Silicon Shecky

Infosec Practitioner

  • About
  • Categories
    • General
    • Computers
    • Software
    • Rants
    • Security
    • Internet/Music
    • Reviews
    • Microsoft
    • Hardware
    • Mobile Computing
  • Links
    • Infosec
      • Burbsec
      • Infosec Exchange Mastodon
      • Hacks4Pancakes Blog
      • Krebs On Security
      • Bleeping Computer
  • Archives

Connect

  • Bluesky
  • LinkedIn
  • Mastodon
  • RSS
  • Twitter

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2025 ·Sixteen Nine Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress

First Advice

February 4, 2009 By Michael Kavka Leave a Comment

So, as I was at work today, I got a call to go out on my 7th virus removal in the last 6 weeks. Yeah 1 a week at different clients does seem a bit much, but considering how skittish people are at running Windows Updates, things like this happens.

To those who want to know what I tend to use to clean machines of malware, let me tell you.

First off turn off the System Restore. Malware loves to hide there and it is nigh impossible to clean out of the restore points. Kill them, get rid of them.

Now then the software I use includes Ad-Aware, Malwarebytes, Spybot, and HiJack This. If possible keep these programs with their latests versions on your USB thumb drive. They are invaluable.

Make sure that they are as up to date as possible (yes sometimes you need to run them without checking for updates cause the malware will prevent updates from being downloaded) in safe mode.

Just remember google is your friend in these instances, and removal of the malware can take a long time. If you can just wipe and reload the machine, that of course is the preffered method, but use your own judgement.

Filed Under: Computers Tagged With: Ad-Aware, Anti-virus, Computers, HiJack This, Malware, Malwarebytes, Microsoft, Spybot, Virus, Virus Removal, Windows

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

RSS Taggart Institute Intel Feed

  • Cybersecurity Reading List - Week of 2025-10-27 October 27, 2025 Ian Campbell
  • Conduent says data breach originally began with 2024 intrusion October 27, 2025 David Jones
  • US declines to join more than 70 countries in signing UN cybercrime treaty October 27, 2025
  • Google disputes false claims of massive Gmail data breach October 27, 2025 Lawrence Abrams
  • Attackers bypass patch in deprecated Windows Server update tool October 27, 2025 Matt Kapko
  • Microsoft WSUS Remote Code Execution (CVE-2025-59287) Actively Exploited in the Wild October 27, 2025 Unit 42
  • X: Re-enroll 2FA security keys by November 10 or get locked out October 27, 2025 Lawrence Abrams
  • Ransomware profits drop as victims stop paying hackers October 27, 2025 Bill Toulas
  • Sweden’s power grid operator confirms data breach claimed by ransomware gang October 27, 2025
  • 'House of Dynamite' Is About the Zoom Call that Ends the World October 27, 2025 Matthew Gault

Browse by tags

Active Directory Android Antivirus Apple Beta Chrome Computers Exchange Exchange 2007 Firefox General Thoughts Google InfoSec Internet Explorer iOS iPad IT Linux Mac Malware Microsoft OS OSx Patches Rants SBS SBS 2008 Security Security Patches Server SMB Software Support Surface TechEd Tweets Ubuntu Verizon Virus Vista vulnerabilities Windows Windows 7 Windows 8 XP