Question

prevent floating malware

Asked by: blackdogtech

what's up with the prevalence of "floating malware"? specifically, trojan.vundo. alpha antivirus, xp antivirus 2009, xp antivirus 2010 ad nauseum.
i am an IT Professional. what are you all using to protect your users from this crap?
I typically install Avast or AVG and the active version of MalwareBytes.
i tell my clients that the best malware preventer is the person behind the keyboard. but they are users (and my bread and butter, thank god!)
seriously though, i have better things to do with my time (and my clients have better things to do with their money) than to have to remove malware infections all the time.
what program is out there that prevents this crapware from infecting a windows system?
more importantly, who is developing this s**t and why isn't someone/entity doing something about it?
don't tell me to have them "get a Mac". i have told them. and it's not practical for some people to
switch OS's.
yeah, ranting, sorry. but i make my living fixing people's computers. and it would be nice to have some opinions from y'all.
i'm just looking for different options from pros to protect computers from the users.

big :)

thanks

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Asked On
2009-10-27 at 23:12:24ID24849866
Tags

malware

,

scareware

,

adware

Topics

Internet Security

,

Anti-Spyware

,

Anti-Virus

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
10

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Answers

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-10-27 at 23:44:44ID: 25680455

You're 'right on' there, the best preventer is the user of the pc. Even though we can install all the necessary security programs e.g. antivirus, firewall, anti-malware plus making sure that Windows have all the necessary updates at the end of the day it still depends on the user.

MalwareBytes with real-time protection is the best anti-malware program for this plus the user's security knowhow. Rogue antivirus can enter the system even when the user is running on limited privs account that's why user
s security knowhow is important here.

With trojan vundo, the system must have the latest version of java as the lower versions are very vulnerable to vundo infections.

And even if the system still get infected, MalwareBytes can remove rogue antivirus and some variants of vundo... and for any nasties that MBAM can't remove then there's always Combofix which is the best program out there for cleaning all kinds of infections.

 

by: younghvPosted on 2009-10-28 at 04:29:22ID: 25682024

(Comments copied from the duplicate question - Hi rpg)

BDT - great question and since "use some Common Sense" means nothing to your customers or mine, I put together this list a long time ago. It hasn't changed in about 5 years:

Some basic recommendations:

Must have a reliable Anti-virus/Anti-spyware professional program installed and updated (no "Free" stuff).

Hardware Firewalls: Use the native XP/Vista FW on your computers and add a small Linksys FW/Router (hardware) at your incoming internet connection.

Use a pre-built "HOSTS" protection (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm) and sign up for their auto-mailer to notify you of updates.

Cookies - "First Party" set to 'Prompt' (Allow Session) and "Third Party" set to 'Block'.

Make sure that all Internet activity is through a "Limited" or "Standard" account. Doing so will severely restrict the ability of malware to infect the computer.
-----------
I used to recommend some of the Free applications, but the ones I've used required the users to actually take action to help themselves. I've since found out that unless everything is automated for them (including scheduling backups) it just ain't gonna happen.

 

by: BGTSLLCPosted on 2009-10-30 at 13:24:49ID: 25706506

Might I also suggest [depending on the environment]; and it's something I use also for my clients:  OPEN DNS.

It's an excellent and free way to limit such reoccurrences.  I basically tell my clients; look either I'm going to keep coming back and you'll need to pay me because even with the active version of MBAM; sometimes the infection requires more or let's set it up and then we can monitor, etc.  don't forget to put Combo Fix on the machine also.

Hope that helps.

 

by: younghvPosted on 2009-10-30 at 13:37:08ID: 25706592

BGTSLLC -
I love ComboFix and use it all the time - but never install it unless you need it - and - properly uninstall it when you are finished working the specific malware problem.

 

by: BGTSLLCPosted on 2009-10-30 at 13:41:07ID: 25706627

I'm not aware that Combo Fix actually installs on the pc as I've yet to see a PC in which it left remaining residue files with the exception of the logs.

I get about 5-10 infected pc's per month with my business and it will clean things even Malwarebytes fails to get.

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-10-30 at 16:57:19ID: 25707586

<<<"as I've yet to see a PC in which it left remaining residue files with the exception of the logs.">>>
ComboFix has a lot of files... and it is a powerful tool and younghv is quite right to say that Combofix has to be uninstalled afterwards for many valid reasons.

 

by: blackdogtechPosted on 2009-11-01 at 22:01:25ID: 25717307

ok. i hear you all. and thank you very much for your insights!

RPGGAMERGIRL and BGTSLLC- thanks for the ComboFix recommendation. I used it the other day and it worked really well. Yes I did uninstall after use.

YOUNGHV- what AV/AS program do you recommend? And I agree with you- the ordinary user is either unwilling or unable to take care of the security stuff until it happens to them.

i have left this topic open hoping to hear some opinions/answers to the second part of my question. specifically, are there any organizations "out there" looking into the scareware scam? isn't there a way to track the browser hijackers and penalize the domain hosts?

whuddya think?

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-11-02 at 05:53:18ID: 25719232

<<<"specifically, are there any organizations "out there" looking into the scareware scam? isn't there a way to track the browser hijackers and penalize the domain hosts?">>>

Unfortunately not.... I wish there were Internet Police that patrols the World Wide Web and prune all those scam/rogue sites. The sad thing is because of money some major download sites are offering those very rogue programs. For example these 3 major sites below also offer rogue programs for users to download. So one needs to be careful what programs to download.

http://www.softpedia.com/
http://www.zdnet.com/
http://www.cnet.com/

 

by: BGTSLLCPosted on 2009-11-02 at 08:07:27ID: 25720610

RPGGAMERGIRL,

Can you please advise where Combo Fix installs itself on machine?  Is it listed under Program Files somewhere or under Control Panel?

Please advise and thanks!

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2009-11-06 at 14:08:09ID: 25763507

blackdogtech,

Thanks for using Experts-Exchange!



BGTSLLC,

Combofix doesn't install itself in Program Files folder nor does it show up in the CP's Add/Remove.
But it needs to be uninstalled correctly.

Furthermore:
* Discussion of Combofix in any public thread is prohibited by its author.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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