Well today I was happily browsing my usual sites and all of a sudden my computer restarted itself. When it started back up I noticed a new icon in the task bar that looks like a red circle with an X in the middle saying I’ve got a spyware infection and that I need to download the latest antispyware. So I go to open avast and it turns out what ever’s infected my computer’s also blocking avast, other programs and antivirus related sites, I’m having to use a proxy to even post this. Any ideas guys? I’m far from a tech wizard so try and keep it simple please.
Download some free anti-spyware scanners on a second computer and burn to disk. You’ll need to download the update files as well, and do a manual update:
These scam programs use vulnerabilities in old versions of software to install: scan for out-of-date and insecure software using Secunia Software Inspector and update any vulnerable software: this will help to prevent future infections.
Which avast version were you using? Some dangerous infections could destroy avast installation, but, generally, this is avoided by the self-defense module of avast.
I suggest:
Clean your temporary files.
Schedule a boot time scanning with avast with archive scanning turned on. If avast does not detect it, you can try DrWeb CureIT! instead.
Use SUPERantispyware, MBAM or Spyware Terminator to scan for spywares and trojans. If any infection is detected, better and safer is send the file to Quarantine than to simple delete than.
Mag
continue on through Tech’s list from top to bottom
do both MBAM and SAS
just because you look and feel clean does not mean that you are
run the trend micro rootkit scan
etc