It got me. A devious, awful spyware took me down mid-computing Monday evening. It didn’t take long to figure out I had acquired Virtumonde, a horrible adware program that’s goal is to get you to pay for the “software” to remove it. I think it’s more than one group of hijackers that’s in on it too. The real kick-in-the-groin is that I had Panda Pro 2009 super, crackshot, anti-everything running while the malware attacked. Not only did Virtumonde get through, it tore my cute little panda faced protection to pieces and changed my desktop wallpaper to a flashing warning to really scare the money out of my wallet. “Please check up the computer” it said. I was dead in the water.
“Thank” The warning is even done insultingly bad.
BACK ON MY FEET
After trying some do-it-yourself fixes I found from top Virtumonde sites (created by who, I wonder) that involved downloading and installing 3 or 4 Spyware programs – some I’ve used before, some not. I kind of got the virus off, but my system was as slow as a Morgan OI pointing upwind. It took all day Tuesday and about 200 restarts to figure this thing out.
THE SOFTWARE
Spybot Doctor was the recommended software to remove the malware. It cost $40, seemed to work but my machine would constantly lock up on startup. Finally removed SpybotDoc and machine got back up to speed. I then discovered that Windows offers a free malware program called Defender that, according to some website was the best available. Other sites said it was “crap”, but these were the “official sites” dedicated to removing Virtumonde – pimping SpybotDoc- Hmmmm….
LESSONS LEARNED
Download and run Defender. It’s by Microsoft so what more can you say – and it’s free. That should block malware and your antivirus should take care of the rest. I’m mentally wiped after this experience and almost out of rum from all the extra drinking it required to take care of the problem. My monitor narrowly escaped a full out assault from whatever blunt object was within reach – my keyboard, not so much. Still working though, well crafted by again, Microsoft.
If I ever, ever find or run across the individuals that created this infecting malware – the ones that cost me time, money and inflicted severe mental anguish…. All I can say is “swim for the wreckage”.
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