How to prevent getting infected by rogue security applications
- by Ieyasu Sawada
My computer never got infected with a virus before, because I'm using Web of Trust browser plugin, sandboxie and Avast Free antivirus. But today, it got infected with a rogue security application called antivirus.net. I have already removed it using MBAM, SAS, and Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool.
And by the way, I was using MSE when my laptop got infected. Seems like the rogue application just killed off the MSE process. And I never even got a warning. I was using the wi-fi from our school, which I think is the cause since most of the computers in our laboratory has rogue applications on it.
My question is, how do I prevent this from happening again? It took me about 6 hours to disinfect my computer and I don't want it to happen again. Please enlighten me if these rogue applications really just pop out of nowhere.
Note
I'm not dumb enough to agree with installing rogue security applications. It just came out of nowhere. I'm happy with MSE, well not after it let antivirus.net penetrate my computer.
I've done a little bit of research and it says that it needs the permission of the user to actually install it in the computer:
http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=1245
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_security_software
Is it possible that other computers in our school network have agreed to install those? Or maybe the network admin?