I’m ashamed of myself because I’ve been caught out by a malware trap. I accidentally clicked some link that took me to a site that looked just like the reputable Adobe. A popup message said that my flashplayer may be out of date “click ok to update”, then I get to this link (don’t click): http://8.29.133.184/playerupdate/uk.php?src=ADC&kw=116402&lp=4 the site as it looks below. Then I install their flashplayer or so I thought. Ooops then a few seconds later realise it’s a scum site.. and that I’ve installed some sort of malware.

This looks very similar to what you see when you are at Adobe. I really should have spotted the differences though.

I also imagine that many people may have been similarly caught by this sort of thing and had malware installed on their computers. But they merrily continue not to know, because they think that their virus shields will save them. IT WON’T.

Virus shields are not good at picking up malware!

My very good Bitdefender Total Security, did not recognise this as a malware attack and still has not picked up that the malware is installed.

I ended up having to scan my whole computer with three malware detection tools to find the scum, and I’m still not 100% certain I’ve found the one.

I have found one called pup.optional.bandoo on my computer but I don’t know when this was installed. Somebody is about to ask me why its so named – look, I couldn’t care a monkeys – and it does nothing for me to find out.. but if you’re that interested take your good time and ‘find the meaning’ – you never know, I mean you may save the planet! I just did a full computer scan and found four more of these scum things!! Flipping heck!

This chappy pup.optional.bandoo is called a PUP and that mean Potentially Unwanted Programme. PUMs are Potentially Unwanted Modifications.

To learn more about software that can weed out this stuff go: http://malwaretips.com/blogs/pup-optional-bandoo-a-virus/ and related links.

I’ve used Malwarebytes Anti-malware and AdwCleaner  (these are reputable and free and good proper software to use – there are paid-for versions which offer better features). 

Spybot is also a good one to use because it combines Antimalware and Antivirus for 9.99 Euro!

The slight downside of Malwarebytes (just remember this is proper software) is that it does use more CPU power in the background; about a 5% demand – and it runs my computer at 1 GHz on average more.  My strategy is to do a full sweep of my computer with Malwarebytes, uninstall it, and run Adwcleaner intermittently.  So if you have a duff computer and you justify keeping it, then you also justify being ‘hacked or malwared’ and your stuff from your hard drive or things that you type or browse could be the object of peering eyes in some remote corner of the planet. Sure – I know – you haven’t got anything to hide.

Another line of defence for those using above Internet Explorer 9 is site blocking add-ons e.g. http://www.iegallery.com/en-gb/trackingprotectionlists –  I’ve just installed EasyList

As I’ve often said what you don’t know is what’s gonna bite you in thuh ass (arse if you’re British, or is that English).

Well in my case I knew about it and still got bitten – big chunk missing. I now sit leaning to one side!! LMAO. Have a laugh but I’m sure most who read this have never even checked their computers for malware.