For years and years I have not used any antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spyware or any sort of security software on my Windows PC. Not once did I ever get infected with any type of malware. Yet just recently … just hours ago … for the first time in years, I get infected by Antispyware Soft.
Antispyware Soft is a rogue anti-spyware program from the same family as Antivirus Soft and Antivirus Suite. Just like its predecessors, AntispywareSoft reports false system security threats to make you think that your computer is infected with malicious software. Usually, this fake program is promoted through the use of Trojans or other malware, but it can be also installed on your computer without your consent and knowledge through software vulnerabilities.
This infection was a shit-storm of things I already knew before hand … that
- The best antivirus is the user.
- Anti-malware in most forms are a waste of money.
- Internet Explorer should die a horrible death.
- Your regularly visited site or it’s DNS can get compromised and begin giving you great offers!
- Listen to Firefox when it tells you that a site is a suspected malware site. Seriously.
So now comes my tale …
Some months ago, after not using anti-malware software for years, I decided to install Norton. It was free as long I stayed with my ISP and who doesn’t like free, amiright? Unfortunately, Norton sucks donkey balls that all the spiffy “technology” with such names as “Insight Protection” or “SONAR Protection” that Norton users are no match against such awesome spyware infection tools like Internet Explorer.
Now fast forward to the present and I visit a regularly frequented site and Firefox pops up a warning that the site may be a malware site. I thought … hey, this must be a mistake … so I choose to ignore it. Firefox fails to load the entire site after my repeated attempts to ignore the warning. Damn you Firefox! You cannot tell me what to do! … I thought. Little did I know that the said site wasn’t my beloved site at all, but a compromised copy of original site served up using compromised DNS entries.
I did not want to hear Firefox’s complaints. I was in control of the computer and if Firefox did not want to load the site, Internet Explorer would without complaint … so to the Start menu I went. Internet Explorer loaded up the site fine and lo’ and behold, I am prompted to clean my computer for viruses and all hosts of other malware. The problem was, it was malware asking me to clean my computer. The malware also conveniently installed itself without my permission and refused to let me run any administrative programs. To make the long story short …
- Norton failed to detect the attack.
- Internet Explorer allowed the attack to happen without any input on my end aside from visiting a compromised site.
- I should not have let Norton make me feel safe to ignore Firefox’s warnings.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I will not be fooled twice. I will not be led into a false sense of security again.
PS. Kudos to Malwarebytes for removing the infection that a widely popular piece of shit software like Norton couldn’t even detect.
Via ribbed.us …