This is a more in-depth description of what was found and why it is happening to so many users.
This malware apparently affects most, if not all, search engines currently available on the Internet via the use of proxies to effectively hide the source of the malware infector currently in use and maintain control of the million or so Windows machines currently infected.
Topics found above directly impact users currently having difficulties with redirects in search engines and rogue anti-virus programs.
Kudos for Google in letting us know about this problem.
I hope the information provided above will help others to make the best decision possible about what to do about their machine’s unexpected and unwanted behavior.
mchain
XP Home Edition SP3 P4 2.8 2 GB RAM Avast! Home Edition Free 6.0.1203
Already mentioned in another topic, which deals with this sort of thing (Security Warnings & Notices, etc.) to keep them all together and then people can bookmark it or click the notify button in the topic and get notifications on new posts.
I did search the forum for a similar topic, did not find one, so posted here (erroneously).
Just thought I’d pass on what I had found re the redirect behavior some users have here in the virus and worm forum.
It is good that Google has taken the time to post online what they discovered, and that a helpful remedy is given.
Broadly stated, a virus is a computer program that runs on a users system w/o permission and/or has unwanted behavior, is difficult to remove, and makes registry changes difficult to discover and find and correct, and also compromises the integrity of a system.
In the thread you posted above, Hotmail is providing the option of tagging an email address as “hacked” that is also a step in the right direction. This tool alone could reduce the volume of spam by a significant amount.
That was why I posted it here.
From now on, I will post notices in the Security sector if there are no other postings re the subject I know about.
mchain
XP Home Edition SP3 P4 2.8 2 GB RAM Avast! Home Edition Free 6.0.1203
You’re welcome, it is as you say some things can be hard to find, which was why someone came up with the idea to keep them together.
I think that Hotmail and others will probably be following the curve on this one as they can’t afford to fall any further behind the google behemoth. Problem being many of these warnings are going to scare the pants of the user anyway as they are likely to think they have a phishing/rogue/fake alert and not a legit alert.