My Computer Caught the Swine Flu

As if I didn’t already have enough to get done, I found out last night that I somehow got a computer swine flu virus. Well, that’s what I’m calling it anyways. Now it doesn’t look like my computer is going to die but it’s definitely not doing well. I realized I had a virus/malware/rootkit when I typed something into Google and when I clicked a link, Firefox sent me to some completely different site. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t smoking crack so I did this a few more times. Yes, I was infected. The worst part is that the virus is completely random.

Now this virus is not just related to Google searches. I am infected with Bing, Yahoo and any other search engine I try to use.

As I said the browser redirect virus is random so there is a chance I get to the site I wanted to look at. But in this case when I am doing a search for Spyware tools and click on Major Geeks link, I get directed to Stopzilla’s website.

If I go back and click the same link again, I get sent to a completely different site.

When I click the link from the search engine, I am not sent directly to the site I want. The browser hijacks the link and puts me through a secondary domain called appropriateplacefind.info.The domain is held by proxy through Go Daddy and is located in Scottsdale AZ.

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/appropriateplacefind.info

There is also a reference to a domain called overclick.cn but that doesnt seem to be legit.

Luckily, I have a super tech support team online and after posting an update on Twitter and Facebook, I started getting some help. I’ve downloaded MalwareBytes, I’ve run th ESET online tool and each have found more than my original AVG virus scan did. I think I’m going to ditch AVG antivirus for good.

So I’ve identified and removed 3 triojans and 2 other viruses from my computer and followed some additional instructions from a techy friends and restarted my machine.

For now everything looks alright. I can search and be fairly certain I am going to go to the page where I intended but I don’t feel safe yet. I want to know how I got the virus in the first place. Sure it could have been from downloading crap online, which is probably exactly how I got it but I download a lot of stuff all the time and usually I get alerted before the install that there is a virus detected. Whatever this nasty bug is, it beat my defenses and I don’t really like that.

Thank you Shaun for staying up late and helping me out online with this. I’m going to look into buying a better antivirus app with some malware and rootkit detection tools.