Yesterday while surfing the interwebz* all of my open browsers suddenly disappeared and were replaced by a window showing an anti-virus scan in progress.
Soon, a series of pop-ups came up in the system tray telling me that malware had been detected on my computer. I couldn't open any program or browser except windows explorer and the pop-ups kept telling me that the worm Win32/some blah blah name was infecting every program that I attempted to open. At one point I was told some files were being transferred from my laptop without permission.
It took a few seconds to realize that the purported anti-virus scanning software so eager to help me was the virus or malware itself. (What's the difference between those two?)
Symantec detected the culprit but only helpful to pinpoint the application's location, nothing more than that. Turned out it was a file called iesecurity.exe in the ProgramData folder.
The malware wouldn't let me close the program, delete or uninstall or shred the said file, or open regedit to delete infected registry files.
Thankfully I found (on a different laptop) this video that helped to stop the bug and get rid of it:
The steps are pretty simple:
1) Go to 'Start' menu, click 'Run'
2) Type this as it is taskkill.exe /F /IM /iesecurity.exe
3) Execute it several times till the bug stops operating.
4) Now you'll be able to open your browser and other programs. Get a good anti-virus software and kill the bug in your system.
(The 'Trojan killer' software mentioned in the video is not freeware or shareware. Symantec worked for me later on.)
Thank you to whoever made the video. And to the maker of the extremely annoying bug, this song is for you.
*No, I was not visiting porn sites.
Soon, a series of pop-ups came up in the system tray telling me that malware had been detected on my computer. I couldn't open any program or browser except windows explorer and the pop-ups kept telling me that the worm Win32/some blah blah name was infecting every program that I attempted to open. At one point I was told some files were being transferred from my laptop without permission.
It took a few seconds to realize that the purported anti-virus scanning software so eager to help me was the virus or malware itself. (What's the difference between those two?)
Symantec detected the culprit but only helpful to pinpoint the application's location, nothing more than that. Turned out it was a file called iesecurity.exe in the ProgramData folder.
The malware wouldn't let me close the program, delete or uninstall or shred the said file, or open regedit to delete infected registry files.
Thankfully I found (on a different laptop) this video that helped to stop the bug and get rid of it:
1) Go to 'Start' menu, click 'Run'
2) Type this as it is taskkill.exe /F /IM /iesecurity.exe
3) Execute it several times till the bug stops operating.
4) Now you'll be able to open your browser and other programs. Get a good anti-virus software and kill the bug in your system.
(The 'Trojan killer' software mentioned in the video is not freeware or shareware. Symantec worked for me later on.)
Thank you to whoever made the video. And to the maker of the extremely annoying bug, this song is for you.
*No, I was not visiting porn sites.
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Your thoughts are very welcome and I look forward to them eagerly. Just be mindful of being civil. This is a good book about the same in case you are interested:
Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct - P.M.Forni