Malicious Ads Hit 113,000 YouTube Viewers

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We’ve told you before about malicious ads – fake or misleading ads that direct you to sites containing malicious code that put botnets and viruses on your PC.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The latest victim of these crooks – YouTube users.  According to security experts at TrendMicro, this latest attack hit 113,000 users – 95% of them in the United States over a 30-day period.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-69604" height="151" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2014/10/youtube-logo.png" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="331" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Considering that some YouTube videos have millions of views, that’s a lot of victims to pick from. This particular malicious ad was found to be running on a music video with more than 11 million views.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The scammers try to be crafty, but not immediately directing you to the malicious site, but to another site with links to the sites with the code that can mess up your computer.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The crooks modified the information of a Polish government site to make themselves look legit and the traffic passed through a server in the Netherlands before ending up back on the server with the malicious code in the United States.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The exploit used in this attack is called Sweet Orange and it targets Internet Explorer, Flash and Java. The malware includes ransomware attacks. Ransomware locks up your computer and demands payment to release it.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-69605" height="319" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2014/10/sweetorange.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="261" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Now if your security software is up-to-date and you’re running the most recent version of Internet Explorer with all the updates installed, you should be fine. There’s been a patch for this vulnerability for nearly 18 months.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, always watch where you go on the Internet and if something starts to look fishy, close your browser.  Check to see if anything new and unwanted is installed on your computer. If so, remove the program and run your security and malware software.</span></div> </div>

Malicious Ads Hit 113,000 YouTube Viewers

We’ve told you before about malicious ads – fake or misleading ads that direct you to sites containing malicious code that put botnets and...

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Will Reformatting Kill A Virus?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Viruses, malware, spyware, bugs, gremlins, junk… All designed to mess up your system and/or steal from you.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-55029" height="300" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/12/virus-297x300.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="297" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">These things will implant themselves deep in your computer’s files and registry, sometimes attacking immediately and sometimes sitting and waiting like a time bomb for you to hit a specific key or for a certain time and date to activate.  Sometimes, like in the case of the Michaelangelo virus almost fifteen years ago, they are designed as elaborate practical jokes.  More often, they are attacks specifically designed to steal your information for purposes of identity theft.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">There are several remedies for these.  Anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are good for the milder forms of virus.  In more extreme cases, like full-on hijacks of your system, it is recommended to take your machine to your friendly neighborhood computer geek to completely remove the infection.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The most extreme of these is to reformat your hard drive.  The good news is that, yes, this will completely remove the infection, along with everything else on your hard drive.  No, there’s no way for the virus to “call out” to missing programs and activate when it discovers that they are no longer there, because the virus won’t be there either.  The bad news is that it’s a little like chemotherapy, in as much as in the process of removing the bad, it also eradicates the good. </span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">My recommendation would be to try these other two methods first, though, to save yourself the trouble of having to reinstall everything.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Hope that this helps!</span></div> </div>

Will Reformatting Kill A Virus?

Viruses, malware, spyware, bugs, gremlins, junk… All designed to mess up your system and/or steal from you. These things will im...

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iLivid: How Do I Get Rid Of It?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Whenever I’m using Firefox, anytime I click on the screen, whether to fill in a form or download something I immediately get a new tab insisting I download iLivid right NOW! I always delete the tab, but it comes up again the next time I click. Annoying! I am using the newest version of Firefox. Neither Spybot nor Malwarebytes (updated) finds anything related, nor do searches of the hard drive. How do I stop it? I never downloaded the toolbar, that I know of, nor does it show up anywhere.</span></em></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">iLivid is one of those third-party extensions that can hijack your browser and change our search engine and browser. It’s one of those programs that is often attached to a download you actually want. Programs like this can raise security concerns because they can track where you go on the web and they can cause other programs to crash. There can also be malware attached that can cause pop-ups and other issues, even if the program is deleted from your computer. </span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ll start by showing how to disable and delete the program if you have downloaded it on your computer.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">To disable iLivid, click on the Firefox drop-down menu in the upper-left of your screen and select Add-Ons.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-49584" height="297" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/08/add-ons.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="314" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, we’re going to select Extensions. When you click on it, you’ll see a list of Extensions on your computer. Look for iLivid and choose disable. Do the same with Plugins.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-49585" height="188" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/08/louginlist.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="450" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">You could also type iLivid into the search box at the upper right of the screen.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-49586" height="65" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/08/searchboxaddon.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="357" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> To make sure the program is permanently uninstalled, you’ll want to go to your Start Menu and search for “uninstall”. Click on Uninstall a program.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-49590" height="450" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/08/searchforuninstall.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="358" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Uninstall or change a program window will open.  You can search for iLivid in the search box to the right.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-49591" height="104" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/08/uninstallsearchbox.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="307" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Or scroll through the list of programs to search for it.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-49592" height="232" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/08/pprogramtodrop.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="450" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">When you find iLivid, select it and then choose Uninstall at the top of the window.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-49593" height="101" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/08/uninstallselect.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="450" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">If that doesn’t work  you could try opening regedit on your computer. Type regedit in the search box and then click on the program.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-49610" height="450" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/08/regedit.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="350" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> Select Edit > Find.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-49613" height="253" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/08/findregedit.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="355" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Type in ilivid.exe, then delete all entries.</span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-49614" height="201" src="http://imgsrv.worldstart.net/images/ct-images/2013/08/ilividexreg.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="410" /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Do the same with “searchqu” – delete searchqu and searchqu toolbar.</span></div> </div>

iLivid: How Do I Get Rid Of It?

Whenever I’m using Firefox, anytime I click on the screen, whether to fill in a form or download something I immediately get a new tab ins...

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