Adventures in Malware

[Harlan Huckleby]

I got a nasty infection on my computer that was not highly destructive but devilishly persistent. I say "infection" generally because it was several things, and not sure of their technical classification. Main behavior was browser tabs in all browsers constantly opening-up creepy ads. Other supernatural phenomena.

So I tried every tool under the sun to clear this bug - no luck. The usual downloadable scanners and cleaners were thrown at enemy.

In the end, or I should say middle, I ponied-up $40 for Spyhunter license. What a friggin superior tool! It found so much crap on my computer that other programs missed. Why, it did everything but fix my big infection.

Then the magic happened. A tech at Spyhunter scheduled an appointment to take over my machine remotely, and I was able to watch as he plied his sorcery. OMG. This dude was flying all over my system, spotting potentially suspicious programs and data, deleting many utilities that I had horded. He sped through the registry like a maniac, deleting keys in the most obscure places. He ran many utilities. To make a long story even longer, this savant toiled for an hour and a half at warp speed before the worst problem was finally isolated. (A virus attached to system dll)

Some takeaways: Spyhunter is an awesome antivirus suite, IMO, and the sophisticated consulting service they provided for a lousy $40 was extremely generous.

I chatted extensively with the guy; he said the virus criminals are ahead of the tool makers right now. They are getting more and more clever at hiding infections; the stickiest problems now require a human specialist like this dude to sniff out. Programs are having particular trouble finding infections that hide as data in the registry.

He thought that Windows Defender is by far the most effective of the free tools.