When Malware Strikes…

There are computer viruses and then there are computer viruses. My family computer was recently infected with the Spyguard 2008 virus and let me tell you – this is one nasty virus that takes over your Internet browser and can also forward password information to remote computers.

I tend to take these viruses as a challenge and resolve to personally rid these viruses from my computer. I ran Spybot. I ran Ad-Aware. I ran my anti-virus software. I did this in Normal mode, Safe mode, and Safe mode with Networking. No luck.

I researched this virus and found several postings with supposed tools that would remove Spyguard 2008. The only thing that these postings did not mention was that the Spyguard 2008 virus redirects any attempts to download these tools or access their web sites. Again, no luck.

I then found that there are anti-malware forums dedicated to help and in most cases, these forums and their forum staff provide their service at NO CHARGE.

I went to www.bleepingcomputer.com and followed the instructions on how to post my issue and then waited for a reply (4 days later). My knight in shining armor was from the Netherlands and was incredibly thorough and knowledgeable. Over the course of the next day and a half, I used 7 different tools and followed 18 different steps to rid my computer of this virus.

If you ever find yourself in a similar position keep the following web sites in mind:

www.bleepingcomputer.com
www.malwareremoval.com
www.geekstogo.com
www.majorgeeks.com