Friday, January 22, 2010

Virus Warning

Several times recently while surfing the internet, I would get this fake "YOU'VE BEEN INFECTED WITH A VIRUS" warning. I wouldn't click on the "OK", but would "x" out instead. The warning would keep coming back until I finally would get out of the internet completely. I would then delete all my cookies and temporary internet files. Don't know if that does anything, but I just feel like I should do it.

Yesterday at work we got the following e-mail from Digitech Solutions, the company that administers our system. I don't really know if it's related to my experiences, but I feel compelled to share it with you.

Aloha Everyone,

Normally Digitech will not send out a system wide email to inform customers of viruses or other non-email related issues. However, because of the overwhelming service calls regarding a new virus/rogue software, we feel it necessary to let everyone know how dangerous this new virus and program is. The new virus/program is called Antivirus live.This program will infect your computer through Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, friendster, facebook, myspace and any other website with open advertising systems. This virus is infecting computers through scare tactics.

More than likely you will see a warning saying your computer is infected. When you click to close the warning, you are actually clicking to install the virus. When you see the warning, hold the alt key and then click the F4 key (on PC). This will terminate the fake virus warning. Warning: this will close any open program running in the forward Window. So save everything you were working on first.

We cannot stress enough about the seriousness of this virus. It disables ALL programs and downloads additional viruses. If you get infected, please unplug the network connection to the computer and immediately call us or any other respected computer repair company. Because of it's disabling affect we are unable to repair computers infected with Antivirus Live remotely.

If you are at a business we strongly recommend you avoid websites with potentially dangerous advertising. Using Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer will NOT protect you from this new virus. Additionally MOST antivirus programs are not stopping this virus because of the way it's infecting the computers.

We have had approximately 30 phone calls yesterday and have 10 computers in house with the same virus. That tells us this virus is very effective at fooling the average user. Use caution in the next few days. Make sure your antivirus is up to date and Windows Updates are installed. This will help you avoid this virus.

10 comments:

Betty Townsend said...

This is not good. Thanks for sharing, Jalna!!

:) josefina :) said...

This is for real. I just spent a good 12 hours removing the antivirus live from hubby's pc (his pc is really slow to begin with). I got the instructions online and had to download a malware remover to get it out. Had to run "msconfig" to get it into safe mode first, then scan and remove the virus. The reason it took so long is that you have to attempt many times to run any operation b/c the "antivirus live" will pop-up a warning and disable the action.

jalna said...

You're welcome, Betty.

Wow josefina. At least you figured out what to do to remove it. I would have no clue.

mmiissee said...

I heard something on the TV the other day about why people should change their passwords, but I didn't bother to watch the 10 o'clock news that night = ( I guess I should have. Thank you for sharing. I'll be on the lookout for this.

jalna said...

mmiissee, at work we're forced to change our passwords every few weeks (it seems). I guess it must be a good idea.

Randism said...

you can add my wife to the list of people who fell victim to the damn ting! unlike josefina, i no mo her skills an twelve hours so i wen take um to personal touch computerz and dey wen fix um up real fast; a huge pain for us but must be like christmas for dem! tanks for letting us know about it; didn't know it was so widespread until i read your post!

Erick said...

Thanks for the info. I don't want a sick computer.

jalna said...

Rand, I don't understand how the people who start these viruses get any gratification. Does it make them feel powerful or something?

You're welcome, Erick.

Randism said...

actually, da buggaz kinda smart; why? cuz some people fall for the bait and actually pay for what dey tink is anti-virus program!

jalna said...

hmmmmm . . .