Discussion The importance of anti-malware

maillon

maillon

Honorable Pirate
Greetings again lads,

Working on the laptop which had the Cerber Ransomware virus I discussed in an earlier thread, I stumbled upon some stuff I thought to be general knowledge, but apparently are not. This thread is worth a read for Anyone experiencing strange issues on their systems from time to time.

For people who do not spend their entire day working on and with computers, and even for some who do, the importance of running anti-malware programs alongside your antivirus can not be taken lightly, you should also do weekly scans with AntiSpyware tools, just to be thorough.

This laptop in my hands came up with 156 infected files on first AV scan, after which I reconfigured everything, when I went to windows updates however it would not run, and trying to manually update windows update itself resulted in errors. Conclusion - Malware. This device has never run any anti-malware program, thus, I ran a full scan using MalwareBytes. NOTHING came up.

Confused I ran a quick anti spyware scan, just to check things. It came up with 30 threats in under 2 minutes. Now doing a full scan with this tool, in the hopes this will be able to find everything.

What I want to say with this post is; only Avast or AVG or any antivirus isnt enough, run a program like Malwarebytes alongside it. especially for the uhmmm.. Pirates.. in the forum.. Not our kind of pirates, you know.. the ones from the... "bay".
 
maillon said:
Greetings again lads,

Working on the laptop which had the Cerber Ransomware virus I discussed in an earlier thread, I stumbled upon some stuff I thought to be general knowledge, but apparently are not. This thread is worth a read for Anyone experiencing strange issues on their systems from time to time.

For people who do not spend their entire day working on and with computers, and even for some who do, the importance of running anti-malware programs alongside your antivirus can not be taken lightly, you should also do weekly scans with AntiSpyware tools, just to be thorough.

This laptop in my hands came up with 156 infected files on first AV scan, after which I reconfigured everything, when I went to windows updates however it would not run, and trying to manually update windows update itself resulted in errors. Conclusion - Malware. This device has never run any anti-malware program, thus, I ran a full scan using MalwareBytes. NOTHING came up.

Confused I ran a quick anti spyware scan, just to check things. It came up with 30 threats in under 2 minutes. Now doing a full scan with this tool, in the hopes this will be able to find everything.

What I want to say with this post is; only Avast or AVG or any antivirus isnt enough, run a program like Malwarebytes alongside it. especially for the uhmmm.. Pirates.. in the forum.. Not our kind of pirates, you know.. the ones from the... "bay".
Click to expand...

Just a tip (for everyone) if you ever run into another ransomware virus, especially if its crypto locker or something way worse. If you see that your computer or whatever is acting funny after clicking an email link or something (use common sense basically)

TURN OFF THE COMPUTER, ransomware can't encrypt your files if it aint running ;)

Then, boot back BUT into safe made, then run your Avira, or whatever program can detect it. Boom, easy way to get rid of ransomware/crypto ware without all your files being encrypted. I think even Windows Defender can catch them....
 
Pirate Dog said:
Just a tip (for everyone) if you ever run into another ransomware virus, especially if its crypto locker or something way worse. If you see that your computer or whatever is acting funny after clicking an email link or something (use common sense basically)

TURN OFF THE COMPUTER, ransomware can't encrypt your files if it aint running ;)

Then, boot back BUT into safe made, then run your Avira, or whatever program can detect it. Boom, easy way to get rid of ransomware/crypto ware without all your files being encrypted. I think even Windows Defender can catch them....
Click to expand...
This is very sound advice. never do this in the middle of updates though lads :) I'm not coming over to fix your corrupted data haha. Not dealing with that. :p Format C.
 
I say you just re-format the whole thing and say the virus was actually a plague upon on our great nation so in order to save the country from going into a recession we had to wipe her entire computer and rebuild it.

Or I just tell people to install Avast and stop using McAfee or Norton and clean up the viruses on their computer. (I'm actually really bad at this because I currently have 2 computers on my network with no anti-virus whatsoever... :oops:)
 
Solomon Warshot said:
I say you just re-format the whole thing and say the virus was actually a plague upon on our great nation so in order to save the country from going into a recession we had to wipe her entire computer and rebuild it.

Or I just tell people to install Avast and stop using McAfee or Norton and clean up the viruses on their computer. (I'm actually really bad at this because I currently have 2 computers on my network with no anti-virus whatsoever... :oops:)
Click to expand...

no anti-virus is not really an issue as long as you know what you're doing :) I don't have one on my gaming PC so it won't block any gaming files or traffic I work with, but on that PC, for instance, I don't torrent :) I only torrent on one old laptop ive got, and virus scan the files on it before sending to my other clients :)
 
In the end, you gotta be careful what websites you visit, what you download. No software can handle everything for you. These programs are just to be extra sure you aren't messing something up, but they don't always work as intended. Multiple times I've had warnings about "threats", because my C++ code was scanned and described as "malicious". For me, they do more bad than good.
 
Falco said:
In the end, you gotta be careful what websites you visit, what you download. No software can handle everything for you. These programs are just to be extra sure you aren't messing something up, but they don't always work as intended. Multiple times I've had warnings about "threats", because my C++ code was scanned and described as "malicious". For me, they do more bad than good.
Click to expand...
you are completely right :) same reason I don't run the software on my gaming rig (on which I do all my work aswell because power xD)
 
maillon said:
Greetings again lads,

Working on the laptop which had the Cerber Ransomware virus I discussed in an earlier thread, I stumbled upon some stuff I thought to be general knowledge, but apparently are not. This thread is worth a read for Anyone experiencing strange issues on their systems from time to time.

For people who do not spend their entire day working on and with computers, and even for some who do, the importance of running anti-malware programs alongside your antivirus can not be taken lightly, you should also do weekly scans with AntiSpyware tools, just to be thorough.

This laptop in my hands came up with 156 infected files on first AV scan, after which I reconfigured everything, when I went to windows updates however it would not run, and trying to manually update windows update itself resulted in errors. Conclusion - Malware. This device has never run any anti-malware program, thus, I ran a full scan using MalwareBytes. NOTHING came up.

Confused I ran a quick anti spyware scan, just to check things. It came up with 30 threats in under 2 minutes. Now doing a full scan with this tool, in the hopes this will be able to find everything.

What I want to say with this post is; only Avast or AVG or any antivirus isnt enough, run a program like Malwarebytes alongside it. especially for the uhmmm.. Pirates.. in the forum.. Not our kind of pirates, you know.. the ones from the... "bay".
Click to expand...

Something would be a bit easier for many is to simply create a system image (basically, a massive save state of your system) and store it on external media and keep it secure. If you notice any odd behavior, revert back to that image.
 
jamesc1997 said:
id say just wipe you system and reinstall windows or whatever you run
Click to expand...
What if your hard drive's microcontroller is powerful enough on its own to run Linux and someone installs it remotely? The only option would be to destroy your hard drive and buy a new one.
 
I hate all anti malware because it affects performance but good points nonetheless. I usually just format my computer if I see signs of any virus.
 
Hey... that's not the actual download button.
Gonna put this in a spoiler went on a bit of a tangent.
Stay safe mate.
I don't actually use anything except Windows Defender. I still download sketchy stuff from sketchy places with no problems the difference between people who get viruses and people who don't is... drum roll please! READING :)

It all comes down to reading, especially in set-up wizards. Set up wizards like this Smart Defrag 5 setup from IObit, a somewhat trustable source has AdWare, and most people would click right through not reading not noticing what they just agreed to. BAM you've just said "yea IObit i want your adware". (may i add AdWare is the most annoying thing to fix)
Captureedit.PNG

And, Videos for god's sake videos, watching a video CAN give you viruses and not something like YouTube videos; Videos on strange websites will give you viruses.

DON'T CLICK ADS

Don't do torrenting, really just dont. It's probably illegal, and torrents are festering with viruses, it's just not worth it. Half the time the content in the torrent doesn't even work or has one of those adware set-up wizards that you have to do to get that thing you so desperately want.
 
I hate RANSOMWARE! My mom's computer got attacked by one before. Undoubtedly we did not want to pay for anything...And we finally solve the problem with the help of a IT guy. He recommended me some useful solution to deal with such thing. However, I can not understand some information as they are too professional. But I think it might help you guys.

Alredy Broken Ransomware:

- WildFire
- Chimera
- Teslacrypt
- Shade
- CoinVault
- Rannoh
- Rakhni

Sources
http://www.trymytools.com/category/ransomware/
http://911ransomware.com/forum/threads/list-of-free-ransomware-decryptors.53/
 
MarkPlankwalker said:
It's probably illegal, and torrents are festering with viruses, it's just not worth it. Half the time the content in the torrent doesn't even work or has one of those adware set-up wizards that you have to do to get that thing you so desperately want.
Click to expand...

Doesn't work? Where are you downloading from? lol I've never had such a problem.

Also, rarely you have to be aware of adware when downloading torrents, actually, it's always when I download either proprietary software or software that belongs to a corporation that they try to shove their toolbars or useless products into my face.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top