A warning "personal security"

[byron]

Don't ask me how but I ended up with a copy of "Personal Security" on my PC. This cannot be removed through Windows and is nothing more than a scamming rogue program. Various different attempts caused me to lose all my desktop and being nagged constantly to buy it.

I managed to open "Super AntiSpyware" which was a result because "Personal Security" had disabled my virus checker . This ran for nigh on a half hour but identified the rogue program in several places and removed it.

If you look up "personal Security" people give several solutions most of which are somewhat complex but "Super Antispyware" did it without any fuss.

 

[oldsaltoz]

Hi Byron,

Ya godalove gremlins.

I use a free program called ' Win Patrol ' it detects any new program or process and blocks it then displays a message asking if you want to allow it or the process to run, a simple yes or no is required.

Also handy is a search engine called ' Everything ' it will find just about any file on your computer by name, it will not look inside the file but will show the location and date.

Last but not least is another freebie called ' Revo Uninstaller ' this not only removes programs but also all trash the uninstall programs leave behind to clutter up your system.

PS. You can run as many antivirus programs on your computer as you like, however you can only run one firewall if you want to run fast and have some resources left.

I hope this helps.

 

[byron]

I suggest you look "Personal Security" up. None of the programs you mention will deal with it. This is because it hides itself and disables others. It is a real menace.

 

[BrendanS]

A real problem with such rogues is that they change rapidly, and whilst one antimalware will work at date of posting, they may not a week later, depending on the version they encounter.

I always work on a multilayered approach to removal. First is removal of the obvious problem, which in the case of 'personal security' has many aliases. The real issue is that many of these malwares leave things behind, once you think they are cleared. I usually run several scans, from different antimalware, and at least one online scanner which is not installed on the computer. Personally I'm paranoid, and will also run rootkit revealers/removers, but these tend not to be for the average user.

If anyone here does not know how to go about all of this, then I can provide the url's to several websites where volunteers will talk you through the process of removing all traces of problems until they are satisfied that your computer is actually clean, though they don't normally go as far as rootkits, as there is really no guarantee your computer is rootkit free, without going to extreme lengths (which happens in some very secure environments)

 

[byron]

Brendan you are so right. After running 'Super Antispyware' I too wasn't 100% satisfied so I ran 'Malwarebytes', after 35 minutes it had located two more vestiges of 'Personal Security'. True these were only harmless shadows but they still shouldn't be there and could provide maybe a base for the Malware to cling on to and refresh itself later. I don't know how these things work. The damn thing shouldn't have got past my security in the first place as I'm better protected than the average PC user.