Malware @ MindSay 
It started over a year ago. The first indication was the network slowing - then, several of the more popular websites were hacked. How a keylogger program became installed - well, I have my suspicions. I did some research and found an online computer repair company. Rather than take all the computers in or call a technician to the office, I figured I’d roll the dice.
I was very pleased an hour later. Remotely, the company found, killed and then restored - for a single - very reasonable price - my computer. Heck, I signed up with for year which included tuning and optimizing all computers. For the next year, every once a while, we went online and the company remotely scanned and optimized.
The year was great - but, not having had any recurrences, I let the contract lapse. Six months later, I did it this time. In an effort to improve broadcast sound quality - I did something stupid. I disable the firewall and virus protection. Really, it should have been okay. I had I remembered to re-activate the programs. The next day - we were slammed.
My fault. I contacted the remote technicians. This time - same great service, but the Trojan had burrowed deep into a single machine. It took longer - but they were able to restore everything. I was so pleased, I told the technician via chat that I would be blogging about my satisfaction; and, link to them. This honest guy says, “You ought to just become an affiliate.”
That was an easy decision. Over the last 18 months I have referred dozens of people to them - each one was as satisfied as I was. I never imagined I could become an affiliate. Because of my websites, I am an affiliate with several companies. None was this easy - nor, do I have such a personal connection. I signed up, they created a page - at no cost to me. I then registered a domain, pointed to the sub-domain they had created - and, well I am in business.
There is one last cool part - I can sign up people to be affiliates and - well, get a small commission of the people they refer. Can you imagine - all the people, all the computers, all the knotheads creating viruses - now I can make a little money helping people clean their machines!
First, if your machine is infected, or slow, I strongly recommended these technicians - it’s done remotely and very cool to watch your cursor move on its own. Second, if you would like be an affiliate - that’s right, make money with computer viruses, I encourage to click on the link and sign up!
www.computerrepair-online.com
If you scroll down, on the right hand bottom you will see a link to become an affiliate.
Today would have been interesting if it ended in an eight hour shift in the computer lab like every Tuesday. Even so, I'm going to skip much of the interesting morning and afternoon and move right into what took the place of the eight hour shift.
One of my classes has, as part of its course outline, mandatory attendance of the UVU dance labs, which are more like mini, inter-class competitions. I do not dance. Theoretically I was supposed to do the quickstep. I don't know the quickstep. So this was stressing me out all morning. The dance lab began at 7:00. I work from 3:00 to 11:00. I managed to get Peggy to cover for me from 7:00 to...whenever I got back to relieve her so she could catch a last minute bus home.
So Peggy was in the lab when I arrived at three, and stayed with me through my shift, doing homework mostly. She also began to witness strange, unexplainable phenomena in the computer system. The first mysterious error message arose in the color printer. This may or may not have even been related. The next message was actually a series of virus reports in the Lab Assistant machine. This was strange. I rebooted the computer, which does reset it to the identical frozen state every time. Every time. Always. Without fail. But the virus reports came back with every login, and soon were fowling up the computer's interaction with the network. I asked Darel, my dad, and David how these viruses could possibly survive reboot. They all had the same answer: they can't. But they did.
The problems did not end there. Soon the entire lab was acting up. Every fourth computer was having network-related issues. Refusing to log on, freezing when logging on and using the internet. Soon the printer wasn't working. Ah, yes, but I am getting ahead of myself.
It's 6:52. I get a call from the greenhouse lab, reporting the same errors, but less severe and significantly delayed from the loft's issues. I had to abandon Peggy to go to the dance lab. I had no idea what to expect, but the situation was clear. Darel had gone home. So had Dave, and my dad was somewhere else. I was in charge, if by no other authority than by my seniority and expertise. I took charge...but I was in a dance lab. I was in and out. Thank heavens the judges noticed that...well...I didn't know the quickstep, and so I was eliminated in the first round.
I ran back to the labs to check on everyone. Soon after I arrived in the loft, every single computer was toast. They wouldn't log on. The internet was completely unresponsive. There was an error message for every occasion. My language is not strong enough. The lab had become completely unusable. The Loft lab had crashed.
A number of phonecalls assured me that there were no such errors in the Library, so we sent the students there and shut down the Loft. Because the only way to make the Lab Assistant computer even FUNCTION was to disconnect it from the network, I had to shut the computers down manually. I got the leave from my teacher to take off from the dance lab so long as I made it back to sign the roll. I shut the computers down, closed the lab, and put signs on the door directing students to the fishbowl, which I immediately reopened. I am there now. There aren't any computer issues yet, but if this is what I think it is - a network worm programmed to crash the entirety of campus - it will only be a matter of time. Already I'm seeing signs of this computer lagging. I'm going to go to the greenhouse to check on its state of affairs.
You know, despite the absolute NIGHTMARE this has been, it has been interesting. Different. Even fun! A challenge. I was presented a challenge and I got to step up to the plate and make things happen. It kind of reminds me when the studio flooded. No superior was around. I was expected to take charge and I did. I'm not especially pleased with myself or proud that I did a good job or anything - though I think I did perform well - it's mostly just that I was glad to have a challenge. Something new. And very weird (my dad had no idea what was happening). In a world of eight hours of non-stop staring at a computer screen, this was a very interesting day.
As an avid gamer and technology geek, I've run across a few good anti-malware, spyware, virus software. However, Malwarebytes totally rocks most of the malware removal tools out of the water. I've had very many run-ins with WinAnti-Virus Pro 2007/2008, which is a nasty little trojan that dumps numerous other malware on to your system and ultimately wrecks total havoc on your registry. Using a combination of Windows Defender, Avira, Spybot S&D and the Trojan Remover...it took me nearly 13 hours to completely clean a system from this new form of cyber "terrorism". I installed Malwarebytes removal program and in less than 4 hours another system was clean and like new. It's more up to date and scans deeper, and relatively inexpensive. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware costs $24.95 and it is a one time fee.
Just follow the link below and you can learn about this program yourself!
https://www.cleverbridge.com/342/?affiliate=2666&cart=29945&scope=cart
(No worries, this is my affiliate link. I get 30% of each sale of the product. You can also go to their website and become an affiliate as well.)
Wow, it feels like I haven't actually been on my computer in such a very long time. This darn thing had multiple viruses, and malware. I worked on it from January 27 until giving up on Feb 4. I tried everything I could think of. Panda scan and Symantec were taking over 13 hours to scan my computer. Symantec came up with nothing while Panda found mutiple problems. Just when I was going to pay Panda to get rid of everything my computer wouldn't open that page. I had even gone into the registry deleting everything with the names of the virus programs that were found. Nothing was working, and it seems more was being added because my firewall had been hacked and no longer worked. So on Feb 4th I gave in and took my computer to a technition (that doesn't look right. mindsay should have spell check haha). It took 6 days for them get all the bugs out, and delete nearly 3 gigs of temp internet files. It was malware keeping me from being able to delete the temp files. How crazy is that? People, keep a good check on your firewall and virus protection! Watch what you download. Your bff could be sending you viruses and not even know it. I'm so glad to have my computer back, and I have missed you all. Give me a little time to catch up later, once the kiddies have gone to bed. :)
*EDIT*
I just checked my C drive for space....somehow there are now 25gs free where there has only been less then 5gs for a very long time! I have no idea where the tech's found that much space. Can't wait to call on Monday and ask them! Now I wonder how much more space I'll regain when I set it to defrag before going to bed.
