Screensaver trojans
Screensaver trojans
Beware of screensaver trojans - this is a common technique used by many adware/spyware/trojans, to trick people into downloading such programs and ending up in getting their computer infected.
Such malitious programs are often been distributed on various shady websites, disguised into free versions of screensavers, emoticons and other similar fake utilities. The unsuspecting user downloads such a program and installs into his/her computer. Upon installation, although in many cases the screensaver or program might actually appear to work (but usually is a stupid program that doesn't do anything good), what it does in fact is to firmly get a grip on the user's computer and begin performing its dangerous tasks.
This type of malitious programs are high risks for computer security. And they are particularly difficult to remove, even if using special adware/spyware removal tools - there are many cases when such a program can't be removed without full system reinstall. Once installed, such a program will create many copies of itself, and insert startup lines in Windows registry. They use to launch multiple instances of the program under different filenames, and if you kill one of the instances it would be automatically respawned by other instance of the program. These adware/spyware/trojans also tend to protect themselves by disabling file access to their own files and intercepting and blocking system messages in order to prevent the user from detecting and removing them - for example they may block the CTRL-ALT-DEL sequence to prevent the user from checking the task list in Task Manager. Finally, they create lots of registry entries in such a way that even if you find some of these entries and remove them, there will be plenty of others that will be accessed at computer boot or by various programs like Internet Explorer for example, and the effect of these registry entries is to relaunch the adware/spyware/trojan program and once again reinfect the computer fully.
What to do? First of all, prevent from getting infected by such a program - never download and install screensavers and emoticons from unknown sources. Run a good antivirus and also have good antispyware program, and keep them updated on a daily basis. Once infected, try resetting your computer configuration using system restore, to a date earlier than the presumed infection date and then run a spyware removal tool and/or antivirus to clean up your computer. Try to identify the trojans installed in your computer and search the web for information about the danger and find out how to remove these programs. Finally, if everything else fails, backup your data, reformat the hard drive and perform a fresh reinstall of your operating system - this is the last resort but there are many cases when this is the only solution to get rid of these trojans.
Beware of screensaver trojans - this is a common technique used by many adware/spyware/trojans, to trick people into downloading such programs and ending up in getting their computer infected.
Such malitious programs are often been distributed on various shady websites, disguised into free versions of screensavers, emoticons and other similar fake utilities. The unsuspecting user downloads such a program and installs into his/her computer. Upon installation, although in many cases the screensaver or program might actually appear to work (but usually is a stupid program that doesn't do anything good), what it does in fact is to firmly get a grip on the user's computer and begin performing its dangerous tasks.
This type of malitious programs are high risks for computer security. And they are particularly difficult to remove, even if using special adware/spyware removal tools - there are many cases when such a program can't be removed without full system reinstall. Once installed, such a program will create many copies of itself, and insert startup lines in Windows registry. They use to launch multiple instances of the program under different filenames, and if you kill one of the instances it would be automatically respawned by other instance of the program. These adware/spyware/trojans also tend to protect themselves by disabling file access to their own files and intercepting and blocking system messages in order to prevent the user from detecting and removing them - for example they may block the CTRL-ALT-DEL sequence to prevent the user from checking the task list in Task Manager. Finally, they create lots of registry entries in such a way that even if you find some of these entries and remove them, there will be plenty of others that will be accessed at computer boot or by various programs like Internet Explorer for example, and the effect of these registry entries is to relaunch the adware/spyware/trojan program and once again reinfect the computer fully.
What to do? First of all, prevent from getting infected by such a program - never download and install screensavers and emoticons from unknown sources. Run a good antivirus and also have good antispyware program, and keep them updated on a daily basis. Once infected, try resetting your computer configuration using system restore, to a date earlier than the presumed infection date and then run a spyware removal tool and/or antivirus to clean up your computer. Try to identify the trojans installed in your computer and search the web for information about the danger and find out how to remove these programs. Finally, if everything else fails, backup your data, reformat the hard drive and perform a fresh reinstall of your operating system - this is the last resort but there are many cases when this is the only solution to get rid of these trojans.
This information is provided without any warranties of any kind. Use it at your own risk. Terms and conditions