The alert, which was issued in error, caused computers running Windows XP Service Pack 3 to go into a continuous reboot cycle. Other users were met with blue screens, loss of network connectivity, and inability to use USB devices.

The company says it will reimburse “reasonable expenses” for service repairs. Users who have already incurred costs to repair their PC are also covered.

In the rare case a computer was rendered inoperable or severely impaired due to the faulty file release, McAfee (News – Alert) is offering the user a free, two-year extension of their existing McAfee subscription. The company said only a “small percentage” of its customers had permanent damage to their computers

Meanwhile the company urges users who are experiencing problems to contact its call center to see if technicians can resolve those issues remotely — before taking the computer to a repair center. If a technician is unable to solve the problem, McAfee said it will provide the necessary software, either via a download or express delivery.

As per a report on PC World, the problem began last Wednesday (April 21st) when a faulty signature update DAT file disrupted the svchost.exe file on “a subset of systems” using McAfee VirusScan Enterprise on Windows XP service pack 3. Users with VirusScan Enterprise 8.7 experienced more severe problems than those running version 8.5, McAfee said, “because of the different implementation of memory scanning within the products.”

McAfee said the problem occurred when a faulty DAT file got through the testing process. Apparently the DAT file recognized one of the Windows .exe files as a virus and continuously tried to remove it.

It appears McAfee will be offering reimbursement both to organizations whose IT departments had the resolve the issue on a computer-by-computer basis as well as individual users who brought their computers in for service. This could get expensive for McAfee: As one user wrote in the comments section of one article: “I’m a PC Tech at a major corporation. Not only is the direct costs very expensive, but the impact this has caused in the delay to address other IT issues is huge.”

Although the company has a special page posted to its website telling affected users what to do, and offering self-serve fixes, it has not yet posted any information posted concerning the process for getting reimbursed, saying that it will be posted “within a few days.”

Here is a link to their web site http://us.mcafee.com/en-us/landingpages/np5959.asp

In the last 3 weeks we have received more calls per day than we receive in a normal month from people who have pop-ups claiming they are infected or who actually clicked on the pop-up and became infected.

Hacker and @#^&*%$ heads are using news events to spread these fake alerts and infecting computers.

The wild fire stories, the Obama speech in schools, Ted (I can kill and get away with it) Kennedys death, all have sprouted a flurry of fake security warnings, infected e-mail (Phishing attacks), and fake web sites.

Without creating a 3 hour seminar, here are the basics…

1. Quit searching the internet for “fantastic” stories. Within hours of Michael Jackson’s death 212 new web sites that were infected with crap-ware popped up proposing to be Michael Jackson sites. There were also dozens of different emails with links to or pictures of his death, all which were fake.

2. Stop using My Space and Face Book! I know this is going to get me flamed and maybe even a note from one of these “businesses” but they are @$@#$ (I really do dislike using so many language referenced but this is ridiculous). Why are you telling strangers when and where you are going on vacation? To make it easier to rob you? Why are you telling the world about your 4 year old grandchild’s ability to ride his bike down the street? So the local pedophiles know where to pick him up for a little “play time”? Do you just like complaining about the cost of getting crap-ware and infections off your computer?

3. Just stop thinking the world owes you free anything. Free music, programs, data, cheese… in this age of ever expanding socialism in America, you must remember, nothing comes without a price. Limewire is a perfect example of what happens. Hackers get into or create all this “free” content management, take over your computer, infect your computer and more. That is how terrorist in Iran got plans to the presidential helicopter. Turn on the radio or go to your local radio stations web site, go to the local video store or Netflix to get a movie.

4. Stop forwarding junk emails. “Verified by Snopes” – what a crock. Almost daily I “reply all” to the sender of this type of stupidity and give actual links to Snopes and other  sources showing the hype and falsity of their fantasy. Just because you don’t like the current US President does not mean you can hope hatred or that he is not a US citizen will remove him from office. The Democratic Party may be the dumocrats to many but they certainly would not make that mistake, just quit forwarding the email.

If you received it in all capitals or with large colorful letters, underlines bolded et al please for the love of Jesus (I know the one who sent it to you told them Jesus asked them to forward it – He didn’t, I double-checked in person this morning) stop forwarding this junk.

5. Read what you are installing or updating and NEVER accept the defaults. People consistently ask me how they acquired 4, 5, 6 or more toolbars. Yes, you need the Adobe and JAVA updates but please pay attention, you should take the extra 30 seconds of your life and read each screen before selecting “Next”.

Now that I have offended most of you, what can you do if you have already been infected?

1. Update and run your PAID FOR, quality, properly configured anti-virus program (Kaspersky http://www.kaspersky.com and ESET http://www.eset.com).

2. Install, update, configure and run a real copy of Malware Bytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/ and Spybot Search and Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org

The above are excellent programs and many malicious people have created fake sites leading to crap-ware, USE the links I have provided.

There are numerous other good to excellent programs that can be used to clean up an infection, just be sure of the program and then the source where you are getting the program from.

There are several other security basics home users should have and many great hardware and software tools for Micro and Small businesses to use. Just search this site for the many articles on security your computers and network.

Until I cool off, have a virus free week!

Just nine short years ago, ok ten really, the media picked up on a “bug” in computer systems where the first two digit of the year were not used so, according to the “experts” the media contacted all computers will think it is 1900 and ATMs will crash, Wall Street will blip to all zeros and the CNN would start playing old Howdy Doody shows, non-stop. Ok, I made that last part up. In any way, the long of the short of it is that the Y2K “bug” was mainly just another panic and media scare.

Alas, we come to April 1^st 2009 and another “April Fools” worm/virus or attack was supposed to bring the World Wide Web to a standstill. Conficker, where are you? I know, hind-site is 20/20 and I should have written this in late March but my great excuse is that I was answering so many calls about the “imminent attack” that I did not have time to write. Yes, once again that is an exaggeration. I did not write about it because it was, in my opinion going to be another non-event, that was until March 30^th when a local television station ran with some sensationalism on this and then on the 31^st another station did to.

This time I was uncertain about how to respond, not to the threat, after all, Microsoft had created a patch 6 months prior that would have been installed with it critical updates and the top anti-virus companies had hardened their systems against this threat at the same time (I can only speak for those I researched such as ESET and Kaspersky).

My concern was how a local computer / technology company was going to respond to the questioning. Since I have been interviewed by the local media and am a little on the paranoid side as it is, I worried about the way thing would be presented. I do feel a little hype was injected by thankfully no hysteria message from the technology company to the effect “quick, bring in your PC for the $99.99 checkup…”

In the end, what happened? Well on my end so far (as of April 7^th) not a single customer has been infected and we have not received a single call that would lead us to believe a potential client was infected.

Does this mean no-one was infected? I doubt that, the worm was supposed to activate on the 1st so the threat is not over. Update your computer via Windows Critical updates, install and properly configure a current anti-virus and anti-malware program. If you are not sure how to do these steps, contact your local computer repair shop and then take a class from you local community college or from any of the great usergroups around almost every town.

So I ask again, where is Bigfoot, where is the Y2K bug and where is the Conficker?

Deep in the jungles of your computer case resides the ancient temple of “hard drive” where the sacred and rarely backup treasure of “all my personal data” resides. While the special guards of the “lazy boy recliner” snooze at their post, the sneaky Professor Rattan and his sneaky virus crew are digging a tunnel (opening a port / backdoor), copying the ancient manuscripts (installing a key logger), looting the gold (using a dialer to run up your phone bill) and putting fake manuscripts (using you as a SPAM relay) in your temple.

As I am sure you can guess, in this article I want us to delve into the use of anti-virus programs. I prefer some brands and cannot stand others however just like auto insurance, YOU NEED AN UP-TO-DATE Ant-virus program. You need to update it DAILY, especially you poor souls still on dial up (another great advantage of high speed internet is automatic updates “automatically” occur). You need to schedule scans of your drive(s) just in case something slipped through.

This past Holiday season I did very little work for businesses but more than usual for individuals and guess what, viruses abounded on EVERY computer that I worked on that had dial-up internet. One computer had Norton that expired October 2004 (Yes 2004, and no this was not the “most expired” anti-virus program I have run across), another expired in January of 2005 and several that expired or were not updated since this summer. Computer users cannot get away with that anymore.

Over the years I have run across plenty of people and businesses that bought a new computer, activated the anti-virus that came with it and never updated or renewed (usually the 90 day subscriptions) them. I like you, I am a people person, so please understand this does hurt me as much as it hurts you. QUIT WINING over the hours you are being charge by professionals who have to root (I threw that work in for you Linux people) out the nasties that have infected your computers. If you don’t want to spend $300 in labor getting your computer fixed, then spend the lousy $39 a year on a new anti-virus and USE IT!

This leads to my one and only New Year’s resolution that I have not broken (yet), I no longer give price breaks to individuals or businesses whose computers are infected due to their own negligence. In 2005 I logged over 124 hours cleaning up such messes and yet somehow felt sorry and only charged the customers for 18! Ouch, no wonder my kids got socks for Christmas that year.

You might be asking yourself why I am being so “harsh”, as an example, your Doctor does not give you a price break when you get lung cancer after smoking or when you have a heart attack after not working out in 40 years or even when you have a stroke from eating fast food every day for breakfast and lunch.

If you need an anti-virus program, I love ESET’s NOD32 and my 2nd favorite is Kaspersky (which has links on this web page).

This is not to suggest that you forget about anti-malware products or security “suites”, just that you remember to renew or purchase some form of security for your computer, it is a lot less expensive on your wallet in the short and long run.
Until we meet again have a virus free week.

This particular program and attempt to get on your computers has been around for a while, however the most recent incarnation that started a week or two ago seems to be evading several anti-viruses. I have found it on machines with current up-to-date versions of Norton, ESET, AVG (free) and Computer Associates. I have read of others with Trend Micro as well as Panda Anti-virus getting infected.

Usually this particular nasty only infects people who visit sites with infected video codecs (normally, but not always “adult” sites). This time around it seems to be using some vulnerability and hacking “good” web sites and or servers and injecting them with the infection. Once they are infected you (or in one case your child) goes to the site / server and wham bam no thank-you man, you are infected.

Once infected the program tries to prevent your current security from updating or running properly.

The first thing that needs to be done is to disable System Restore and reboot.
Next you need to kill AV2009.exe via Task Manager.
Now navigate to “Program Files” and under the folder “AV2009” delete AV2009.exe (I just deleted the whole folder the first time but then security programs did not find the program and thus a pop up still occurred)
At this point I have been able to manually run a thorough anti-virus scan which has caught and paused other AV2009 files.
The next thing, I downloaded, updated and ran Spybot Search and Destroy 1.6 from Safer-networking (be aware there is a crap-ware and malware program masquerading as this program). Spybot S&D seems to have finalized the destruction of AV2009 but just in case I also have run Combo Fix.
Finally I suggest that you remove all temporary internet files for all your browsers (many of you use Firefox or Opera but still have Internet Explorer to remember). That should finish removing this program. All that is left is to turn System Restore back on and reboot.

I hope this helps many of you out. Until we meet again, have a virus free week.