"Security Tool"

[Tim McG]

Just an FYI....

A new worm is on the web and it is a total hijack.

What this worm does is disallow access to any program or file on your computer unless you pay for their security program.

It is called Security Tool and according to my computer yoda, they haven't found a way to stop it. Further, I am told McAfee [the anti-virus/firewall we have; serves me right for switching from Norton] is basically useless in stopping this and other viruses.

I got ATT to pay for the removal, but what a pain.

[Tim McG]

BTW, I tried to get rid of the pop-up buy clicking the "X" and, my computer yoda tells me, started the whole process. It even burrowed into the McAfee program I was using and sent it into blue screen. I got the computer on safe mode, shut it down and unplugged everything. It took two days for my yoda guy to dig it out of my files.

The hell of it was, it even hijacks the Task Manager as I tried to stop it.

If you get this DO NOT CLICK ON ANYTHING!!!

Go ctrl+alt+delete and remove any program running via Task Manager.

Edited December 7, 2009 by GoodSpeak

[Chuck Nessa]

What a Tool!

[7/4]

Sounds like the virus that hit my Dads computer in Sept....I reformatted the machine and re-installed XP again. (I just did it the previous week.)

.

[Tim McG]

I understand no program can stop it yet.

Although, my computer yoda told me about Kaspersky Anti-Virus which is supposed to be the absolute best at this sort of thing.

So I'm using the free trial and if all goes well...I'll buy it.

[jeffcrom]

That one hit me, too. Spybot Search and Destroy wiped the SOB out! If you try Spybot (which is free to download but depends on donations), make sure you have the real site: safer-networking.org. And since the worm had basically disabled my computer, I had to download Spybot on another computer and load it via a flash drive. It worked, though.

That's a nasty bug!

Edited to say that I'm not sure the worm I had was the same as you're describing, but it was similar. Spybot might be worth a try for anyone in that situation.

Edited December 7, 2009 by jeffcrom

[Tim McG]

That one hit me, too. Spybot Search and Destroy wiped the SOB out! If you try Spybot (which is free to download but depends on donations), make sure you have the real site: safer-networking.org. And since the worm had basically disabled my computer, I had to download Spybot on another computer and load it via a flash drive. It worked, though.

That's a nasty bug!

Edited to say that I'm not sure the worm I had was the same as you're describing, but it was similar. Spybot might be worth a try for anyone in that situation.

Thanks, Jeff.

I'll check it out.

[kinuta]

The latest malicious tomfoolery is a message from 'Facebook' telling you your password has been changed.

Don't even think of opening it !