Virusremovalguidelines

Coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak has terrified people all over the world. Global Tourist movement saw a decline due to new coronavirus cases popping up in different countries. Scammers saw this as an opportunity & initiated coronavirus phishing attacks to steal personal data. Security researchers from a leading cyber security firm discovered the cyber attack which is a variant of email phishing scams. Criminals impersonate WHO officials & issue fraud and false statements in the email stating a COVID-19 alert or safety precautions. Accessing such emails laden with malicious links & attachments will result in exposing your precious information like usernames & passwords to hackers. WHO has already declared COVID-19 as a Global Public Health Emergency & issued safety precautions on their official website. However, scammers are utilizing the scepticism surrounding coronavirus. Thus, they are running a phishing campaign which lures people into exposing ...

A recent  Cyber attack on a parking garage  used by the  Canadian Internet Registration Authority  (CIRA) made evident that even strangest of the places can be attacked by  Ransomware . This Cyber Attack on parking lot allowed people to park their vehicles for free after CIRA’s systems were infected by the Ransomware. Computer Security researchers asserted that the ransomware responsible for this strange incidence is a variant of the   Dharma Ransomware  family, renowned to  infect computers  that have exposed their Remote Desktop Services on the net. Insight into the Attack on CIRA Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is a  non-profit organization  that represents the Canadian domains on an international level & manages the . CA country code top-level domain  (ccTLD). The parking garage of CIRA is maintained by  Precise Parklink , Automated Parking revenue Control System to  verify people ente...

Ryuk ransomware is believed to be the culprit behind the impeded printing & delivery of major newspaper publications in the United States i.e.  Los Angeles Times and Tribune Publishing. The malware attack on Tribune Publishing’s software systems was discovered on 28 th  December 2018. The abuse on the software delayed weekend distribution of the newspaper & affected Tribune publications throughout the country. Among the publications affected include: Baltimore Sun, Capital Gazette, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Carroll County Times, Lake County News-Sun, the South Florida Sun Sentinel & Post-Tribune. The  Los Angeles Times & San Diego Union-Tribune  that were formerly part of Tribune Publishing newspapers were also slammed by the Ransomware. The print editions of the affected newspapers were published on Saturday without obituary section & paid classified ads according to the publications. The...

Google’s semi-obsolete Social Network platform, Google+, is in the negative spotlight again as it has exposed personal information of around 52.5 million Google+ users second time this year! Google+ has suffered this ruinous Data Breach for a record second time in consecutive three months. The Tech Giant, Google said in a blog post on Monday that software amendments introduced to Google+ in November 2018 had a bug enclosed in Google+ People API. The Large spread of this Bug in Google+ took place in form of an update released by Google making them the evil eye. Insight in to First Pernicious Data Breach of Google+ This Internet-based Social Network was launched by Google in June 2011 in order to serve as a social spine for different services of Google like Adwords and YouTube. Google integrated distinct unique features to Google+ in order to make it stand out of the crowd of popular social networking services. Alas, the fame of Google+ & Google’s efforts to hike up Google+ wen...

China deemed as a prodigy of technological outbreaks encountered unprecedented number of major cyber threats in last few years. Since the extensive destructive days of  WannaCry  and  NotPeyta  last year, ransomware attacks appeared to have dwindled heaving a sigh of relief among security researchers. A recent discovery of this distinctive cyber attack targeting China got the cyber security back to work. Unlike almost every ransomware malware that seek for ransom payments in Bitcoin, this ransomware virus demands for ransom through one of the country’s most popular payment methods.   WeChat Pay , one of  China’s most commonly used digital wallets , owned by Chinese tech giant  Tencent , was used by attacker to receive payments.   Threat Behavior This anonymous ransomware after infiltrating the system encrypts user’s files using a less secure  XOR cipher . However, the ransom note claims to have used a more sophisticated  DES encr...

Instagram, the second most preferred social media platform among millennial has now caught the eyes of threat actors.   A recent string of Instagram Phishing Scam have terrorized Instagram users wherein cyber-maniacs target popular influencers – with over 100,000 followers. What is it about this app that makes it so wildly successful? Instagram is a popular social networking service owned by FaceBook where people share photos, videos etc.  As social media sites have grown in numbers by leaps and bounds, the following features give this online global network an edge over other social media platforms: The clever design choices, Implementation of fine filters to edit the pictures, Provision to tag people who hold an account on Instagram, Provide location information, People’s desire to connect to a growing revenue stream is met by Instagram better than any other social media platform. The popularity of Instagram has made it a prominent target in the cyber-cr...

Do you aspire to take your unbeknownst website to the top level of Fame? Do you seek Internet presence for your business or organization? Do you yearn to add credibility to your online business and give it a unique identity? Successful registration of a domain name for your website can add a feather to its cap. Domain names now days are deemed as online real estate. It is considered vital to have an online presence for your business to flourish to new heights. It provides a platform for the potential customers to make successful business transactions without worrying about the limitations that would have restrained them otherwise. The geographic location is considered to be one of these limitations. There shouldn’t be any denial to the fact that Domain name designs and business growth go hand in hand! Technically a domain name cannot be bought forever. Based on the Domain registration and web hosting company, you can register a domain for up to 10 years. When a domain nam...

US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warns users against ERP Attack Department of Homeland Security of America has warned users against impending cyber attacks on ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. Homeland security  is a US based national security that ensures that the area of the country within the national boundary is safe, secure and resilient against terror attacks. The basis of this warning is the report published by Threat Intelligence firms that depicts that there has been a sudden surge in the interest of the hackers to target ERP systems who may use both hacking and DDoS (Distributed denial of Service) attacks to carry out disruption and compromise these high-value assets. Attacks of this nature were first warned in May 2016 when the exploitation on 36 global organizational institutions was suspected through the abuse of the seven year old vulnerability in SAP applications. What is ERP? Why cyber criminals target ERP systems? ERP (Enterpris...

Car Sharing attacks Traffic is not just a nuisance for riders; it is also a public health hazard and disappointing news for the economy. Transportation studies reveal that the annual cost of congestion is $160 billion. With Global warming at its peak, to avoid sun strokes, people prefer to travel in air conditioned cars even if it is out of their budget to own one. Though it is considered a necessity,  the global issues pertaining to the use of AC cars  cannot be ignored. New travel alternatives devised by the latest technology have provided individuals with a vast number of  choices other than public transportation. Requesting a ride from your phone is not only convenient;  sharing a ride with co- passengers or grabbing a bike outside your home have also had a positive social impact with respect to congestion, energy consumption and pollution. This day by day growing popularity of car sharing has caught the eyes of the cyber criminals as well! They h...

What is Eluxer.net Redirect Virus? Eluxer.net is considered a potentially unwanted program (PuP) and is classified as a  Browser Hijacker . The Eluxer.net Redirect Virus is an entity that infiltrates into the user’s system without user approval and alters the web browser settings to install its own home page and new tab.     The browser hijacker enters the system using elusive methods. It hides inside third party software and spam email attachments. Opening the spam email attachments can download the virus payload of eluxer.net into the system. User should also be aware of added software inside the setup of third party software. Users are advised to perform a Custom/Advanced install of the software and uncheck any additional software bundled with the software setup. The Eluxer.net Redirect Virus can also enter through malicious links, torrents, or via malicious web pages. Eluxer.net Redirect Virus – Threat Behavior Eluxer.net Redirect Virus lowers the we...

What is Javhd.com Pop-up? Javhd.com is a Japanese porn website. It is not exactly a malware but continuous usage can inadvertently lead to  adware  getting installed in your system without approval. Users who visit the website often and browse through its contents, start getting unwanted and intrusive pop-ups in their web browser. Javhd.com Pop-ups are built to generate revenue through every click by the users. These pop-ups often contain illicit and adult content which will leave you feeling embarrassed if you are sitting in a public place. So, it is important to get rid of this nasty adware. Javhd.com Pop-up – Threat Behavior Javhd.com Pop-up gets into your system through malicious links or directly from its domain page. Regular visits on this domain page can bait you into clicking on links that might be unsecured or carry suspicious content. These malicious links will install the Javhd.com Pop-up adware into your system. The javhd.com pop-up will start...

Healthcare organizations are becoming the targets of hackers now days due to highly sensitive data they deal with. The gathered data is worth minting money by selling it online rather than extorting users by stealing their email- password combos. Labcorp (Laboratory Corporation of America) , a leading global life sciences company and the largest clinical laboratories suffered one such major cyber security breach over the weekend! The firm headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina, runs large network of labs and health care centers across the world and provides diagnostic, drug development and other health care services to more than 115 million patients every year. The annual turnover of the company is estimated to be more than $10 billion. Labcorp, a fortune 500 company, is known to deliver world class forensic, genetic- specialized test facilities, diagnostic solutions performing routine tests; the most common tests being blood tests, HIV tests and urine analysis. ...

What is GoCloudy Redirect Virus? GoCloudy Redirect Virus is a malware that is categorized as a  browser hijacker . This is a potentially unwanted program (PuP) that infiltrates the system without user knowledge. It installs into the web browser and alters the settings according to its requirements. It adds its own home page and new tab in the web browser. It starts displaying ads in the web browser during the browsing sessions of the user. These ads contain the attribute ‘Ads By GoCloudy’ or ‘Powered By GoCloudy’ Gocloudy Redirect Virus is a computer threat that redirects the user to different web pages. These suspicious URLs can contain malicious links which might end up downloading more malware into the user’s system. GoCloudy Redirect Virus – Threat behavior GoCloudy Redirect Virus infiltrates into the system by associating with third party software. When a user downloads any third party software and installs the software without going through the Custom/Adva...

In a recent cyber attack, a popular website VSDC that provides free audio & video editing and conversion software had been hijacked by malicious programmers to insert different malware strains. The miscreants changed the download links for the software offered by VSDC, to download links that commenced downloads of malware strains from attacker controlled & operated servers. Upon downloading from these swapped links, the users ended up downloading theft Trojan or Info-stealer, remote access trojan (RAT) and a key-logger program. The attack was carried out in three stages. The first attack commenced on June 18 2018 when the free video software download link was replaced with third party download links. On July 2 2018 (second instance) and July 6 2018 (third instance), the attacks were carried out and original links were again replaced with third party download links. The first and third attack caused large scale damage and affected many unsuspecting users in comparison to...

What is Boris Ransomware and how does it work? Boris  Ransomware  is a file encryption malware that encrypts files using AES-256 cipher algorithm and is based on the infamous HiddenTear Ransomware family. Once installed on the system via malicious websites, spam email attachments the ransomware scans the PC to search for files with the following extensions and encrypts them with the sophisticated cypher algorithm. .PNG, .GIF, .JPG, .PDF, .XLR, .XLS, .XLSX, .SQL, .APK, .COM, .EXE, .JAR,.CAD Files, .CSS, .HTML .PHP,.DOC, .DOCX, .LOG, .TXT, .CSV, .KEY, .PPT .PPTX and many more. The encrypted files are appended with [decode77@sfetter.com].boris extension. For instance a file named “abc.pdf” would be renamed to “abc.pdf.[decode77@sfetter.com].boris” which is completely unusable. Victims are informed about this unfortunate circumstance by dropping a ransom note file “README.txt” that does not disclose much and reads as: There are two version known of this ransom no...

Guide to remove SmartEasyMaps Browser Hijacker SmartEasyMaps  is a malicious browser extension considered to be a  browser hijacker . As the name suggests this malicious toolbar deceives user by claiming to provide: Search Maps:  Free maps, driving directions, live satellite images and street view maps Get easy Directions:  The domain alleges to find the fastest routes for to and fro movement. It also claims to help users to learn the mileage from city to city, traffic conditions, GPS maps, maps with street views, printable maps and much more. Turn-by-Turn Directions:  To exhaustive riders tired of getting stuck in road congestion the malicious toolbar affirms to provide turn-by-turn driving directions, guide the riders with the fastest route for their destination, and much more. The malicious extension undergoes stealth installation in the system and once infiltrated modifies browser settings. It replaces browser homepage, search engine and ...

Guide to Remove Rakhni Ransomware Rakhni  is a devastating computer  ransomware  program that targets crypt o graphic systems and encrypts the files present on these computers. It then demands ransom from the victims in order to decrypt the encrypted files. Rakhni ransomware was found in 2013 and since then it has been targeting new victims. Since then the malware has evolved various versions. The unique characteristic of Rakhni ransomware is that, once infiltrated either via email phishing messages or infected payload document, it scans the system for Bitcoin or other crypt-o-currency software installation.One of the reasons cited behind this attempt is to encrypt user’s wallet private keys and prevent them from accessing their digital fund. Another reason behind targeting user systems owning Crypt-o-currency funds is that, Rakhni ransomware authors believe that it would be easier for users to pay ransom to obtain decryption key for the encrypted files.   ...

What is GeoSmartDNS? GeoSmartDNS is a harmful entity that is a potentially unwanted program (PuP). It comes under the category of  adware . This program displays ads to the user, and for every click by the user on these ads, revenue is generated for the company called Greenteam, who made this malicious program. GeoSmartDNS infiltrates the system and affects the settings in the web browser to start displaying intrusive and unwanted ads during user browsing sessions. The GeoSmartDNS adware is installed into the user’s system through various distribution methods. These methods are designed to lure and trap unwary users into unwittingly allowing the malware entry into their system. GeoSmartDNS has a website that is used to distribute this adware . Its tagline says ‘Browse the Internet with no censorship’. Many users may fall for this gimmick but its motive is something different from what it makes the user believe. In one of its Supposed ‘Main features’ it highlights the fact...

Humana Inc. is an American health Insurance company based in Louisville, Kentucky. The company provides medical, dental, wellness and other health plans to over millions of members in the US. Latest news reveals that Humana was recently targeted by a ‘sophisticated cyber spoofing attack’ that compromised the personal data of millions of its customers. Humana Cyber attack was discovered on on June 3rd 2018 after detecting a significant number of unauthorized failed login attempts to access its two websites using foreign IP addresses. The attack attempted to gain access to a system using fake or stolen credentials. To retaliate Humana Cyber attack, the firm on June 4th 2018 blocked the offending foreign Internet Protocol addresses from its websites. The nature of the attack depicts that the crooks had a large database of user identifiers and corresponding passwords to gain unauthorized access to systems and networks. The credentials used by the attackers are expected to be stol...

What is Newtube chrome extension? Newtube chrome extension is a harmful  browser hijacker  available in the Google Chrome Web Store. It offers the users with the option to play their favorite songs while browsing the internet. This extension promises to offer the users access to a vast library of songs. When a user searches for a particular song, it displays the song and the content related to that song to generate a playlist. It offers the option to shuffle the previously created playlist. After the playlist finishes, it creates another song collection related to the previous song preferences of the user. The Newtube chrome extension offers the user options to: Search desired songs Choose from recently played collections or saved playlists Choose songs from trending top charts But, in reality Newtube Chrome extension is an intrusive program. It displays pop-up ads that show offers and display links to suspicious websites. Newtube chrome extension displays these ads...