The Treacherous Malware Times: Evolving Threats, Evolving Tactics
Malware is not what it used to be ten years ago. The new strains are much more violent and much more permanent in their result.
In the past, I would usually encounter malware that ran as a process that you could kill and then remove. In more serious circumstances, you may have been required to do a reboot before the problem software was completely removed. Not so with the new strains of malware…they intend to leave a permanent reminder that they were there.
Trojans such as Trojan FakeAlert are almost like child’s play compared to some of the more vicious malware monsters out there today. Just this evening I went out on a call to repair a computer that the owner stated, “the computer has been progressively getting slower and slower and after clicking around it control panel the computer will not boot.” What happened is much more sophisticated than the quoted explanation above.
In reality, the computer boots to the point that the mouse arrows shows but the desktop screen is black. Even though the problem above may be do to malware using a spyware doctor download or other malware removal tool may not fix the problem as in this case. The problem is that the malware has completed its damage and now the explorer.exe or one or more of its support files has been corrupted.
The best action to take is a preventive action. Fortify your system with software like PC Tools Internet Security, Norton Internet Security or another reputable security software package so that you are protected from the bulk of these attacks.
