XP Home Security malware

Viruses and worms
1

Hi

We use (and have very successfully for a number of years) the Free Antivirus software on a home computer. It’s an old machine running Windows XP, but with loads of memory we don’t really see any need to upgrade is this one is really fast and stable.

Anyway, Avast has done a great job of keeping us safe - until today when we the XP Home Security malware on the machine.

I Googled some, found some comments but none from Avast. There was the odd removal tool but they appeared to be as much malware as what I was trying to get rid of. In the end, with a bit of help from some references, I manually deleted the pesky software.

Now it’s time to reflect… My backups are in place but wasting time like I did today is costly (in terms of time) so I figured it’s time to upgrade. My question is; would any of the other Avast products been able to protect me better by monitoring the registry for example?

Any feedback will be welcomed. Thanks.

2

Hi gavgold,

Depends what version of the free avast solution you are running. We have version 6 now. What version you had on that machine.
The malware trojan you mentions is constantly being upgraded and morphed by malcreants, so next to your one resident av solution avast, you better protect that machine with free versions of MBAM and SAS anti-malware programs, download from:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam-download.php
http://www.superantispyware.com/downloadfile.html?productid=SUPERANTISPYWAREFREE
Keep these two additional programs fully updated and do a regular scan with both,
they keep adding new detections: http://www.superantispyware.com/blog/
Think your Windows XP can just survive that extra day…

polonus

3

Thanks for the links Polonus

Not sure what version we were running. The pattern file was up to date but, after I’d cleaned the machine, I did a program update and there was a new version. Guess I need to check program versions too. Bandwidth is slow and expensive in South Africa so if everything is on auto update then that’s your quota for the month…

Thanks again

4

Hi gavgold,

Remember the old days and get your proggies and tools from CD’s that come free with magazines,

Stay safe and secure,

groet,

polonus