System Tools virus: Poll

mr_fishbulb

First line of protection against this (and all other FakeAV/ScareWare) is common sense. Don't install anything just because you see a box telling you to. Occasionally vulnerabilities exist in browsers or addins which will install stuff like this without prompting the user.

Second line is running a browser with a script blocker. E.g. NoScript on FireFox, or NoScripts for Chrome.

Make sure you browse the Internet with a non-admin account (or use UAC on Vista and Windows 7).

Keep all your patches up to date - Microsoft and 3rd Party. Secunia PSI is great for that.

Hardware firewalls won't do anything to protect against this. This malware is served up over normal http traffic and your router cannot tell any difference between that and a file you have legitimately requested.

Of course make sure you have AV running. Any AV is better than none. Flavour of the month seems to change, well, err, monthly, but general advice seems to be stick to Avira, Avast, or MSE.

birkee

OnAndUp wrote: »

I wouldn't say it's a matter of courage just because you pay for it it's not necessarily better. From my limited knowledge a lot of the free AV software is as effective as paid for and often recommended by experts including several on this forum.

Didn't say 'free' was no good, it's just that there would always be a 'nagging' thought, wondering whether I missed out on some protection by not paying. You know the feeling! Did I turn off the gas, before I left the house?

OnAndUp

birkee wrote: »

Didn't say 'free' was no good, it's just that there would always be a 'nagging' thought, wondering whether I missed out on some protection by not paying. You know the feeling! Did I turn off the gas, before I left the house?

Yes I know exactly what you mean! But when you think about it - the paid for ones get a lot of customers on a "guilt trip" because they are paying and therefore feel safer and better protected!!

This is a money"saving!" site after all!

patman99

Notice the Beeb didn't mention the majority of end-user infections came from Ebay.

As for AVG, I had no wish to have the largest Poll on MSE (actually I forget).

Never heard of 'SecuniaPSI' before. Now added to my security tools folder and installed on my laptop.

mr_fishbulb

patman99 wrote: »

Never heard of 'SecuniaPSI' before. Now added to my security tools folder and installed on my laptop.

I run it every once in a while to make sure all my 3rd party software is up to date. It's very useful

geordieracer

ghandi wrote: »

Not infected, but 'disinfected' a laptop for someone else this weekend; they also had other multiple backdoor trojans, rootkits, etc. User commented that if a window pops up saying 'install me', that is exactly what they do!!!

I would imagine most people who have got it have done exactly this no matter what they were using..

i only use avast and Mbam free version along with my routers firewall and never have anything..

Austinhead

I fix computers for a living, and have had 4 calls about this just this week. It's very prevalent at the moment, msg me if you need any help getting rid of it.