How I Got Hacked... And Why You MUST Have a Backup!

Thank you for this lesson about a typical drive-by infection-- currently one of the most damaging attacks possible, and increasingly prevalent. By now, most people have had first-hand contact with this type of virus, or know somebody who has.

As a computer support staffer, I can attest that everyone from physicians to PhDs has been hit, and they remain vulnerable even afterward. No matter how careful or professional the user, and no matter what real-time ("shield") protection is installed, this is malware written by professional criminals with world-class expertise, and very hard to defeat-- let alone prevent.

So, contrary to reader Alyssa (who keeps her pantaloons entirely too tight for her own good), there is little that can be done beyond running high-quality anti-malware real-time protection, and hope to avoid accidentally starting a malware installation.

Since this kind of malware is often made by professional coders for organized crime, it is sometimes called "extortionware". Typically, after extortionware comes on board, it displays a series of bogus messages claiming detection of infection. Next, the malware solicits a "repair" operation, and sends an endless stream of obtrusive reminders every minute. Eventually, all the messages take a toll of the user's composure, who may relent and click on a message panel in an attempt to remove the plague. Of course, that desperate measure does not work.

And now, the trap has been sprung. As the infected machine progressively loses its functions-- no anti-virus scans, no internet, and sometimes not even email-- the user is told the computer can be cleaned for a certain amount of money. The user is given no guarantees, but on offering the criminals a credit card number, the system may visibly improve. Unfortunately, from all field experience, the malware itself is not removed. Worse, the criminals have their objective, and quickly put the victim's credit card number on the black market.

Extortionware is always under rapid development to defeat commercial anti-malware protection, so users must make sure they use the very latest version of protection, and keep it updated daily.
For those users lucky enough to detect the symptoms of an infection-in-process, escape is sometimes possible. Extortionware is like a "booby trap"-- it needs a triggering action like a mouse click, the ENTER key or another key to install itself and do damage. Left alone, this type of malware can do nothing except display messages.

So, the remedy for malware can be simple-- when a message displays, ignore it and shut down the computer immediately. Above all, DO NOT CLICK on the message-- not even to close the message box, and no matter how authentic the message might seem.

Again, no damage can occur unless the user starts installation by clicking on the screen area and/or pressing a keyboard key to start installation of the malware payload to the hard drive.

To shutdown, go to START, click on TURN OFF COMPUTER, and wait for normal shutdown. If shutdown does not occur after about two minutes, press in and hold in the computer's POWER button until the computer turns off. After two minutes, simply restart the system normally, and the offending messages no longer should be visible.

Since extortionware is only a variant of this malware class, and new versions are constantly developed, behavior and results may vary.

Great article Bob, although I just removed to adspy viruses from a customers computer that came from the Uniblue registry booster so you made want to reconsider them as a sponsor here.

I was just curious if you had a Mac or a linux/unix machine running Ubuntu or RedHat? That is how I would have visited your friends website.

Whenever I get a complaint about a suspected virus attack or suspicious problem complaints, I just use one of my two computer Bulldogs, the Mac or the Linux PC, because you are 100% correct, there is no virus protection that is 100% accurate.

As for anyone confused about the mystery of my comment, 99.9999999% of all known virus are written for a windows machine and can't infect a Mac or linux/unix operating system.

Excellent article Bob. But surely it is only half the story? What happened to the friends computer?
Did she get it fixed? Surely there is a whole other blog right there!

Wow, when i first read this, I thought it had just happened, i am glad to see the date was last year. Anyway Sandboxie was mentioned a few times in the comments, and that is the program that I always use when visiting any new sites. I just wanted to comment on AVG, since I have had to fix several computers that were infected with AVG running ineffectively on these poor unfortunate boxes. After the last year, I have learned that AVG is no longer an effective antivirus, and now I recommend ESET, BitDefender, Bullguard, or Kaspersky. Check out the AV-Comparatives latest test results here: http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/docs/avc_prot_2012a_en.pdf

Bitdefender and Bullguard are Extremely Successful in preventing compromise, and I have always loved ESET, and along with Sandboxie, you can now keep infection to an absolute minimum. Of course, what happened to Bob can happen to anyone, so using Sandboxie is probably your best bet.

I try to be careful, but I'm human and slipped.
I changed my IP. The "OLD" had great protection. No problems that couldn't be fixed with a little help from friends. The "NEW" had no packaged protection. I KNEW THAT! Who was going after me and my PC? I'm from the old school and when I see the lights blink and I didn't ask them to, I get worried. I tried to take this thing on and nearly lost. By this time I had established proper PC protection but whatever was in there had the upper hand. The closer I got (removing stuff) the more destructive "IT" got. "It" shut down Windows Essential + Windows Firewall and my other security without me knowing that it happened. It seems that a portal was opened an unrelated malware popped out. I eventually had to do a complete re-install.

How long and what does it take to become as knowledgeable about all the technical jargon on here?

Is there a condensed book I can read?

I'm currently in school for Computer Programming, Software Development; but, I'm mostly working on the core classes. I've recently finished Intro to Computers (Microsoft focused) and Intro to Database (also, Microsoft focused).

Thanks to some nasty trojans that got past daily updated and constantly running, Microsoft Security Essentials and a regularly updated operating system, I'm recently out about $100 (on a low, fixed income).

In addition, I have an older computer that is now without sound due to not being able to replace an old multimedia driver.

On top of that, I endured a lot of stress and aggravation which was not good for my heart condition.

All this happened a couple weeks before my ONLINE college classes were finished. It took about a week to get my computer mostly recovered on my own after I had to buy an operating system disc. I have a used computer that did not come with a disc.

Excuse me for venting; but...

I think it is an absolute shame and slap in the face of the Almighty for anyone with the intelligence God gave them to use that intelligence for such heinous activities such as creating mal-ware.

If these same people would focus their intelligence on doing good, they could eliminate a lot of suffering in the world.

Why not take on some of society's problems like preventing some of the over 27,000 people who succumb to death daily from hunger, dirty water and lack of medical treatment; or the multitude of people living on the streets; or kids going to bed or school hungry (even in the U.S.); or the thousands of unwanted pets put to sleep daily; or any of the other items on the long list of wrongs that need to be righted?

Wake up offenders! You will someday be held accountable whether you believe in God or not. Call it Karma or whatever. What you put out there will come back to you in one form or another. FYI, you might try reading the ten commandments. Included in there is a warning of how punishment for your sins can come back to you, your kids, your grand-kids or your great grand-kids.

And, don't even think about giving an excuse of how you were wronged somewhere in your life. How absolutely insane and sociopathic to take out your hurt and frustration on someone totally unrelated to your past problem. That makes you no better than your offender.

Turn it around. Use your God given gifts for good. You can be blessed for doing so and you can use your talents to raise money to fix some of society's ills.

Then again, maybe you aren't man or woman enough to do that. Maybe you are a sociopath. If so, I pray you get the help you need very soon.

Hi, This is a great article. Thank you for all of the information contained, I feel this is very helpful to techs and everyday surfers alike.

Thank you again,

Lisa G

You constantly amaze me. I'd like to give you a virtual "Nana" hug for helping this person to such a degree with her problem and thank you for all the invaluable help you have given to so many of us.

I wonder if you would have been safer if you were web surfing in Linux. I'm sure no O/S is perfectly safe, but aren't the majority of malware Windows compatible only?

I'm really confused about backups. I have an HP Portable USB 3.0 drive which is always plugged in to my tower, and Norton Ghost writes to it on an ongoing basis. Would you consider my computer backed up? What prevents the virus from getting onto the external drive via Ghost?

Bob - I noted in this article that MBAM was stopped from running after a few minutes. I've had success with removing malware from friends' computers by using MBAM's "Chameleon" feature. This allows MBAM to run by disguising itself so the program keeping it from running doesn't recognize it. The worst example I was able to clean up had a little more than 250 items of malware clogging up the works.

I can't believe that you are still using XP, Could theses be signs that the hard drive need replacing. Windows Defender won't run on XP. Sounds like the Google redirect virus.
http://askbobrankin.com/defeat_the_google_redirect_virus.html

I would use a VM or my iPad to investigate these type of issues.

Why didn't you use a scrap machine. Or virtual PC

I have used Macrium solution for some years. As a Windows 10 'Insider' a reliable 'backup / image' is a necessity, not an option. In fact,the same applies to any user. Recently a build of insider crashed on my Toshiba laptop, No restore point worked, Windows image failed & unable to go back to an earlier build No Windows recovery options were successful. Answer Macrium image restore. Has not failed me so far.Always have a Macrium backup /image on my other two 'Live' working systems. In addition I run "File History" on all 3 systems regularly.

HOW do you KNOW it was a Russian hacker site ? It could be a site in US, pretending to be Russian ! Or Ukraine , or anywhere on Earth !

I have PC-Matic and it is wonderful for blocking virus' and has many other features.

I think if you had PC-Matic anit-virus software, this virus would have been blocked and not an executable.

Correct me if you feel this is untrue!

Cheers,
Jeffrey

RG Schmidt, your computer is not backed up. As another poster wrote you do not have a backup if your computer content is not on 3 different media (computer, 2 backups) of which 1 should be off-site.
Ideally there should also be a history of backup, i.e. a backup should not overwrite the already existing backup on the media.

YOUTUBE HAS BECOME MALWARE & REFUSES MILLIONS OF PEOPLE FROM COMMENTING!

A good backup regimen is very important for a LOT more than malware recovery. I have heard it said (and I agree) that the greatest danger to the computer is the user. Even the most experienced/cautious user does things at the keyboard out of habit (or thoughtlessly). We can easily skip a step when performing routine procedures, or inadvertently delete a file we need.

Aa an example of carelessness, a week or so ago, I was wiping clean about a half dozen USB drives using GParted from within a live session of System Rescue. After about two or three drives, I skipped the step where I switch from viewing my primary drive's partitions to viewing the USB drive's partitions and selected all of them for deletion. I executed the operation before I realized my mistake. Thanks to my backup regimen, it took me about an hour or less to fully recover. Without an up-to-date full backup image that I could use, it may have taken me a full day or perhaps two to fully recover, and even then, who knows whether I could have recovered everything I had lost.

I have been using (and building) PCs for most of my adult life. Prior to retiring, I had a small side business building/repairing PC's. My first PC ran with MS-DOS 3.1 (just to date me a bit), so I consider myself to be a veteran PC operator with a better than average understanding of computer use/management. If I can make such a disastrous mistake performing a routine procedure that I have performed more times than I can count over the years, anyone can.

I use the free edition of Macrium Reflect. I have it configured to generate a monthly full image and daily differential images of all the partitions on all drives attached to my desktop PC, except the one partition to which I have it write the image files. I keep two monthly full images and thirty differential images. This allows me to restore my system to the state it was in at the start of any of the past thirty days. It also allows me to recover any file(s) that have existed on my system within the past thirty days, or with the state they were in on any of the past thirty days. I also have OneDrive sync the files on my desktop PC, so I have a real-time backup stored offsite.

If you have your own personal PC, and you don't already have a backup regimen in place and working for you, I strongly suggest you do so. If you don't, you are gambling/betting that your PC will never contract malware, or that you will never make some disastrous mistake that could potentially destroy all that you have on your PC.

My2Cents,

Ernie