Hijack Warning

It has come to my attention that the hijack virus, trojan, malware, dungware or whatever you want to call it is making rounds again. There are many varieties so be careful. Okay, this is where you suddenly boot your computer or try to open a browser and there is a screaming announcement declaring you have all kind of infections and need to install software immediately to cure your machine. Don't believe it. The software actually infected your machine and is goading you into buying a piece of sh-- program. Hanging is too good for these creeps. I've had several calls, walked one person through it and remoted into two machines to cure this junk just this past week. Thanks Killer, Mrs. D and Ms. M for stopping and not following their suggestions. This junk can lead to a hard drive crash and loss of data if you start monkeying around trying to fix it with their recommendations.

Where does it come from and who writes it? Minions of Satan I suppose. I've studied the browsing habits of several computers and have never determined its origin. Stay away from the free ad/coupons pages, gambling junk, pron (porno), warez sites, etc. They are notorious about infecting machines anyway. Yet, you can get this at random while innocently browsing the web. And don't lie to your tech. Even though you clear the browsing history we can still determine where you've been while on the net. Be sure and turn the machine off if you see such suspicious activity. If you can't do a complete shut down, reach over and unplug it from the wall.

After talking Killer through it on the phone he started in safe mode (with networking), downloaded the Firefox browser from Major Geeks then proceeded to download Spybot Search & Destroy which removed the garbage. He is computer savvy and had it done in under an hour. If you check the links on the right both Spybot and Firefox are in the list. Spybot is listed under Safer Networking. The two machines which were accessed by online remote had the software installed. Folks, this stuff is getting worse. You can protect your machine. I am still working on an article about freeware that will keep the bad guys away. Sorry it's taking so long Lynnette, but I haven't forgot about you. Sometimes life gives us lemons and in the past I made margaritas with them. Gone back to lemonade. Anyway, the saying applies in this situation.

Let me mention something important again. Don't install their stupid software. You will find that many hours will be spent recovering your data and it is expensive. This is very intense work and techs deserve every dime they make if they can restore your data from a horrifying deep infection. Sometimes you just have to wipe the drive and start over. Keep this in mind the next time you interrupt a virus scan or decide not to download legitimate updates. Questions? Use the comments, email me - cybersouth@gmail.com or call. More on this at a later date. Enjoy Monday, Tuesday is less than a day away. Peace out (except to the spyware creeps!).

"The problem with troubleshooting is that sometimes trouble shoots back."
~S. Burns