Recovering From My Free Antivirus Program

You’ve heard the old adage “You get what you pay for,” right?  When it comes to antivirus and firewall software, are you confident in plugging your PC into the outside world with free protection?

The Internet is a spawning ground for free software. In some cases, this free software blitz is harmless.  But usually if you subscribe to anything free, it could mean you’ll wind up spending countless hours fighting spyware or trying to do a system restore on your PC.  You expect this from certain sites.  Yet, when it comes to free antivirus software or free firewall programs, you expect a higher caliber of download.

Nothing could be further than the truth.  There are programs out there that promise to be free, yet slip in their own spyware.  There are programs that promise to keep your system clear of viruses while providing free access to updates, Email scanners and other tools.  It’s been my unfortunate experience that these programs DO indeed work…..sometimes.  And if sometimes is good enough for you, then I highly recommend you download the latest version of your favorite free antivirus immediately.

Since I had been an advocate of free or cheaper software for years, you can image how surprised I was when I uninstalled my free antivirus software and replaced it with Norton Antivirus.  I used the Live Update feature and began scanning my system before going to bed.  Eight hours later, the commercial-grade Norton Antivirus was about halfway through it’s scan process and had already uncovered nearly eighty viruses in my system.  Ultimately, I ended up with one hundred and twenty seven viruses!  I was shocked….horrified.  I mean, I HAD been using antivirus software–free software, but at least I was using something.  Trojans, worms, spyware–my beloved PC was a whorehouse of diseased code.  I felt used and dirty.

What I’m trying to say is this:  Run, don’t walk to your nearest computer software retailer and get yourself a copy of Norton Antivirus or any other commercial-grade product.  If you value your data and want to be a good Internet citizen, use the commercial software to rid your PC of the swirling mass of viruses growing inside.

Rootkits Explained

Imagine a hacker program that is able to install itself on your PC and hide from your virus and spyware scanners like a living, breathing entity.  Some rootkits are easily detected, but others are becoming increasingly difficult to find because they filter queries and are then able to hide executables and remove their entries from the task manager.  This article will identify what a rootkit is, and offer simply ways to avoid them.

It’s possible to spot kernel rootkits by using Windows PE, a scaled-down version of Windows XP.  You can boot Windows PE from a CD and compare the profile of the clean OS to that of the infected system.  If your system is infected with a malicious rootkit, the quickest (and probably most reliable) way to remove it would be to format the drive and start fresh.  While this sounds like the “easy way out” approach, it’s really the only guarantee that the system is clean.

Quick Tips to Avoid Rootkits

If you’re looking to prevent rootkit infection in the first place, you should take a few preventive measures to keep your system safe:

• Keep Windows Updated.  Visit Microsoft’s Update page frequently.
• Carefully read any End User License Agreements, as they may actually tell you that some type of rootkit will be installed on your system.
• Avoid installing P2P software.
• Avoid websites and programs that seem shady.
• Consider running an alternative Web Browser, like Firefox.
• Configure your Email server to block or remove emails that have file attachments that are commonly used to spread viruses, such as .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files.

The important thing to understand when you discover a rootkit has been installed on your system is that the system has been compromised and you should restore the system from a known clean backup.

You can get the popular program RootkitRevealer here.