Friday, 6 February 2009

Malicious Securitycenter Spyware Runs Rampant

The online crime epidemic fuels a rise in more stealth and corrupt rogue anti-spyware programs that are impossible to detect by anti-virus tools. Even some of the most legitimate anti-spyware programs have a hard time keeping up with the newest manipulation of online crime. SecurityCenter is a rogue anti-spyware program that incessantly displays fake alerts until you give up and run a “free trial”. SecurityCenter, also known as SecurityCenter.y, knows that fear tactics work.
SecurityCenter will install malware on your computer. Then they will tell you that they found the malware on your computer that they just installed. In addition, it makes up names of files that don't even exist. Be on the lookout for files like gulozerela._sy, wopok.exe, and sibufub.dll. All of them are fake alerts just to scare you.
The scans look believable. It has everything that an anti-virus or anti-spyware program would sell. The logo looks deceptively familiar to the Windows Security System. I have to confess, I have actually made the mistake of clicking on one of these pop-ups thinking that it was my Security System.
Before I knew it, I was taken through a scan I didn't even approve. Everything was fine for a while. Then I started to notice that more and more Web searches were coming up as potential threats. My computer started getting pop-ups that I kept shutting down. Eventually, I got the "Blue Screen of Death." I could start my computer up in Safe Mode, but I couldn't access any of my files. After a while, it just crashed. I had to take it to the computer tech who charged me $125 to fix it. I wiped my hard drive clean and started all over again. I lost all the music I had saved in Temporary Files on my media player, among other things. All because I had downloaded two Trojans. I was bummed.
If I had done my research and purchased a reputable anti-spyware program, the problem could have been avoided entirely. Instead, I was running one of those free versions that only gets some of it. I have heard time and time again that you need to run two or three different anti-spyware programs and anti-virus programs. Don't fall into this trap.
Granted, removing SecurityCenter isn't easy, but if you only get 99% of the program, you might as well not even remove it. These buggers can regenerate easily the next time you start up your computer. If you decide to manually remove the program, all I can say is good luck. When I looked around for the files to delete, I found at least a hundred. What's worse is that some of the forums differed from the others. You really can't expect to keep up with the updates and definitions.
My best advice to you is to do your research and find a program that offers a guaranteed 24-hour removal. You need to remove SecurityCenter now, and protect yourself from infections like these in the future.

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