Ransomware warning
Posted by Leggs on 2010-01-24 04:03:54, Sunday|
Beware of a malicious malware entity called "Internet Security 2010." This starts as a pop-up after you click on a bad link and says something about your computer being infected with a virus. When you "X" out of it, it installs itself. Then you'll get a Windows-like pop-up that lists a series of trojans that supposedly have infected your computer. To remove them, you must "activate" the program and pay $50. Actually, it's a scam to get money out of you because paying the fee still won't rid your computer of this nasty ransomware (named as such because it holds your computer ransom). You can't get into the task manager to shut it off (it removes the task manager option when you hit CTRL-ALT-DEL) and won't let you run regedit either. It embeds itself in your registry and can't be removed by the usual means. Apparently, this was created by the Ukranian mafia and there are 15 or more versions of it on the net. It's been around for over a year but it seems to be getting more sophisticated. Your anti-virus software won't stop it or detect it. If you see the pop-up, immediately take one of these two steps before you do anything else: 1) Bring up your task manager and shut down the process for your browser. This should keep it from installing. Or... 2) Disconnect your internet (pull out the network cable or manually switch off the wireless connection) and hit the power button to shut down the computer. This should keep it from installing. Unfortunately, I became a victim of this nasty bug and I hope you can avoid it and save yourself the time and money I spent restoring my system to its original state. You've been warned. Spread the word! |
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