I’m Not The Only One

Okay, I’m a libertarian, a Free Stater and Latino.  So why am I writing about this, you ask?

Three reasons:

1.  I was actually stupid enough to download this piece of malware, and I got rid of it all by myself without having to reformat my hard drive.  I’d like to share what exactly I did to make that happen so that others do not have to go to extremes like hiring someone to fix it or having to wipe your hard drive clean.

2.  Since this malware seems to be affecting many people, since “Windows 2012 Security Virus” seems to be a very popular search subject when typing the first two words into Google.  So I figure writing about it will at least bring more people to this blog.

3.  Because I couldn’t use my Firefox browser, it was the main reason I couldn’t get into WordPress and make any new entries here for a few weeks.

If you don’t know what this piece of malware is,  just Google it, because I’m not in the mood to explain any background shit.  If you do know what this is, read on.

How did someone as brilliant, insightful and intelligent as myself unwittingly download this, you ask?  Well, we all have our moments when our brains take the night off (in herp we derp!)and we do things that if, thought out rationally, would not have done them.  I was watching The Philosophy of Liberty for the umpteenth time when I discovered a screensaver version of this video was available.   But when I downloaded it and attempted to use it, a popup message informed me that it required the Macromedia Flash plugin to work.  I Googled Macromedia Flash and the top result was for this non-Macromedia website that offered a free plugin that it claimed to be compatible with MF and was so great it purported itself to be “the last plugin you’ll ever download”.  Sounded great, right?  The minute I downloaded the “plugin” the following appeared on my desktop.

It’s pretty amusing when you think about it; a piece of malware disguised as some Microsoft syber security application that keeps your computer from operating normally, blames the lack of functionality on a computer virus and then suggests you register (translation: pay for) your “copy” of Windows Security 2012 to remedy the problem.  As stupid as I was to download this, I sure as hell wasn’t going to whip out my debit card and give these fraudsters my banking information or any of my money!

Yes, lots of people refer to this as a virus, but this is a misnomer, because Windows 2012 Security does not infect every single file on your hard drive the way a real virus would, nor does it spread to other devices via USB ports of disk drives or email.  The ability of malevolent programs to multiply itself and spread across files and other machines is why it is called a virus in the first place.  What Windows 2012 Security actually does is keep almost all of your .exe files from operating, so when you attempt to open an application, the “Open With…” window pops up and gives you a limited option of programs (i.e., Internet Explorer, Adobe Acrobat, Notepad, etc.) with which you can open the application.

This of course includes any anti-virus or anti-malware applications.  For example, the only web browser the malware allowed me to open was Internet Explorer (since Internet Explorer can obviously be opened with Internet Explorer), which is a crucial piece of software because it allows you to download all the web browsers you actually use.  I have MalwareBytes, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Super Anti-Spyware, all of it useless to help since I Windows Security 2012 kept me from opening any of them.

I had the malware in my laptop for two weeks because I was reluctant (and lacking the funds) to pay someone to try to fix my computer, and I didn’t want to reformat my hard drive and lose all of the documents I was too stupid to back up.  I discovered the very simple solution by accident.  I don’t know about previous versions of Windows, but in Windows 7, there is an option in the submenu (when you right-click an application’s icon) called “run as administrator”.

I’m not 100% certain what running the program as an administrator means, but this basically bypasses the malware’s actions and opens the program.  Once I discovered I could open any application as long as I ran it as administrator, I opened my anti-malware software and it destroyed Windows Security 202.  If you don’t have Malwarebytes or any of the software mentioned above, refer to the links and download it; it’s free.  If Windows Security 2012 is infesting your hard drive, you can still get these programs.  Since Internet Explorer allowed me to view webpages, it will obviously be able to download the setup files from the websites.  The only difference is that to open the setup file to install the program you must right-click the icon and select “run as administrator” from the submenu.

That’s it.  Run Malwarebytes and your hard drive will be completely functional again.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 12th, 2012 at 4:49 am and is filed under Straight Up Scams, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.