Advice Please!!! Wireshark

MelMcM

I have come to my computer this morning (I left switched on overnight) and strange things have occured. I will list as happened...


- 40 open windows
- Closed them and within 3 hrs a program called Wireshark popped up in a window and in my program list.
- Stated 8 viruses were found (listed worms and Trojans)
- Wants me to purchase software $59 to delete them.

I've tried to uninstall but it won't et me access 'nstall/delete progams' from the my computer menu. I restarted the computer but the same again.

Any advice is appreciated. Many thanks

danthemoneysavingman

Your computer is infected. First things first, DON'T PAY THEM! Giving your credit card details to criminals is not wise
Do you have anti-virus software? If so, it's not so good I'd say. What is it?
What operating system are you running? Is it fully up to date?

If you haven't got it installed, you'll want to run Malwarebytes antimalware. Please refer to the stickies at the top of this techie forum. (Malware/spyware removal guide)
You may want to run HijackThis as well if you can install and run it.

Please report back on your progress.

If you are unable to install/run MBAM/HJT I think you'll need to try booting in safe mode with networking (tapping F8 at start-up enables this).

JasX

As above, after you've eventually cleaned your computer up preventing future infections will require you to make sure you are set to automatically receive critical security patches from Microsoft, have an up to date internet browser (ie not an old version of internet explorer), have a reliable antivirus installed (eg Avira, MSE or Avast.... not a junk one like AVG) and get into good habits about never pressing 'yes' or 'ok' to let things randomly install themselves from the internet on your PC

Darksun

Here are some specific removal instructions for this malware.

Wireshark is actually the name of a legitimate program, widely used by IT/networking personnel, it looks like someone has ripped off the name.

marshyrob

The best advice mate is to rebuild the laptop. If its a Dell then it will have a recovery partition that you can use to put it back to the way it was when you bought it.

In my experience once you have a major infection things just are not the same. Backup any items you want to keep, ie pictures, films, documents etc then do a restore. That way you are 100% safe from any little nasties that you have failed to remove!

bat999

marshyrob wrote: »

The best advice mate is to rebuild the laptop. If its a Dell then it will have a recovery partition that you can use to put it back to the way it was when you bought it.

In my experience once you have a major infection things just are not the same. Backup any items you want to keep, ie pictures, films, documents etc then do a restore. That way you are 100% safe from any little nasties that you have failed to remove!

That's not the best advice.
It's your opinion.
:)

danthemoneysavingman

go with darksun's link, let us know if it worked for you.

John_Gray

Darksun wrote: »

Here are some specific removal instructions for this malware.
Wireshark is actually the name of a legitimate program, widely used by IT/networking personnel, it looks like someone has ripped off the name.

That's a good link!

MelMcM

Thanks fo the all the advice.

In the end I've used

www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-wireshark-antivirus

Fingers crossed but so far it seems to have worked!