Computer Virus

[mmglobal]

I've had computers since they were made out of stone and have NEVER been hit with a virus like this. It's a very sophisticated, multi-pronged attack. I believe I know how I got it. A website said I needed the newest version of Flash and I wasn't paying enough attention and agreed. I did not see the results right away, and there was a legitimate windows update about the same time too.

Later that day, after a reboot, all starts of any web browser gave me warnings of unsafe internet browsing and tried to force me to a website to purchase "perfect defender". Frequent popups about viruses occurred that also forced me to this website.

Internet searches for any clue I had came up with hundreds of hits. These websites and forum posts (some on legitimate forums) yielded info on how this virus comes from 'russian scammers' and HERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO REMOVE IT. These seeming legitimate instructions all included steps about downloading a program, that I'm sure is part of the scam.

I'm biting the bullet and nuking the computer. More than a day will be lost.

Unfortunately, I had temporarily disabled my virus protection as I was dealing with performance issues as I upgraded to Office 2007 Enterprise and Windows Search. I assume that the program would have kept me out of it. In any case, I'm going to change the way I do my updates.

All updaters will be be used only for notifications of pending updates. When I learn of updates, I'll manually go to the appropriate website... never following onscreen instructions to click for an update. I'll also be smarter about 'temporarily' disabling protection software.

What a frustrating waste of time this all turns out to be. I hope that my warning saves someone the same headache.

All the best.

Mark

PS... emails warning of viruses that say to forward to your friends are more likely to be viruses that helpful info!