It’s been a long time since I last posted, but their was a good reason for this, or I should say a bad reason. Unfortunately this blog and another few of my sites were infected with some malicious malware code, which then unfortunately spread onto my computer and infected that too!. Lets just say nightmare!!.
I found all this out while checking over my sites one morning, only to be confronted with a huge RED Google pop up saying “ATTACK SITE!, THIS SITE MAY HARM YOUR COMPUTER!”. Not only that but under each of the infected sites in the Google listings it also listed a warning under the link.
That day could not have got any worse, but it did……. My Twitter account was also suspended because it linked back to my infected blog!!. AAARRGGHHh
My first port of call was my hosts who were able to clean some of the infected files, and also let me know that this all happened in the first place because my FTP account, usernames and passwords were compromised allowing the infected malware to be injected into my sites, which then spread all over as easy as warm peanut butter on toast!.
I changed all usernames and passwords as instructed by my hosts, who then again scanned all the files on my sites to make sure they were clean and free of the malware. At this time I also contacted Twitter support to see if I could get my account back with them.
On my computer I tried about 6 different virus/malware/spam killers and none of them were able to remove this malware. Thankfully I found one that did, its called Malwarebytes and it rocks!!!.
Malwarebytes was able to find and kill the virus on my system, best of all its FREE!!!. I also found Avast free edition helpful to find some of the infected files on my websites, which allowed me to delete the files my hosts did not find at the time.
Even though Avast did not detect the virus passing to my system in the first place, it does detect infected files if you are browsing a site with malware in it. One of the reasons Avast was not able to detect the malware was because I did not have the latest version of this program.
Usually the latest version of any virus killer is downloaded automatically, but once this virus hit my system it was able to stop any updates to my virus programs. And as I did not know at this time I had the virus I was unaware that a returned error on my virus updates was a big problem.
Another sign of this virus on my system was the fact that I would get redirected to ad sites from a regular Google search. I would search for something on Google and get taken to the regular listings as per usual, but on occasion when I clicked on a result I would be redirected to another site unrelated to my search!.
I would also notice it would take a long time to shut down my system. If you have any of these problems on your system this might be the time for you to pick up Malwarebytes and run a scan.
Now thankfully I have my sites back, and was also able to get my account un-suspended on Twitter which was thanks to me explaining my situation, and basically pleading and groveling until they got bored of me and let me back in. SWEET!!.
Anyway I want to leave you with a link so you can pick up Malwarebytes just in case you seem to be having the same issues?.
Hopefully you never have to use it on your systems, but its always good to have a great malware program on your computers just in case.
Now after all this I hope to be back posting regular updates, as well as continuing the operation imac which took a turn for the worse while I was fighting this virus!!. Maybe this is a sign!!, Macs it seems don’t have the same issues with viruses as Mr PC’s.
Tags: Attack Site
