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.

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How exactly Immunet does so using the cloud is the first part of the Immunet story. How effective is its clout, is the second part.

To those who have come in late, here’s the Internet nuance of the term – cloud computing.

The term ‘Cloud’ is basically a figure of speech for the Internet itself. It generally covers services which can be hosted and delivered over the internet. The user just needs the hardware (a computer) and bandwidth. The software and services are provided by the vendor. This allows a user to interact with the software/service from anywhere. The term cloud computing came symbolically from the cloud drawing that’s commonly used to indicate the Internet in graphics and diagrams.

The Men behind Immunet

A critical cloud antivirus product like Immunet needs a stamp of credibility. That’s given by its developers – Oliver Friedrichs (former Director at Symantec) and Alfred Huger (former McAfee and Symantec executive). Both are gurus in the field of internet security.

The Premise of Immunet

Cloud computing is not a new fangled concept anymore. Google Apps is perhaps the most in-our-face example we have today. Or even the online games we enjoy. Though cloud computing has its own set of pros (scalability, maintenance free) and cons (security, privacy), it is starting to offer new ways to do hitherto desktop based tasks.

Immunet takes this approach one step further by bringing the web community on board in the defense against malware and viruses. Citing the fact that a collective defense against virtual scourges is better than a standalone rearguard fight, it best defines what it does –

Imagine for a moment that you could link to the computers of your friends, family and a global community to harness the collective security of all these systems put together. Every time someone in this collective community encounters a threat, everyone else in the community gains protection from that same threat in real time.

Immunet works on four fronts –

• Cloud computing
• Community based protection
• Collective wisdom
• Coincidental with installed antivirus

Immunet in Action

• Immunet (ver1.0.10) is free, light and hassle free to install. The 4.25MB application can be downloaded and installed in a flash. Ideal system OS are – Microsoft Windows XP (SP2 or later), Vista and Windows 7 (RC 32Bit only).
• The Immunet interface is clean and minimal sans complicated settings. The application loads and exists without noticeable lag.
• Immunet can run alongside Norton Antivirus (versions 2008, 2009 and 2010). Also supported are AVG Pro (v8.5) and MacAfee 2009. Other antivirus software are not specifically mentioned but it’s assumed that they can be run unless bugs crop up. (For instance, I am running it with Avast!)
• On installation Immunet starts off with a Flash Scan. Flash scan is a rapid-fire initial system scan.  This is not a comprehensive system wide scan. On my system, completion of the Flash Scan showed 2804 files checked in 1 minute 39 seconds. A later, full scan went over 3300 files in 3 minutes 12 seconds.



• Immunet features only one type of scan. Individual files or drives cannot be scanned individually. But Immunet does offer one feature – Protection Settings when enabled allow you to monitor application installations and starts. An Active Protection Mode takes a few seconds to check and block program installations unless they are deemed to be safe. You can switch these settings on-off from Settings.



• CPU footprint is very minimal.  On my system it was around 25 – 27KB while scanning.

Circle Your Wagons with Immunet

The sum of parts is greater than the whole. The Immunet cloud is at the center of the harnessing this community power. With your internet connection you are always connected to the cloud (i.e. the data center). The cloud aggregates virus definitions and every user taps into this security umbrella. This is Immunet’s version of collective immunity.

If one user in the social chain gets threatened by a virus, this information passes through the cloud to the others in the circle. The threat is identified and neutralized at the central server. Immunet protection thus kicks in for the entire community. This inter-linked detection and cure happens in real time. Thus every user shares in the collective wisdom gathered from each virus attack.

The community is built up through your existing Facebook account or a new Immunet account. (The Facebook button wasn’t working for me though).After logging in, the community building process works similar to social networks. Invite others from your Facebook, Google, Yahoo accounts or using Email. A broader based group should translate to more effective protection. Even if you do not log-in, you get the default protection offered by the Immunet global community.

So, will you bet on Immunet?

Cloud computing has inherent advantages and some prominent drawbacks as well. With the server doing the bulk of work, you don’t have to worry about updates. Centralized updates removes the risk of bloatware. The software is light and low on system resources. The community based protection is a good idea in theory. Its real power will be realized only when greater numbers log-in. Its early days…last figures suggest 1,800 users were logged in and were protected from 3.5 million threats.

The real disadvantage of Immunet is true for everything that’s on the cloud. Dependency on bandwidth comes at a premium in some places. For a high-priority need such as an antivirus, effective protection is the absolute bottom line.

The one singular feature (though traditionally people advise against it) of Immunet is that it can ride along with our existing antivirus solution. Thus, when it’s time to circle the wagons, Immunet can gallop in and along with the other antivirus, give double barreled cover.

If industry experts reckon that more than two million viruses will be created in 2009 alone and established protection has a 50-50 chance of catching all of them, then Immunet becomes a vital addition to our defense armory. The numbers may not match up, but even if a few sneak in they can become wreckers in chief.

With the first version label, it’s early days yet. But will you be a part of the community?

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There are plenty of ways to disable usb ports and you don’t need any special software.

Disable USB Ports By Disabling Autorun

Most of the malware that spreads through USB devices spreads because of the Autorun feature which automatically executes a said file mentioned in the autorun.inf file located at the root of the USB device folder tree. Something as unsuspicious as “Open folder to view files” to the untrained eye can be easily made to run any desired file on the drive and can thus infect your computer. So disabling autorun is always one of the better options. To do so:

• First, the key combination Win + R and type Gpedit.msc
• Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components, then click Autoplay Policies. (XP users should try Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System
• In the Details pane, double-click Turn off Autoplay.
• Click Enabled, select All drives in the Turn off Autoplay box to disable Autorun on all drives.

Microsoft Help and Support has more details and methods

Option 1. Disable users from connecting USB devices

You can prevent selected user accounts from connecting USB devices to your computer. So if you share your laptop/computer with a friend, you should create a separate user account and deny his/her account the ability to connect USB devices. Microsoft Help and Support provides steps to obtain such fine grain control.

Or you can simply navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor and set the value of Start to 4. To enable access again change the value back to 3

Although the site mentions that this applies to Windows XP, 2000 and 2003 it worked just fine on Windows Vista and Windows 7 as well.

Option 2. Change BIOS, disable USB ports, password protect BIOS

Enter your system’s BIOS, just when you press the Power On button. Look for anything that allows you to disable USB ports, disable them and make sure you add a BIOS password.

Option 3. User Device Manager to disable USB

• Go to Device Manager (Right click My Computer, choose Manage, choose Device Manager in left pane)
• Now look for USB Devices in the right pane, right click on the device and choose disable.

Of course you would like to make it a little easier to enable/disable the USB ports. For that you need to create a reg file that modifies the appropriate registry key. Here is an example (make sure to spell everything correctly):

Now double clicking on this file will enable access, similarly you can change 00000003 to 00000004 to create a reg file for disabling access.

None of these are fool proof, there is always someone smart enough to find a way around. If you really want to go all the way you can fill the ports with some epoxy or a similar substance! This is of course not a recommended solution for your personal computer but might come in handy for large organizations trying to prevent employees from using USB devices.

All in all the options are good enough to stop accidental, non intentional spread of malware/compromise of your computer as mostly happens when a USB device is plugged into different computers. However don’t bet your life on these if some one is really determined to use a USB device on your computer for whatever reason.

How do you protect your computer from malware spread via USB drives?

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Of course, those movies were exaggerating the power of computers or how they worked, but it was fascinating! The idea of taking control of something or figuring out how it worked by poking around and analyzing it. It was this endless world of possibilities that got us pursuing some of the most thankless jobs in the world.

So how do criminals do things like hack other people’s computers? It really doesn’t take a lot of skill at all.

Let’s assume I’m the criminal for the sake of this story. Disclaimer: I have never been charged with any crime. I do not do the things I’ll talk about here. You shouldn’t either! Do not try this at home – do it somewhere else.

The easiest way to hack someone’s computer is to get your grubby little hands on it.  If I got your computer AND found that your Windows XP accounts were password protected, I would simply use a bootable password reset disk to change or remove the passwords. Then I’m in. I’m not going to tell you where to get these utilities, however, I’m sure you can use Google.

If you had Windows Vista on the disk, with it’s BitLocker technology, it would be harder to get around the protection for certain. But it can be done. I’m sure this isn’t the only method out there.

“Okay smarty-pants! You’ve gotten into my account but I have passwords on all the documents that have my important information!”

Really? First, I don’t believe you since very few people even know that they can password protect documents. Second, there’s a good chance you use the same password for all the documents. Chances are you figure that having a strong password on the Windows account is good enough, that you’ve used a pretty weak one on your documents. Any sort of password cracker using a rainbow table or dictionary attack will get through those in a matter of seconds to minutes.

What if you had set a BIOS password, so that I couldn’t even get to the operating system without knowing it? Well, that’s another step in the right direction, but, yet again, it can be done. The thing is, now I have to do a lot of work. Steal the computer, crack the BIOS password, crack your Windows protection, and crack the document protection. Since most people who steal, steal from people they know, I’ll probably know that you do these things. I’ll look for an easier target. Lazy criminal laggards!

“But Guy!” you say, “what if  I do all of that but you want to get at me over the Internet?”

First off, why do you keep calling me Butt Guy? (Seriously, I NEVER get tired of that joke!) Second, um, yeah, I could do that. However, I’m less likely to try to actually hack your computer. What I’m likely to do is hack websites that you use to gather the information I need to steal your information or money. Even with some creative web searching I can get an awful lot of information on you. Seriously. Try searching on your name and aliases you use on the web. You’ll be amazed by the social profile one could build on you, to steal your identity. So, be careful about what you put out there. It’s out there, pretty much forever.

If you would like to trace someone online MakeUseOf lists a numbers of really good free tools in the post about 15 Websites to Find People On The Internet.

Let’s say that I’m going to hack right into your computer remotely. The easiest way to do this is to trick you into downloading software that will allow me to take control of your computer. This kind of software is known as a Trojan Horse. I may send you an attachment, or link, in an e-mail that, once you open it, installs the Trojan program without you knowing it. Or, I may set up a web page on a popular topic, that will attack your computer and drop the Trojan Horse onto it. Here’s a story on exactly that.

Once that Trojan is on there, I can use it to take information from you, or I might use it to set up a proxy for me to get to other computers. The nasty part of that is that it is possible for you to then be implicated in whatever crime I committed. Sure, a good lawyer would get you exonerated, but how many lawyers are good enough with computers to understand what just happened? By the time you pay for the lawyer, and dealt with the embarrassment of being charged, you’re already done in. Then I’m long gone.

So what do you do? Well, you keep your operating system updated, you keep your software updated, you keep your antivirus and firewall on and updated. You should also disconnect your computer from the Internet when you are not using. But really, who does all that?

Every computer is like a house – locks on the door, but a glass window right beside it. Just as my dad often said, “Locks only keep out honest people.”

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And these days, we rarely see “viruses”. They typically fall into the spyware category. Pop-Ups, porn and fake AV products seem to be the most popular of malicious material presently. While your AV sits in the system tray hanging out and doing absolutely nothing to protect you.

The majority of the time you end up relying on on another product to get the annoyingware off of your machine. So now you’ve got a $60 bloated product eating up resources on your machine and doing absolutely nothing to protect you.

In order to be preventative, it would be nice to maybe give some of these products, which usually have a trial version, a run for their money before making the plunge and purchasing the full product. I’ve found a few tools to give each of these a test run, and see how well they actually are protecting you.

Testing your Anti-Virus

An IT security group based in Europe called Eicar has come with a few different tools to test the effectiveness of your preferred AntiVirus application. There a few individual files to download and run, along with a ZIPPED file that will test your AV software and their ability to scan for viruses deeply embedded into other files. I should point out that Eicar does have a disclaimer:

Important note: EICAR cannot be held responsible when these files or your AV scanner in combination with these files cause any damage to your computer. YOU DOWNLOAD THESE FILES AT YOUR OWN RISK. Download these files only if you are sufficiently secure in the usage of your AV scanner. EICAR cannot and will not provide any help to remove these files from your computer. Please contact the manufacturer/vendor of your AV scanner to seek such help.

So, in other words, unless you have complete trust your in prevention, I would use either a virtual machine or another test machine besides your main system to do this test.

Testing your Anti-Malware

Malware is a whole different ballgame, and is much more common and prevalent in today’s “internet” world. A common, everyday search can easily ring in loads of pop-ups, adware, and deeply buried malware, spying on keystrokes, monitoring cookies and just being down right annoying. The problem is that it’s always evolving, and many protective products can’t always prevent malicious activity. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attempt to block it.

Spycar attempts to hijack your system, similar to typical malware activity and gives your protection a test. Spycar does not include any “exploits”, so you do have to click OK during the process for the test to take affect. If your preventative software is successful during the process, a built-in TowTruck application responds with a rating on your prevention and then returns your system to it’s original state.

There are several different tests to run through. All attempting to try and take advantage of all the various activity that normal malware would. These tools are fantastic. Especially for a brand new system you may be setting up in a business or enterprise environment.

Although not mandatory on all PCs, having some type of protection on your computer today is almost always a must. The problem that most tech savvy users have with them, is that most, just don’t work and most eat up way to many resources. Having a way to actually test some of the options out there, is a fantastic way to make your final decision. So you try it out…Download the latest AVG, Symantec or NOD32 trial and see which comes out on top with each of these tools.

Have any good sites to audit your pc for free? What sites are guaranteed to attempt to hijack your machine? What anti-malware apps do you use?

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It looks like Microsoft has wised up a bit and offers a little service called OneCare Safety Scanner, it is located at http://safety.live.com. When I tell some people about it they roll their eyes and give me that look, you know the look that says I do not want to give Billy Gates anymore of my hard earned money! Well if that was the case you would not be reading this on MakeUseOf… Are you following me?

Good! So long story short this is a free service that any authenticate version of XP or Vista can use to get a cleaning. It does not just look for spyware and viruses…

It also checks for registry mis-configurations and errors as well as other system issues like fragmentation. It will check on your firewall and antivirus programs as well. This program will also NOT let you shoot yourself in the foot. You will NOT be walking away with a busted computer when you are finished. Everything is un-doable via restore points as well. The one short fall of this application is that it MUST be run in Internet Explorer.

Let’s take a look at Microsoft’s Onecare Safety Scanner. Navigate on over to http://safety.live.com and you will see this. (I am working on a XP machine but I will show you what you need to do for your Vista machine as well.)

Simply click on the Full Service Scan button or you will see a link to the beta edition of the scanner for Vista (and possibly Windows 7!) It will start to download the scanning tools. This window will be in a pop-up so make sure pop-ups are enabled for this site or this instance. You will see a screen that looks like this below and you might get a security box asking you if it is alright to install the executable.

When the tools finish downloading you will be greeted by this screen:

I always choose the Complete Scan – it takes a bit longer but it will fix everything and even make sure your internet browsing experience is secure…. Or at least as secure as Microsoft Internet Explorer can be! You can find more information on which scan to choose by clicking on Help Me Choose or visiting this link here.

Once you start the scan it will start to download it’s scanning tools:

And then it will start initialing the scanners.

And finally it will start scanning your system. This can take a long time. I have had instances take up to 5 hours and I have had instances take less than 20 minutes. It all depends on how much crap you have on your system.

Once OneCare is done it will provide you with the results. In the instance below a virus was discovered and OneCare did a great job of cleaning it. My machine was recently de-fragmented and all my ports are straight so I did not see these items come up in my results but every machine is different!

I suggest scanning your machine before going to sleep and repairing it in the morning. Do you use OneCare? How about something similar? We would love to hear about it in the comments!

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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.

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