If you are facing a similar situation, here are a few steps you can take to make sure you get rid of the trojan horse/virus and most of its ill effects if not all.

Scan thoroughly with the antivirus

Sounds trivial right? Why would you get infected in the first place if your antivirus could detect the virus? Well there can be a few reasons, make sure you get them out of the way. It will save you a lot of trouble:

• Update the antivirus to the latest version, and update the virus signature database.
• Harden the scan options, check on heuristics, potentially dangerous applications, early warning system or whatever fancy names your antivirus uses. Set the antivirus to scan within archives and choose wisely when you specify items to exclude from the scan or leave everything out for scan.

Now perform a system scan, this way you give your antivirus a better chance to detect newer viruses.

Scan the system in safe mode

Very important to do this once before you get into manually removing the virus and its effects. Sometimes the infected files might be locked by the operating system when working in the normal mode. So to increase your antivirus’ odds to detect and clean the virus, you should restart the computer, boot into safe mode and then perform a thorough scan of your system.

Keep in mind the above mentioned points as well. You can generally boot into safe mode by pressing the F8 key during bootup and choosing the safe mode option.

Use special virus removal tools

Various antivirus manufacturers offer special tools for removing viruses once your system has been infected. Try McAfee’s Stinger or Microsoft’s Malicious Software removal tool or Kaspersky’s Virus Removal Tools. These are special tools that do a great work of removing certain infections.

So once your antivirus has detected the infection, make sure to Google it, this way you can easily find specialized solutions, removal tools and advice on your situation.

Take things into your own hands

There are times when, due to various reasons, none of the above methods works. Even in such cases everything is not lost, you can still rid your computer of viruses and trojan horses by manually deleting the offending file and attempting to nullify the effects that it caused.

The effects vary from changing mouse/keyboard settings to infecting all files in RAM, to infecting all files using a particular library to corrupting the MBR and so on. Your ability to rollback these effects no doubt depends upon how much of a computer nerd you are, but with Google, various forums and Twitter there is a good chance you can make things work for you without having to make that call to your technician.

Here are some tips that may help you:

• Check what processes are currently running. Use task manager, make sure to show processes from all users. If you see any suspicious process name or description just Google the name and you will get all the information you need. Make sure to prevent it from running again if you think you found the problem. You can use msconfig and manage startup items to do so.
• Use HijackThis to diagnose a problem and create a log in case you want someone else to help you with your problem.
• Try to find the nomenclature various antivirus products use to refer to the type of infection you have on your computer. Once you know that, you will be able to find detailed step by step instructions provided by various antivirus vendors to get rid of it. It also makes it easier to search for specialized tools to get rid of the trojan horse/virus. Here is an example of one such page.

All of these methods will surely help your cause. However, your ability to completely rid your computer of a particular virus would depend on how early you are able to detect it, the type of the virus and the harm it was intended to cause (sounds a lot like cancer, isn’t it?).  Always take regular backups in case something goes wrong while attempting a clean up.

Do you have your very own ‘Get Rid of a Virus Workflow’? We would love to know about it in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Recently, there has been a lot of hoopla regarding Macs and their vulnerability to viruses. Apple initially recommended having one or multiple anti-virus programs running, then swiftly removed it; stating that the KB article was “old and inaccurate”. It kind of shook the whole Mac mantra about how “Macs are protected from viruses right out of the box” – and that got quite a lot of Mac users comtemplating about the necessity of anti-virus programs.

This is utter personal experience: I have yet to encounter any problems with viruses on my Macs.

But the cold hard truth is that no operating system is 100% uncompromisable and viruses aren’t your only worry. There are other malware like trojans and worms, spyware, user-faults and physical intervention to think about too. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Let’s focus on Mac viruses for a moment.

What is a computer virus? The Microsoft answer “Computer viruses are small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another and to interfere with computer operation.” [Link to definition]. If you look here, Sophos has published a timeline of all Mac malware-related incidences. Mostly, affliction towards Mac computers were caused by Office macro worms and trojans with only a few virus outbreaks. Also, notice that you can almost count the number of incidences spanning over 20 years with your fingers. That’s something to think about.

Another thing to think about is Apple’s market share. Currently, Macs are only almost 10% of the total US PC market. That said, it is a very unattractive market for malware writers to set foot in because attacks would not be on a sufficiently large scale.

The third reason why there have been only so few Mac exploits is the architecture of the OS X operating system. I’m not going to go into the details because like I said, I’m not an expert. Have a look at this article and decide for yourself. In a nutshell, OS X’s stronger permissions and system architecture make it hard for malware to be installed. Also, Macs do not recognize the EXE extension on which most malware are built on, making it immune to many of the popular exploits circulating on MSN Messenger.

Conclusion

There seems to be no substantial evidence that convinces me of the necessity to install an anti-virus program to run in the background, using up system resources for virus attacks which I will hardly encounter. However, you might want to consider an anti-virus if:

A good, freeware anti-virus which comes very highly recommended is ClamXav.

Besides malware, Mac are also vulnerable to spyware. Practicing “safe-surfing” is a precautionary method. Besides that, running an anti-spyware application can actually help get rid of tracking cookies. For that, take a look at MacScan, a free anti-spyware app for Mac.

Protect yourself

Aside from malware and spyware, user-foolishness is one of the more common causes of exploits. This applies to users on both Macs and Windows. For goodness sake, don’t click on every link you receive on MSN Messenger.

If you’re interested in keeping your Mac safe, I urge you read through and consider some of the most basic security tips listed below:

Avoid using the root account

The root account is the super-user account which is created at the time OS X is installed. Having an administrator account and a separate account for yourself and every other user may sound like a hassle but being stripped of admin rights can actually be a blessing. OS X will request for permission on every occasion it needs to alter files over on the root folder (/Library or /System) and prevent any possible malware script actions.

If you are already running on the root account, the option to remove admin rights will be bricked. Create another account and give it admin rights. Log in to that account and remove the admin rights from your user account.

To do this, open System Preferences and go to Accounts. You may have to click on the lock icon to apply any changes. Then click on Login Options.

Disable automatic login & Enable ‘Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver’

This will prevent any unauthorized physical intrusion to your Mac. Remember to lock your Mac (read this article about Lockdown) when you leave it to go to the bathroom if you’re in a public area; and it may be worth it to invest in a good Kensington laptop lock.

You will find these settings in System Preferences under Security.

Turn on your Firewall

Only allow the applications you trust to access the Internet (third option).

This setting is under Security -> Firewall tab.

Disable ‘Open “Safe” files after downloading’ in Safari

Being a little paranoid, I like to assume control of everything that happens on my Mac. And the fact that Macs were once exploited using this feature, I’d rather open the downloaded files personally, and archaically i.e. manually.

You can find this setting in Safari’s preferences under General.

Enable Guest account

If your friends want to use your Mac to check their mail or surf the Web, don’t let them do it on your account. Not everyone is equally tech-savvy. They may click on links which you wouldn’t even look twice at. Setting up a guest account for this purpose will probably prevent you from pulling your hair out if your Mac is infected. Worst of all, it wasn’t even your fault!

Plus, this will also deter others with dishonorable intentions when using your Mac like installing a keylogger or a screen-capture application.

Guest accounts can be added in System Preferences under Accounts. You may want to enable Fast User Switching so that you can switch back and forth through accounts without logging out.

Stop to think when prompted for the Administator password.

Like I said earlier, the admin password will be needed when a program is about to alter system files on the hard disk. Always stop to think and ask yourself why this program needs to alter your system files and if you trust this application’s vendor. Apple made OS X this way so that changes to the system will be authorized so don’t just brush it aside.

Set a different Keychain password

By default, your Keychain password is the same as your user account password. This means that if anyone knows your account password, they can enter that password and easily reveal all your internet account passwords because they are stored in Keychain Access. Having a different Keychain password will add another line of defense against this.

To do it, open Keychain Access. Under the Edit tab, click on Change pasword for Keychain “login”.

What other measures have you taken to ensure your Mac’s security? Any Mac gurus out there who would like to pitch in a few more ways to protect our Macs? Do you use an anti-virus and why? Let it all out in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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The basic premise behind Hitman Pro is that a single anti-spyware tool is often insufficient to detect the sheer variety of malicious code in the form of spyware and /or trojans. It is not an anti-spyware by itself but it downloads some of the popular anti-spyware scanning engines to scan your computer.

Therefore Hitman Pro is more of an umbrella for the rest of the scanning engines to work under. The scanning engines include names like – Prevx CSI Free, Trend Micro, Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE, Spybot Search&Destroy, Webroot SpySweeper, Ewido AntiSpyware, PC Tools Spyware Doctor and Sunbelt Counterspy. It also bundles in two trial anti-virus scanning engines (not real time protection) Trend Micro Sysclean and McAfee VirusScan.

The anti-spyware programs include trial versions of paid software like the Webroot SpySweeper and PC Tools Spyware Doctor. When the trial period is over, you will have to disable them or alternatively if you have the paid component then Hitman Pro recognizes and accepts them.

The interface gives the user control over which spyware engines to install and once the setup commences, the process is pretty much automatic. It’s as if the program switches on its auto-pilot. Each program is downloaded and installed in sequence along with the updates. The interface is vanilla simple and this obviously is a double-sided feature. The simple interface offers ease of understanding and use but it also takes away control over individual engines. The only option that’s available is to select the scanning engines.

Along with automatic scanning, Hitman Pro offers some extra features like a behavioral scan, browser protection and an expert mode.

The “behavioral scan” looks at suspicious registry entries and collates all orphaned links with related information. The users can then go over the results and remove the displayed files.

The “browser security” features (called ‘SurfRight’) allow for a safe surfing environment protected from trojan attacks.

The “expert mode” gives some control to the user to deal with the threats detected. The expert mode also retains a record of the earlier detections so that the user does not have to do a full scan again. At the end of it all, the program generates a single report file for your perusal.

After using the software for some time, I’ve discovered both its good and bad sides. Here’s a small rundown…

The good…

• An integrated all in one solution to take care of your ‘defense’ shield.
• It’s a great free solution for those who don’t like to be saddled with the individual complexities of an anti-spyware program.
• Simple basic control with a single click operation.
• Updates and patches are downloaded automatically.
• Uses the better known free anti-spyware software. Also has support for the paid ones.

The bad…

• Lack of individual control over the scanning engines.
• Multiple engines take up time and slows down the system. It’s best to run the engines when the system is idle. (An auto shutdown checkmark is a thoughtful help)
• As the individual engines bloat with repeated versions, downloads over slow connections could become a problem.

Hitman Pro’s appeal lies in its one-icon solution for multiple anti-spywares. Hitman Pro and its quiver of engines could just help us circle our wagons against the attack of the trojans.

Hitman Pro 2 (2.7.6.0) runs on Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

Note: As of date, Hitman Pro 3 is in beta phase and available for public download. However it offers a different flavored solution to its earlier version. It does not use third party software but relies on its own new sophisticated heuristic technique.

Why don’t you download it, give it a go and then let us know what you think of it? Did it manage to find extra spyware that was hiding in your computer?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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