What is this?

[dedicated57]

I downloaded and installed Malwarebytes, and after it ran its scan, right at the end it found this.

PUM.Disabled.SecurityCenter in the Registry Data.

Our computer has never been infected by malware, there was a site that tried to send a few trojan but ESET NOD32 terminated the attempt. There have also been no indications of infection. Does this mean that the computer is infected or is it a false positive?

Our Antivirus is Nod32 version 4

Thanks

[exile360]

Greetings

That's not a false positive, but it isn't an infection either. That's the detection of a non-default setting for Windows Security Center, but I'd need to see the rest of the detection to tell you which setting has been altered.

PUM means Potentially Unwanted Modification, in other words, an alteration of your system or its settings that may be undesirable and potentially insecure.

Generally, many antivirus products now monitor their own status, so they may disable the Windows Security Center or certain parts of it (such as its antivirus status monitoring component) so that you don't receive duplicate alerts from the product as well as the Security Center when your antivirus is out of date or disabled.

[dedicated57]

Greetings

That's not a false positive, but it isn't an infection either. That's the detection of a non-default setting for Windows Security Center, but I'd need to see the rest of the detection to tell you which setting has been altered.

PUM means Potentially Unwanted Modification, in other words, an alteration of your system or its settings that may be undesirable and potentially insecure.

Generally, many antivirus products now monitor their own status, so they may disable the Windows Security Center or certain parts of it (such as its antivirus status monitoring component) so that you don't receive duplicate alerts from the product as well as the Security Center when your antivirus is out of date or disabled.

Thanks for the information, the rest of the detection involves this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Security Center/UpdatesDisableNotify

[exile360]

Ah, I see. That is for Windows Update. If you've chosen to disable notifications from Security Center about Windows Updates, then that would be why it would be set this way and you can safely ignore this detection. If you did not set it that way yourself, you should have Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware fix it and then run Windows Update and check for the latest updates to ensure that your system is secure and up to date.

[dedicated57]

Ah, I see. That is for Windows Update. If you've chosen to disable notifications from Security Center about Windows Updates, then that would be why it would be set this way and you can safely ignore this detection. If you did not set it that way yourself, you should have Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware fix it and then run Windows Update and check for the latest updates to ensure that your system is secure and up to date.

Thank you for the information.

I am just wondering how I would get Malwarebytes to fix it, do I press delete or do I press restore, as this is the only object that was quarantined and no other infections were discovered?

[exile360]

If the item is already in Quarantine, then it has already been fixed. You can tell by running a Quick Scan, and if this item is detected again, make sure that the box is checked next to this item in the list of items detected and then click on the Remove Selected button.

[dedicated57]

If the item is already in Quarantine, then it has already been fixed. You can tell by running a Quick Scan, and if this item is detected again, make sure that the box is checked next to this item in the list of items detected and then click on the Remove Selected button.

Ah, I see. That's good. Do I then leave it in Quarantine, or does some action have to be made? Sorry I am new to Malwarebytes and I am unsure of how it is configured and everything.

[exile360]

Once the item is in Quarantine, it has been fixed/removed so no further action needs to be taken. We always place items in Quarantine in case a False Positive occurs so that you can easily restore any item that has been removed. In this case, you can simply click once on the item in Quarantine and click Delete, since you know what the setting is, are content with having it set back to the default (which has already been done since it's in Quarantine) and won't be restoring it back to the non-default setting .