Expert: Lorry - 7/12/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi Lorry,

I was visiting websites and the security center alert needs to be scanned popped up so i clicked it and all of the sudden i get 16 pop ups out of nowhere. I found out that the fake "security center alert" is a virus. Now when i visit websites i get redirected to random sites and advertisements pop up such as boot.com and webclicks or onclicks.com. I ran malwarebyte, antivirus, symantec, and a lot of other anti virus but it shows that i am clean. However i am still experiencing going to google, searching for a website and getting redirected to an advertisement. Is there a way for me to manually remove this? I would do a system restore but all my restore points are gone.

ANSWER: Hi Feng,

Am assuming that you have an anti-virus program installed, if correct, start Windows in Safe mode and run a scan. While in Safe Mode, run the Malwarebyte scan as well

When you ran the Symantec scan, was it the free one available at:

http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/WelcomePage.asp

Hope this helps!
Lorry


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Lorry,

I have the Symantec Client Security AntiVirus. I ran my scans in safemode and it caught the virus but when I reboot the computer, the virus comes back. Let me know if there is another way of removing the redirecting virus.

thanks

Feng

Answer
Hi Feng,

Disable System Restore before removing the virus, or for that matter, before removing any threat. Otherwise, the next time you restart Windows, it is right back there. Am fairly certain that will take care of that problem - just disable System Restore before removing the threat. After you know for sure the threat is off the computer, restart Windows and enable System Restore.

You might want to run the free scan from the above site - which is up to date, to verify that there are no other threats on board.

http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/WelcomePage.asp

Hope this helps!
Lorry