I'm Just Sharing

Earlier today, my wife came into my office and said it looked like her computer had some kind of virus. I asked why she thought that, and she said something had popped up on her screen saying she had one. Of course, I had to go in there to see what she was talking about.

Yup, there was something that had popped up, but it wasn’t a virus. Rather, it’s this interesting little malware program that’s embedded in some sites that look legitimate, that, for some reason, don’t get flagged on Google, called Antivirus 2009. I know this thing shows up for many people in many different variations because I’ve come across it often enough myself. The thing is, I’m one of those people who, whenever I look something up on Google, I look at the link to see if it looks legitimate or not, and most of the time it looks like a site that would be just fine. And, when you go to one of these sites, you then have problems getting back to where you want to be because the popup keeps following you around and redirecting you, and you just might have to close your browser, or, as I had to do on my wife’s computer, open the task manager and end the program; that’s irritating as sin.

This is malware, plain and simple, and if it gets onto your computer, you’ll have the hardest time getting it back off. It’s so tough that in one of Microsoft’s last updates, it was a program included in their malicious software removal tool. And there are a lot of pages that give you instructions on how to get it off your computer if you, or your family member, does happen to download it.

I went to this one particular forum called BleepingComputer.com and read a little bit more about it, and I recommend, if you have any questions, that you read at least the first comment about it, which was very educational on how it works.

Folks, major warning here; if you ever get a popup from any site you visit telling you that you have to download something immediately to protect you, it’s a scam. Don’t do it; you’ll easily regret it later on.