Cleaning Up Malware: Security Scanner 2012

I had a run in with Security Scanner 2012 today. It’s a an old virus (Security Scanner) with a new name, classified as Fake Alert malware. I’m sure many of you have seen the name before. Someone in my family was lured into clicking Yes button instead of the No button on an internet banner. The figure below is similar to the screen splash that you will see after a reboot, once the malware is installed. The interface is pretty professional looking…despite the few misspelled words that I noticed. There is lots of information on the web about this piece of malware, just do a search. After the virus has access to the system, users won’t be able to access the internet.

Fortunately, the cleanup was quite painless after finding the solution. This fix can be applied after most malware incidents:

1. Log on to another computer.
2. Go to to MacAfee and download Stinger and read the instructions.
3. Copy it to a USB drive.
4. From the infected computer run Stinger.exe.  Note: it may not appear that stinger found any infected files but the malware may actually be cleaned. This happened to me.
5. Verify the infected computer is cleaned by running a second malware scanner.

Another reputable anti-malware company is Malwarebytes. Here are the instructions for scanning your machine with their free product.