New Virus Problem Emerging

 

There is a new virus or at least one that I had not heard of until this week when one of my personal computers got infected by it. This one I don’t think is even named yet but if your computer gets infected with this one you will know it by the signs which I will post in the following paragraph. However finding the cure may prove hard as one of the features of this virus is that it redirects all your Google and Yahoo searches. This does make it hard to try and find others who have not only gotten infected but have also found the solution.

Here are the symptoms:

1. You get the message “Windows VIRUS ALERT” Informing you that a virus has been detected on your computer and you should install and run the software. Now if you have surfed the internet very much you have no doubt gotten this alert before. It’s a Trojan and is trying to get you to download some infected software. But a simple click of the “X” in the corner always gets rid of it and your ok because it never downloads to your computer. Ok here is where this one differs:

The software message you get is from some company called “Pandora”. And they have their agreement as part of this “Alert”. However there is no place to cancel this alert nor does the “install software” link on it even work. At this point even if you use the “ALT, CONTROL, DELETE” to end the program your running it’s to late. This virus has already started infecting your computer.

2. If you have in fact become infected with this one. When you close your browser your desktop has now become the virus alert. This virus changes your desktop setting and then deletes the two tabs in your control panel that allows you to delete that one and change it back to your own.

3. Ok so now you realize your infected. So you try to do a google or yahoo search to find out what it is and how to fix it.

PLEASE PAY ATTENTION HERE!

When you do your search you will get the Google or Yahoo search results page like normal. However when you click a link to go to that site you will be redirected to some spam links sites. They may not be porn either but simply a link farm. You appear to be directed to LOOKSMART first then to the link farm.

4. Your computer will start to slow down and hang up. Often times you will have to reboot or restart your computer to get your login to work.

5. If you operate a website you logins to any secure area of your site will began to malfunction. Often times resulting in a blank page instead of allowing you to login.

6. Sites still appear to display fine in the FireFox browser but do not display correctly in Internet Explorer. In Internet Explorer you may not be able to view you page source code from the “view source” box. Again a blank page.

7. Chances are your Anti-Virus software you are running will not catch this one. Mine did not and many others did not and it was not one specific Anti-Virus Software but all of them.

Some tips:

When you are searching for help ( and you keep getting redirected so you can not get to the page) use the page “cache” option in Google. For some reason you will be able to view the page in the Google Cache form.

The fixes you will find are not total fixes. They do help you get rid of the desktop “Virus” message and replace your tabs and delete the images for the virus. And that appears to fix it until you try another search from Google or Yahoo. Then you will find that all the other symptoms are still intact.

Running your Anti-Virus does no good. It will show your system as clean but it’s is there in several files.

Some are calling it a “fack virtumode” virus.

Currently I believe I have found and removed all of this one but I am giving it a few days before I claim victory simply because I thought I had gotten it twice but each time there was some of it left.

The bad thing about this virus is that it appears to me that you actually get it by clicking a search link. We all know not to click links in emails that appear suspicion. Nor on sites that you do not trust. But this virus appears to be able to infect your computer by simply clicking a search link.

I am sure we will find out more about this one as we go along but for now please be careful. This one is no fun at all.

I will post more blogs about this virus as I find out more and as others discover more fixes.

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