My Spy Sweeper & Norton antivirus programs aren’t finding anything.
About 25% of my Google searches are being redirected to pages that look like THIS. The page is always the same topic of what I was searching for, but it’s not the site I clicked on. How do I stop this horseshit?
Step by step instructions to remove it lower on the page.
If you can’t see that;
Go to Task Manager (right click on the bar at the bottom of your computer and select Task manager). Go to the Processes tab. Click on AcroRd32.exe and then End Process.
Delete malicious registry entries
(Start > Run > Regedit)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\random
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\run\random
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products\wow64YRIK821024 “(Default)”=”1?
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\“UninstallString” = “‘%AppData%[RANDOM][RANDOM].exe” -u
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\“ShortcutPath” = “‘C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\wow64YRIK821024.exe” -u’”
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce “wow64YRIK821024” = “‘C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\random.exe’
C:\WINDOWS\assembly\JYG_64\Desktop.ini
C:\Windows\assembly\JYG_32\Desktop.ini
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ping.exe
Norton Power Eraser has been good to me for removing shit like that.
Huh?? What does Adobe Reader have to do with getting rid of a virus?
It’s a fake Reader process.
Thanks for the posts. I ran a Norton scan for the 3rd time today and it got it. It was Trojanwebkit.
What I don’t get is why it didn’t find it while it was loading on my computer (Norton has been very good at this) and why it took 3 scans over the course of 8 hours to finally find it!!!
New versions of these malware come out every day, and some use various methods to hide themselves from anti-malware apps like Norton.
Your copy of Trojanwebkit must not have been employing all of its cloaking techniques when it got caught, or your anti-malware may have just updated its definitions.
Serious question… Is there no legal penalties for these malware/spyware/whatever ware programs that are put on our computers without our permission and are doing things we do not want them to do?
I don’t understand how these sophisticated viruses can be created on a daily or weekly basis and the author(s) are impossible to track down and the companies using these programs can’t be found, sued, and/or put out of business.
It’s an excellent question. The penalties I would like imposed on folks who spread computer viruses and spyware are so completely f*cking disgustingly sick I’d probably be banned immediately for listing them here!
My research has revealed that most of these things are from foreign lands, so there is jurisdictional problems. I’m in Milwaukee. If this thing came from some dweeb in Indianapolis it’d be a lot easier to seek justice than to go after someone in Moscow or Dubai.
They also employ many layers of techniques to make it very difficult to discover the origin, and probably impossible to prove to a court’s satisfaction.
Another issue is that in the case of bad guys in Russia, the Federal Government is on their side.
So, basically this is a crime that is not pursued? I am assuming that is IS a crime to put unauthorized software on a person’s hard drive. If that programmer is downloading personal information, or capturing passwords or keystrokes, or doing anything at all while the software is on a person’s hard drive, I would think that a crime has been committed. Something along the lines of personal privacy?
But these programs are not being used by some kid in his basement. Especially if Internet tracking software is being used. In any event, if Norton et al can find these viruses on your computer, they can certainly find out the destination of any packets of information being sent from the computer. And companies are using this stuff to blast popups to our screens, etc., so real companies are utilizing this illegal software for their own purposes. I’ve never heard of any company being fined and/or sued or shutdown after being nailed for using illegal software. So what is the downside? Why not use it? And continue to use it? Better yet, why shouldn’t Norton come up with their own virus software so they can locate it and continue to insist their product is the best and most up to date?
If the Feds or state and local govts. all push this aside because they can’t chase down a criminal in some african or east Asian country, I don’t see an end to this problem ever.
The Command and Control networks for malware is complex and obfusticated - there are multiple stacked compromised servers and time sequenced DNS entries that make tracking where data ends up very difficult. Even if you do find an endpoint datastore (and some have been found by accident), you may still not be able to find out WHO is collecting that data - or it may be accessed by lots of people.
The complex networks involved require massive coordinated action to take down - the trouble is getting cooperation and jurisdiction in countries all round the world. And if you don’t get it (ie from a DNS registrar who refuses to delete C&C DNS entries, or a hosting provider who won’t cut off a profitable client involved in malicious action, or the payment providers who collect and direct money for the scammers) you cannot succeed. The DoJ in conjunction with Microsoft and AntiVirus companies have made some significant takedowns in the past, but there have been few convictions.
And avoiding malware is possible - keep your OS updated, don’t run as an administrator, only install software from known sources, use a current version modern browser (Firefox, Chrome, IE10, Opera) and run security software (Microsoft Security Essentials is free, lightweight, and works well).
If that isn’t secure enough for you, install a virtual machine hypervisor (VirtualBox is free) for browsing and run a LiveCD linux image - readonly and much more secure.
Si
I am using an IPad right now and granted it is harder to do some things like links and copy paste (for me anyway) but I have no problems with garbage popping up all the time like I do on my PC, Thankfully!
How are tablets safe, or appear safe from all that junk?
Tablets aren’t safe from that junk.
IPads and IPhones in particular have a relatively safe operating system, but it’s nowhere near fool-proof.
Yup. Also, they employ contractors and scapegoats to further obfuscate the human links. Servers are hacked - but the people hacking them have no knowledge of what they’re being used for or by who. Proxies and DNS services are purchased with stolen credit cards by kids in Burma or Bangladesh. The programming is done by students in India or Poland, but who have no involvement in its use. They cover their tracks using the same open proxy servers as millions of innocent Brazilians and Indonesians. The ads they display trace back to fraudulent accounts created by scam victims, or linked to stolen cards. The money is funnelled by naive people who think they’re Working From Home By Following This Simple Formula. Malware is spread unwittingly by infected web pages and PCs hosted unwittingly by people like the OP.
Who are you going to arrest? None of those people know who’s behind it all.