Malware Attacked My Laptop!

[Nillion]

My HP Pavillion laptop was attacked by a malware program called Security Tool. It isn't particularly malicious in the sense that it's causing serious damage to my laptop, but it brings up incesant pop-ups about fake security threats and I cannot access any of my word files, but I can access my pictures. I've emailed all of my word files to myself, but I am vastly afraid of what might happen if I allow this program to fester on my laptop. If there's anyone here who knows how to slay this bastard of a program, please, please help me. My laptop is barely two years old and the last thing I need is to lose it now. I cannot offer an award, per se, but you will have my eternal gratitude for any assistance you can offer.

I have talked with Bloodygem about it, but the links she found were no good.

[DeepSeaCreature]

I had a similar problem a few months ago.

If it's a persistent malware and both your anti-virus and anti-spyware program can't quarantine or delete it, download HijackThis. Run a system scan with that and save the log file. Do NOT fix anything! Just save the log.

Then head on over to Techmonkeys.co.uk and post in the right section about your problem and provide that log you saved earlier. They're really helpful and they got rid of a nasty virus for me

To keep this from happening again, you should have proper protection for your computer. Every computer with an internet connection should have a firewall, an anti-virus program, and an anti-malware/rootkit program. Hope that helps.

[KarumA]

recommended protection programs: Avast and Zonealarm (firewall)

recommended things to do right now, follow Tearssoon's advice
scan your pc with malwarebytes, you will be given a log and post that in that topic as well
Malwarebytes Malwarebytes is a free scanner download-able on <<link

[jurideluhi]

My advice: Format back your laptop and the malware will completely killed and gone from your laptop.

Prevention: Always have backups of your files and have Avira antivirus installed with updates every time.

[Munemasa Katagiri]

It's a rogue software, do as the others said and you should be safe.

[serph]

as usual, to be perfectly sure that it's gone, formatting is the way to go. If that is too bothersome to do, use one of the better anti-virus out there, ZoneAlarm, or my personal suggestion is Kaspersky.. just download and use that 1 month free trial.

[RyuuchiKiyu]

*BLAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH* You just made me throw up monkeys.....@.@ I took my free version away in an instant before I read any further....DX so....it wasn't anti-malwarebytes but I rogue version? =/

[DeepSeaCreature]

I don't think it's necessary to go through the trouble of formatting. Just post on a tech forum like Techmonkeys for help first (they're experts after all). And if that doesn't solve it, then try formatting.

Since others are suggesting programs, I'll throw in my suggestions, too.

For free anti-virus, go with Avira, Avast, or AVG. They're all reliable. Avast seems to be the most popular, but my personal favorite is Avira. It has the highest detection rate out of the three (and higher than almost all for-pay anti-virus programs, too). It also uses the least amount of resources on your computer. The only downside to Avira is that every time it installs updates, it prompts you to buy the full version. I just ignore the prompt and all is fine.

For free anti-malware/rootkit, Malwarebytes is the best. But the free version doesn't have live protection so I recommend using it together with something else like Ad-Aware or Spybot S&D. Spybot has teatimer to keep track of suspicious activities on your computer, and the free version of Ad-Aware was just equipped with Ad-Watch Live some months ago.

No suggestions for firewalls, since I've always used the one that came with Windows. I don't really browse porn sites or dubious pages, so Windows firewall has always served well for me.

[KarumA]

I agree with Tears, too soon do people shout out reformat nowadays.
Virus/malware busting can be easy at times and hard in some cases

As an adding to what Tears is saying above me, no need to download an extra live protection malware program if you have malwarebytes free already.
If you use proper anti virus protection, which will give you live protection against websites and proper firewall protection, which will live feed you if anything weird is trying to connect or block anything incoming then a third live feed Trojan protector is not needed.
Having too many scanning programs is not better or more protective, in fact it can sometimes clash and cause trouble.
Just get yourself a proper Anti virus, I do not recommend AVG though because it does not scan infected usb sticks if you plug them in (experienced that myself one day and it was nasty). Avira or Avast are good to go, I myself use Avast but I think there's not much of a difference between them.
Get one malware scanner, in this case Malwarebytes free. Live protection is not needed if you have both a firewall and anti virus running at background protection.
As for firewall, the windows one is pretty good but I would never lay trust of protection with windows so I use the Zonealarm free firewall program which is working great so far.
Comodo is also good but it had troubles once, when installing it the setup also installed a false anti virus that would spawn pop ups and so I switched back to Zonealarm.
Lastly be careful with what you do, do not visit unsafe websites that look sinister, do not click on suspicious links people pass you in emails or instant messages, get a save browser (example Firefox) and use an add block add-on with it (for Firefox use Add Block Plus) so that you cannot be redirected to some malware virus scanning website that supposedly is scanning your computer, if you are uncertain about a file being a virus upload it to VirusTotal and see what they cook up with their scanners. Internet.. serious business

[isarah]

Ill say what i always say even if it sounds drastic , better safe than sorry , format ...actually i have a double click to format every few months