DEADLY DOMAIN NAME SEARCHES: Avoiding Simple Internet Security Protocol Can Be Perilous To Your Computer

Saturday, 10 July 2010 22:13

DEADLY DOMAIN NAME SEARCHES: Avoiding Simple Internet Security Protocol Can Be Perilous To Your Computer

Written by Fidel Gonzales

It's been somewhere around two to three years since I've been struck with any form of malware on any of my computers. After just over a month on the road, I finally had an opportunity to hunker down behind the primary computer and get some operational responsibilities up to date and catch up on some of the work required to support the road trips. In the midst, I had three old friends call with similar requests. One was to get a fairly large skateboard website migrated over to Joomla. The other is a set of racer friends who is now charged with launching a startup from beneath the umbrella of a global manufacturing enterprise. The third was a friend who wants to get his ecommerce operation into high gear. It was the latter that led to virtually killing my computer.

The guys who run the off-road retail parts business already have a site, using the GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart. Although I don't have a lot of working experience with this software, I strongly advised against it, instead referring them over to Virtuemart and Magento. The GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart is a hosted application, which is difficult for those who are used to digging directly into the actual templating files to tweak. It uses a graphic interface. Likewise, tweaking the actual code is not possible, as far as I know. With Virtuemart or Magento , all of this is possible and each has its own distinct advantages. Personally, I lean more toward Virtuemart, but that's because I have a slightly different strategy on most websites and require the extensibility to execute that strategy.

Anyhow, I became side tracked after receiving several phone calls from this friend Tuesday. This was to be my first official week back in action here at HQ. And as we're talking, he's conceptualizing how things are going to work. I'm actively feeding this thoughts into my Mozilla Firefox QuickFox Notes Addon and simultaneously prospective domain names into the Network Solutions Domain Name ringer. Attempting to get this conversation concluded so as to move onward to my main objective, posting JustinTV highlights (you've got to highlight your live video within a week or loose it forever) onto various sites, I begin to take a dangerous short cut. When I found that several obscure but catchy and well-targeted domain names were taken, I began to copy and paste those domain names directly into the URL bar and press enter, so as to see who would want such a domain name, what they had going on the site and whether an acquisition was possible.

Copying and pasting any unfamiliar domain name is a huge FAIL when it comes to internet security. If you're not familiar with or are directed to a website via an non-credible source, it is wise to first query a search engine to see whether it is legit. Otherwise, you're playing Russian Roulette. Somewhere into the 15 minute conversation, I recall landing on at least one very questionable site that took an unusually long time to load for such a graphically bland website. Immediately upon loading, my Firefox web browser was jumped by multiple popups, causing me to flee and stop the practice immediately. For a scant moment, I feared for my computer's well being but quickly forgot, until some strange things began to ocurr.

So, finally, after several blind attempts at removing the malware, I am now reverting back to Geeks To Go, one of my favorite tech websites. The support there is phenomenal and friendly. They even offer malware removal certification for its contributors, which is an intensive and highly respectable program.

Though, the last time I had a virus, I submitted it to the malware removal forums to request assistance. Having very little patience and the drive to understand endeavors in great depth, I managed to solve the issue prior to receiving any help, but it took a few days, an enormous amount of notes and a lot of research.

COMPUTER VIRUS / MALWARE INFECTION: AV Security Suite

For the lowdown on what I seemed to have been infected with, check the AV Security Suite Removal Instructions. Beyond the normal annoying results of an infection, such as uncontrollable popup ads, this computer virus does not allow you to open most programs and causes your audio to not work. There are workarounds, but the best bet is to simple eliminate it.

GEEKS TO GO DEFINITION: The Malwarebytes research team has determined that AV Security Suite is a fake anti-malware application. These so-called "rogues" use intentional false positives to convince users that their systems have been compromised. Then they try to sell you their software, claiming it will remove these threats. In extreme cases the false threats are actually the very trojans that advertise or even directly install the rogue. You are strongly advised to follow our removal instructions below.