Malware / Trojan / Virus (M_T_V) removal tips for NEWBs
By Heather - Page 1
Based on a Malware / Trojan / Virus infestation so huge as to be comedic.
In fact there is something more than comic about a Trojan that first cuts off access to the Internet. A PC version of a suicide bomber?
Working backwards from the fact of a self-defeating Trojan, it seems likeliest this was the sort of "script kiddie" creation that Steve Gibson talks about. That is, a Malware / Trojan / Virus combo put together from a "make your own virus" kit by someone tech-savvy who can't be bothered to write a program from scratch when there are solutions in the world. OK, that fits almost every thinking person who isn't a computer genius.)
The script kiddie idea is supported by the fantastic program names that the M_T_V combo was generating - iruleurls.exe; QPRare5h1t .exe or similar - that just sound straight from the brain of a 14 year-old boy. So, once I'd found I could actually save (most of) my PC, I started to warm to the expression of teenage creativity in sticking together dozens of M_T_V bits - like scratching on a turntable, but with code rather than music. Though it obviously seems pointless to trash unknown people's PCs for no reason, unless you look at life through the eyes of a14 year-old boy, it's low-level vandalism compared to throwing bricks on trainlines and it requires a reasonable level of technical knowledge and therefore, intelligence.
Anyway, the M_T_V infestation made me realise what a panic-struck NEWB I was and I learned a lot by trying to fix the problems.
Footnotes
1 - Malicious software (You guessed that I bet)
2 - Way to access to your PC so information can be taken from it or so the PC can be used to do other things - pass on spam; take part in Denial of Service Attacks. (In a DOS attack, a company's servers are flooded with packets - so they can't carry out their normal activities.
3 - A program that behaves in ways that can be likened to a biological virus - it embeds itself in the host (programs on your PC) becomes active and replicates itself.
4 - https://www.grc.com/ - GRC produces security products/advice and runs a free online check of your PC's Internet visibility and penetrability. GRC was itself subject to repeated DOS attacks after Gibson published words online that were taken to be offensive to "script kiddies". Gibson's account of the incidents is on the GRC site. http://www.grc.com/dos/drdos.htm
