Antispyware Master Removal Challenge
Posted on July 31, 2008 - Filed Under Scams
Antispyware
master joined the ever growing family of rogue security softwares earlier this
year, and fooled a number of PC users. Infected computers stop functioning
normally, produce scary pop-ups, and suffer from performance decrease. However,
there’s no need to bring the infected computer to repair. Manual recover can be
done at no cost.
Being one
of many other scam extortions circulating on the Web these days, antispyware
master definitely boasts more infected personal computers and laptops than
almost any other SmitFraud. Existing in several variations, it mutates and
changes its code to adapt to the new algorithms of popular antivirus programs.
That’s just one of the reasons why removing this malware may easily require
hours spent working on the manual procedure, since very few tools can help to
delete the infected modules automatically.
On the end-user’s
side, the process of removing pieces of the malware is relatively streamlined
and easy to follow. Almost any PC user with experience at Intermediate level or
higher can successfully clean out the parts of antispyware master.
However,
there is a number of complications that can potentially interfere with the
removal procedure because of several unexpected factors, such as:
This
malware rarely resides in the system alone; most of the time antispyware master
virus shares the memory and space with other Trojans and rogue security
programs. A bundle of SmitFraud infections can significantly harden the healing
of the system, often making it nearly impossible;
The nature
of this virus allows it to ruin the active security shields of installed
anti-virus applications, thus beating down its first and major enemy;
Modifications
made to the registry allows the scam to prevent certain services from ever
running again; those services usually belong to security programs, which are
unable to even load up to start scanning;
Disabling
the Task Manager and corrupting settings of system attributes makes antispyware
master the uncrowned boss of the system; it’s not uncommon to see users unable
to log on normally into desktop environment.
This is
where the Safe Mode of Windows helps a lot to identify the malicious processes
and delete the associated files. A free utility from Trend Micro, called
HiJackthis, conveniently shows startup processes, instances of code injection
into system files, affected registry entries and modified browser helper
objects. Because antispyware master is relatively harmless in Safe Mode, this
regime of Windows is a true saver for many PC users. After manual removal of
malicious pieces if the malware, HiJackthis gives the options to fix
suspiciously looking registry keys.
Finally,
the fight can be won using a free anti-malware command-line scanner provided by
a-squared, or yet another anti-malware tool from Malwarebyte’s. These programs
“polish” the system to restore the safety of installed programs and
user’s settings. DrWeb offers one more command-line antimalware scanner for
those comfortable with non-GUI applications.
It is worth
noting that command-line scanners are not as complicated as many novice PC
users think. However, security tools of this kind have a set of very sound
advantages over their traditional counterparts with graphic interfaces and mouse
support. First, DOS-like tools do not require installation. Because sometimes
malware corrupts the Windows installation routine making it impossible to
install any removal program, this is the only way to wipe out the infections
without going for bootable recovery CD’s. Second, command line scanners are
free. They do not require Internet connection to authenticate. They are
flexible in configuration, yet suitable both for expert users and novices. Finally ,
they are lighter on system resources than most desktop programs.
My substantial
experience proves that even newbies with basic knowledge about Windows
maintenance finally manage to get rid of the Antispyware master bug.
About the author
only free software tools.
Kelly
Wright is a PC management and web safety consultant who publishes articles
about Internet security and Windows-based computers’ maintenance.
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