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By madadmin, on May 10th, 2012 Google Redirect Virus Removal
The Google Redirect Virus is definitely in my top ten of annoying viruses. The main reason for this is that generally the first thing that I do as soon as I discover a virus on my system is to Google how to remove the virus. Of course this doesn’t work as you can’t get to the sites you want to get to.
Quick Explanation of the Google Redirect Virus and how it works
The main purpose of the Google Redirect Virus is to send you to websites which are either fake or they will contain other forms of malicious viruses which may have an impact on your system. These websites may also try and get you to buy products (and in the process collect your bank details and personal information).
An example of the Google Redirect Virus in action
Let’s say you are doing some research on something you are writing about, and you decide to search for it on Google. You will receive the list of search results as normal, but as soon as you try to click on one of the links, it will redirect you to another random site which has no relevance to what you are searching for in the first place.
How to remove Google Redirect Virus
Download TDSS Killer from this link:
http://support.kaspersky.com/downloads/utils/tdsskiller.zip
If you are unable to download the file because of the virus then I would suggest downloading the application from a different computer and then save it to a USB drive or CD and launch the file from there.
Once the file has downloaded, you will then need to extract the contents of the file. (I would suggest extracting to your desktop).
Once the files are extracted open theTDSSKiller.exe file. A window will then pop-up as shown below:
Click on the Start scan button, and the scan will begin. It will then check your computer for virus infections.
Once the scan has finished, the next window will pop-up showing you all of the viruses, malware and security threats that it has found from the scan. In this window there will be a dropdown menu next to each threat found. In this menu you can select what action to take on each of the security threats detected. In the dropdown menu you will have a choice of:
- Skip
- Cure
- Copy to Quarantine
- Delete
I would suggest selecting the delete option for any of the items that have been branded as malware by TDSSKiller. Sometimes if you just select Cure then it may come back with an error saying that the item couldn’t be cured.
Once you have selected the actions to take on the infected items, click on the continue button. TDSSKiller will then apply the actions that you have selected on the previous window, and will then pop-up with another window once finished to let you know whether the files have been disinfected or deleted.
Now close TDSSKiller and open your Internet browser and go to Google. Then try searching for something and clicking on a search result to check if your PC is clean.
By madadmin, on February 15th, 2012 Another E-mail phishing scam to tell you about at the moment is the HM Revenue & Customs E-mail Phishing Scam. This one has the same goal at hand, which is to gather your personal details and bank account details. The difference with this phishing scam is that they are supposedly notifying you of a tax refund which you are due and ask you to fill in the attached tax refund form, which asks for all your bank details.
Of course the simple way to tell if all of this is real or fake is to phone up HMRC directly and ask for information regarding the e-mail. Also I would think it’s extremely unlikely that HMRC would notify you of a tax refund through e-mail.
The content of the phishing e-mail messages I have received is displayed below:
Message 1:
From: HM Revenue & Customs <tax.refunds@hmrc.co.uk>
Subject: Tax Refund Notification
Attachment: form.html
After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you are eligible
to receive a tax refund of 973.90 GBP. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 5-7 days in order to process it.
Please download the document attached to this email to confirm your identity.
Note: You will need to provide a valid bank accoun in which the funds will be payed to.
A refund can be delayed for some reasons, for example submitting invalid records or applying after deadline.
Best Regards,
HM Revenue & Customs.
Message 2:
From: HM Revenue & Customs
Subject: Notification of refund
Attachment: Tax Refund Form.html
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
12/29/2011
TAX REFUND NOTIFICATION
Dear Taxpayer,
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 223.56 GBP.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it.
To access your tax refund, please follow the steps below:
- download the Tax Refund Form attached to this email
- open it in a browser
- follow the instructions on your screen
A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.
Regards,
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
By madadmin, on January 26th, 2012 There is an increasing number of e-mail phishing scams going around at the moment. One e-mail scam in particular which I have come across quite a few times recently is from someone claiming to be Santander Online Banking.
It was relatively easy for me to pick up on the fact that it was a scam as I don’t even have an account with Santander. I have included the content of the e-mail below. Another aspect you should not be fooled by is the from e-mail address, even though the e-mail states that the e-mail is from ‘notice@santander.co.uk’ it is easy for someone with the know how to appear to be someone else through e-mail.
One more thing that makes it blatantly obvious that it is a phishing scam is the attached file called form.html (I would advise not opening this – may have viruses etc.). The attachment asks for all your bank details including personal ID, Card Number, Passcode, Registration Number, Mobile Phone Number, Mothers Middle Name, Full Name, Place of Birth, Debit Card Number, Debit Card Expiry Date, Card Verification code (Cvv), Full Address and Date of Birth.
Out of all these things the form asks for, I know for a fact that all banks will never ask for your card verification number (the 3-digit security code on the back of your card).
The best way to be sure if the e-mail is legitimate is to go to the suppliers website (in this case Santander) and use the contact details or contact e-mail address from their site.
The E-mail reads as follows:
From: Santander – Online Banking
Subject: Incorrect Login Attempts
Attachment: form.html
Hello dear member,
Your account is suspended due to the number of incorrect login attempts.
For your protection, we’ve suspended your account . To reactivate your account
please download the document attached to this email to review your account activity.
If not completed until January 15, we will be forced to close your account .
Note: If you received these e-mail in your BULK/SPAM section please add to your address book retail@santander.co.uk
Thank you,
Customer Support Service.
________________________________
Copyright © Santander Group Bank Plc. Limited. All rights reserved.
Update: Shown below are other E-mails I have received since the initial one above:
Continue reading E-mail Phishing Scams | Santander Incorrect Login Attempts
By madadmin, on December 9th, 2011 According to figures from a recent study approximately 6% of the UK’s 19 million online household PC’s are linked to criminal networks called Botnets on a regular basis.
Once these computers are hijacked, they could be used for a range of criminal activities including sending spam e-mails, attacking websites or collecting your personal details such as your bank details, to name some of the most popular criminal activities. Once these criminals have control over your PC they can collect, use and sell your personal data, and can also send e-mails from your e-mail account to all of your contacts, infecting their machines as well.
Also, once the PC is infected there is a good chance that the user will not have any idea that it is linked to these criminal networks, especially if the machines are not covered by anti-virus or some other form of security software.
Read the full article here.
By madadmin, on November 11th, 2011 New Virus Alert : System Restore Virus / Malware
This Virus generates fake reports about your computers health. Some of these reports include:
- Computer has Low Disk Space
- Hard Drive Failures / Hard Disk Failures
- Other Virus Infections
The Malware also generates a program on the desktop called Systemrestore.exe. Needless to say, don’t open this file as it will most likely infect your PC even more by shutting down your firewall and all of your anti-virus programs you have on that PC which will open your PC to many more viruses and mailicious programs.
To remove this virus from your PC, click on the following link and download Hitman Pro and select to run a one time scan and this should clear up the malicious software.
Hitman Pro
If you want to recieve updates on the latest Viruses, Malware, Adware, Spyware and anti-virus programs then Follow Us On Twitter and we will keep you updated.
By steve, on September 19th, 2011 There is a new spam email going around with the title ‘We are going to sue you’. This E-mail is a hoax. Also don’t be fooled into opening any attached documents, the one we received is named ‘VIRUS_DETECTED_AND_REMOVED.TXT’. If you do receive this email I would suggest you swiftly remove it from your inbox by pressing DELETE.
The complete message we received is as follows:
Subject: We are going to sue you
Attachment: VIRUS_DETECTED_AND_REMOVED.TXT
Hello.
Your email is sending spam messages!
If you don’t stop sending spam, we will be impelled to sue you!
We’ve attached a scanned copy of the document assembled by our security service to this letter.
Please carefully read through the document and stop sending spam messages.
This is the final warning!
Corporate Technology Information Services.
By madadmin, on September 12th, 2011 There are a variety of ways in which your computers performance can be improved without needing to purchase new hardware. This can be done by running a variety of general computer maintenance tasks. One of the ways is to clear off or compress some of the old and generally unused files which are stored on your hard drive. Disk Cleanup will identify files on your system which haven’t been used for a long time and will generate a list of suggestions of what can be deleted or compressed to save space on your hard drive and will carry out this task for you.
To run Disk Cleanup go to Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Disk Cleanup
The program will then scan the files on your hard drive/s and will then give you a list of suggestions of what can be deleted or compressed on your hard drive as shown below: Continue reading Improving PC Performance | Disk Cleanup
By madadmin, on September 12th, 2011 There are many things which can be used to speed up your computers performance without actually having to upgrade hardware. One thing that can be done to keep your PC operating at it’s best performance is to defragment your hard drive/s by using the Disk Defragmenter tool.
You can find the Disk Defragmenter tool by going to Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Disk Defragmenter. The disk defragmenter is very simple to use, all you have to do is select the hard drive/s and then click defragment disks or analyse if you want to just check them.
If you defragment your hard drive on a fairly regular basis then you shouldn’t have any issues with fragmented files. However if you have a PC that hasn’t been defragmented for 2 years, then it can slow your PC quite considerably.
Continue reading Improving PC Performance | Disk Defragmentation
By steve, on August 17th, 2011 Windows Update is a crucial part of any Windows Operating System. The majority of the updates are mainly to do with security of the product and your system. If the updates aren’t installed then there are potentially loopholes which hackers could identify and breach your system.
Also if the updates aren’t installed on your system then Microsoft will have even pointed out the loopholes to the potential hackers as Microsoft publishes the details of each update on their website. Your system should be set to update automatically as this takes away the inconvenience of having to manually check them.
To check whether your system is set to automatically update, go to your Start Menu —> All Programs —> Windows Update. For some older versions of Windows it will take you to a web page, where you will be able to see whther it is set to update automatically. For newer versions, there will be software built in to the actual operating system.
By steve, on July 20th, 2011 I recently recieved a direct message from someone on Twitter, and it reads ”is this really you in this photograph ?? [link to scam page]“. The link takes you to a page that appears to be the twitter login page, it looks exactly the same apart from the url in the top of the browser which reads “itiwitter.com”. If you insert your login details on this page and click login, it will take you to the real twitter login page, so in most cases users will think it didn’t log you in or you typed your details incorrectly and then carry on and login to the real twitter, and now the scammers have your twitter login details, which they could use to login to your account, take any information or personal details on there about yourself, maybe even send a few tweets or direct messages to everyone you know inviting them to the same scam page.
If you have used this scam page to login I would suggest you immediately change your password to your account.
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