Increase in Rougeware infections

I've recently noticed an increase in Rougeware infections. Within the last week I've assisted in two cases of similar description. Rougeware come in various names (Internet Security Essentials, IE Antivirus, AV Security Suite....etc) but they all seem to behave similarly. The most obvious symptom are the prompts and pop ups that one would get indicating a severe virus infection has been found, and the only way to remove this is to purchase the indicated "rouge" anti-virus program.

The other obvious sign is browser hijacking and rerouting when doing a search within your browser(Internet Explorer seems to be especially vulnerable.)

Two ways in attempting to clean Rougeware would be to use two scanning applications that I've found to be successful most of the time.

Malwarebytes-This one will take at least 1 hour or more, depending on the size of your Hard Drive and will usually clear all signs of noticeable Rougeware/Malware. The free version doesn't offer a background, continuous stay resident scanning option, but for temporary use, this one works well.

Superantispyware-This one will work very similar to Malwarebytes and is a good second choice for removal of Rougeware/Malware. Once again the free version only offers manual scanning and will not run in the background as most anti-virus programs will.

These two are usually a good first step in attempting to remove annoying Rougeware and Malware from a personal PC running Windows OS.

When these applications fail, it may be time to try to manually remove, which usually involves modifying the registry and can prove to be time consuming and a bit complex. If one wishes to be totally certain that they have fully removed all signs of Rougeware/Malware or Viruses, a full Format and Reinstall of the systems OS(Operating System) made be in order.




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