewares that will help remove it, you can't just install them and let them run but you have to do several detailed steps. Give me a shout if you ever run into this virus and I will give you the steps.

HELP!!! I think I have the same on my computer at home.

[LEATHERNECK]

Had the same thing....OOOORAA for Malware!!!

[ldelacruz]

Originally Posted by mdougals

HELP!!! I think I have the same on my computer at home.

Check your PM I sent you what worked for me.

[mdougals]

Thanks i will give it a try.

Matt

[gene74]

+1 for malwarebytes. I 1st had to save and change the filename to something else. Then i was able to run and install malwarebyte. Then before I can run it, i had to change the filename again so it would run. LOL.......