retro virus

[kirkcudbright]

Today's xkcd is apropos. My Windows box recently got fuxxored by malwarez ("Total PC Defender"). Twice. Scrubbed all traces of it, but the system still wasn't happy - random reboots while sitting idle, non-functional browsers. ClamWin antivirus didn't find anything. Finally ran three different malware scanners on the system - each found a different set of things (which doesn't really inspire me with confidence), but everything seems to be happy now. Fingers crossed.

I'm running Linux more for day-to-day stuff, but I still need Windows for things like Photoshop and InDesign; and OpenOffice frankly doesn't do a great job rendering Word documents.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd be wondering how much Microsoft has invested in the "security" industry.

Comments

[chocorua.livejournal.com]

Was 'gmer' one of them? I've had good luck with it so far...

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

Hadn't heard of it, but what the heck, might give it a try and see if it catches anything else.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

some of the admins i worked with recently swear by it to fix systems that the stupids infect.

#

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

I used Malwarebytes, Spybot Search&Destroy, and SUPERAntiSpyware, in that order. Couldn't really say which was the best.

[gravitrue.livejournal.com]

How did the machine get infected?

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I don't know, and that bothers me. My best guess is a rogue website.