S@ND wrote:Malware Cleanup Links
I use a number of products to check for, and clean up, malware.
Please Be-careful using some of this stuff as it might delete stuff you need.
A good place to start is with Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.aspx
You'll find links to install Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) (Microsoft's own malware protection), as well as a one-time "safety scanner". Note that Microsoft does offer some tech support for virus removal.
Another tip is if you do find a virus, trojan, or other malware on your system - research it! Know what your risks are with it! "Downloaders" try to download and install other malware - you'll need to more thoroughly check your system - especially for '0-day' malware! If you had a password sniffer, you should probably change passwords, or perhaps ensure your credit card numbers haven't been compromised.
Update: Many of these products will show "Tracking Cookies" as spyware. We'll talk about this in class, but such cookies "track" your internet activities. While not harmful per se, they are often seen an an invasion of privacy and can safely be deleted.
As for other types of detections - PLEASE USE CAUTION. Some products are a little too aggressive - deleting log files and "Recently Used" entries are generally may not be a good idea.
For good system security, think layers. Most AV products that scan real-time don't like to compete with other AV products on the same machine. When you have multiple products trying to scan files at the same time, you can really slow your system down!
The first group are antivirus products. Most have both free and commercial versions, and usually the free versions are very good!
http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage
http://www.cloudantivirus.com/en/forHome/
http://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html
Another option are free "on-demand" scans. These won't PROTECT your system real-time, but will scan your system for any viruses or trojans. I like to periodically do an on-demand scan from a DIFFERENT vendor than my real-time AV vendor. Any idea why?
http://www.bitdefender.com/scanner/online/free.html
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
Here's the link to their Rootkit scanner: http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/so ... =208280684
http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus
Several of these vendors also offer downloads to create a bootable CD - these make cleanup much easy in many cases!
http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
http://www.avira.com/en/support-downloa ... cue-system
Here are a few of my favorite sites for spyware detection and cleanup. Each of these products have a FREE version. Remember that any product you use MUST be updated - always have the programs check for updates before scanning your system!
http://www.superantispyware.com/
http://www.malwarebytes.org/
http://www.lavasoft.com/
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
As I mentioned, I life to use layers of protection. Antivirus software must be running at all times, and I manually scan for spyware on a regular basis - daily or weekly! Another good practice is to ensure your PC is running a firewall. Windows firewall in XP is poor. The version in Window 7 is better, but it's usually still a better idea to use a good 3rd party firewall.
Here's a good article from PCMagazine on a great firewall from Zone Alarm, along with a nice chart on how firewalls work:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2396159,00.asp
Like many of the other products I've listed, ZoneAlarm comes in various versions, both free and commercial.
http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us ... rewall.htm
Finally, if you have a file that you SUSPECT is malware, you can upload it to a few sites to have them scan it with multiple Antivirus products. Here's just a few of the sites I use for this:
http://virusscan.jotti.org/en
http://www.threatexpert.com/
http://www.virustotal.com/
http://www.Ccleaner.com
register clean up looks for old files with missing parts and deletes them.
hijackthis downloads at freeantivirus.com/hijackthis ***Use with extreme caution***
This is a lot of information, but hopefully this will help you keep your systems secure!