New Virus Alert - "XP Police Antivirus"

So, you are trying to be careful with your internet browsing practices, you don't open 'mysterious emails', you've done the research - and you thought you had downloaded and were using the best browser for internet security (Mozilla, right?) - and POOF - now you've just installed XP Police Antivirus and you didn't even hit a button, confirm, ask for it, or know you were downloading it.

Made me feel like I was living in the Matrix. Like the computer totally had a mind of it's own. Thought to myself - "I'm GOOGLING this S.O.B. and getting it off my machine. Today."

So I Googled. And found what I needed to find. I tried a few things, and I'm sharing what I know with you. I accidentally downloaded, I Googled, and I fixed. All by my lonesome. :)

This one is easy enough, but it's still a bit ugly - one, because it installs itself even with the extra precaution of exclusively using Mozilla. Second, it disables your task manager, so you can not just go in and manually begin to remove by stopping processes.

It did definitely slow down my machine, as the VUNDO and ZLOB Trojans did that I had last year - but this one was much easier to remove.

For this little bugger, the best instructions I found for removal were on the Bleeping Computer website/blog. There was also a direct download for Malwarebytes.org Anti-Malware software. Download the free trial - and give it a test run. It'll remove your XP Police virus. Once you're sold on it, it's only 24.95.

Can't beat that with a stick. With last year's VUNDO and ZLOB trojans - I purchased SpyHunter 3 and XoftSpy - both of which I wasn't super-happy with. While I felt like they 'might be helping' - there were really problems all-around - with support, updates, even the basic operation of the software (can't even run SpyHunter anymore - it just shuts down). I don't work for Malwarebytes.org - but what I can say, as an affected user - it's the ONE PROGRAM that truly did what it said it would do - removed the virus. So it's the one I'm buyin'.

Next - we need to gain access to our Task Manager again.

Depending on which version of Windows you're on - you might need some instructions. I followed this post on Software Tips and Tricks Web Forum and was able to enable my Task Manager safely within about 5 mintues.

So that's it - cure XP Police:

1/ Get MalwareBytes.org Anti-Malware
2/ Enable your Task Manager again

Unless of course there's something ELSE lingering on your machine - which - we're all over here hoping there's NOTHING more on your machine - because those boogers sure are smart & sneaky. If we get another one, we'll find a way to remove and post our experiences.

Good luck and safe surfing!

Holidays BLEW by!

I'm sorry I haven't written much lately - the holidays just BLEW BY - and now we're into 2009 already! I've got some great stuff to share about SEO, so I'll have to organize it and post it ASAP for you. Also - some great new sites are now live!

So, look for me to post again this week on some things about natural & organic SEO and the new sites Kari & Co. was working on over the 2008 Holiday!

So far for 2009, I've got a few Volusion customers that I'm working with to help them get their site BE-AU-TI-FIED!

Hope everyone is great, had a GREAT holiday season - and we're looking forward to a successful 2009!!