Malware and trojans becomming more resistant?

[Figaro14]

In the last three weeks, my system has been attacked twice. The first one was minor. My main Internet Security program Trend Micro caught it and deleted it. But this last time, it took four different programs to rid myself of what appeared to be a Trojan. Trend Micro didn't catch it. Spyware Terminator did but couldn't get rid of it. The trojan disabled Malwarebytes completely as well as my Windows XP system restore making it impossible for me to do a system restore or to run Malwarebytes in order to clean the system.

I was finally able to get a start on getting rid of it by running Superantispyware in Safe Mode (It would not run at all in regular Windows mode) Once I got system restore to run again, I disabled it and ran all of my anti-virus and malware program again so the virus wouldn't remain in there.

On the third scan, Malwarebytes found more problems and so did Superantispyware. All in all it took five programs, running in safe mode with my system restore for my system to finally come up 100% clean.

I also ran CCleaner and Glary Utilities to make certain Windows was back in shape. All told, about five days to clean up my system. WOW! I never thought I'd need to have six or so malware and anti-virus programs on my computer in order to clean it and protect it.

I keep anti-virus and malware programs updated daily and still these things get through!

I'd love to know if others have had this experience. I did run a Hijack This log and it came up clean.

[lordpake]

What on Earth are you doing to get infected that often?

Either you have very high risk surfing habits and tread on the darker side of the 'Net, or then you download suspicious stuff way too often.

I would be curious to know for example which browser you use? If you stick with Internet Explorer consider changing to alternative (Opera, Firefox, Safari) and see if this reduces your infection rate. Also, make sure all your browser add-ons (Flash, Quicktime, Java etc.) are up-to-date. This will lessen your infection factor. Also, consider switching to limited user account. That way malware won't have as direct access to your system as it does have with administrator accounts.

[Figaro14]

I actually didn't mention it, but after the second attack, I did switch to Firefox.

I honestly don't surf the dark side of the web. However I will admit the first attack probably came from my using the Usenet newgroups. The second one came as a result of a Google search and clicking on a found item in the search (at least I suspect.)

What on Earth are you doing to get infected that often?

Either you have very high risk surfing habits and tread on the darker side of the 'Net, or then you download suspicious stuff way too often.

I would be curious to know for example which browser you use? If you stick with Internet Explorer consider changing to alternative (Opera, Firefox, Safari) and see if this reduces your infection rate. Also, make sure all your browser add-ons (Flash, Quicktime, Java etc.) are up-to-date. This will lessen your infection factor. Also, consider switching to limited user account. That way malware won't have as direct access to your system as it does have with administrator accounts.

[lordpake]

There is no harm in using newsgroups, just be careful what you download What comes to Google search ( and ads), yes they can be dangerous. Many security, filesharing and system maintenance oriented searches (and sites) especially seem to attract links (and ads) promoting rogue (fake) software.

Now with Fx you are safer. For one, no more ActiveX. This alone should make it safer for you to follow links.

[Figaro14]

The wierd thing about the Usenet related malware attack is that it came simply by my downloading the message list from my Usenet server -- not by actually downloading a file.

I have as of today updated the scan engine for my Trend Micro. The tech people over at Trend said that my scan engine was at the lowest end of the safety level and recommended I get their newest one. I guess when Trend updates, it only updates the virus/malware library. It must never actually update the actual program which is too bad.

It is amazing how fast these trojans can grab hold. No sooner than I clicked on the link in Google, I saw it happen. Thanks for your advise.

I actually didn't mention it, but after the second attack, I did switch to Firefox.

I honestly don't surf the dark side of the web. However I will admit the first attack probably came from my using the Usenet newgroups. The second one came as a result of a Google search and clicking on a found item in the search (at least I suspect.)

[lordpake]

I guess when Trend updates, it only updates the virus/malware library. It must never actually update the actual program which is too bad.

This is the situation with many security apps. I myself use Kaspersky product(s), and they only release smaller hotfixes to builds. Newer builds usually require installing whole package again (preferably the older one uninstalled first). Fortunately, they don't release new builds that often

I speculate the reason is to avoid situations where pushing newer version of software to customers would actually cause unexpected issues, bugs or even break something. When user does the installing, he/she is aware of the newer version and its possible issues before installing.

In case you want to make sure you have software up-to-date in your PC, which helps to avoid some infections, consider using for example Secunia's services. They offer software to scan your PC for vulnerable (or out-of-date) applications. This can be done either using online scan, or using a more thorough scan done by installed application.

http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/ <-- online version

http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/ <-- software