General Discussion

Theres a really nasty Malware going around.   And I think it starts with video codecs.

I was, you know, innocently surfing the internet for reviews of "Ice Age 2".  So I came up to a website that looked like the entire movie was there, and I was like wow that's amazing, so I clicked on it.  Ice Age 2 played for 3 minutes then stopped.

A few minutes later I was diverted to a website saying something like, "You are infected, purchase AntiVirus 2009".  It looked pretty professionally done, except I also noticed my desktop wallpaper also said the same thing, and usually professionally done software doesn't aggressively advertise by changing your desktop wallpaper.   I quickly rebooted my computer, and my desktop wallpaper still said the same thing, saying I was infected and I should purchase AntiVirus 2009.  I knew I was screwed.

So I startup Lavasoft's Adaware, and before running it I hit "Update".  IT WOULDN'T UPDATE! 

So I went to Lavasoft.com and I was diverted to another website advertisement. 

So I went to Norton's website and I was diverted to another advertisement. 

So I typed into the google searchbar Lavasoft.com, and FIREFOX didn't do anything.  I was blocked.

So I uninstall firefox, reinstall firefox, and it didn't help.

So I went to microsoft.com and tried to install their free virus protection thing, and I couldn't validate my windows, the validate button didn't do anything.

I surfed the internet for people having problems Keyword "Antivirus 2009", and came up with these forums, and half of the forums were blocked or diverted, so I had to copy and paste their address into firefox, sometimes it worked, sometimes those forums were blocked.  But these werent:

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/379222.aspx

http://groups.teenhelp.org/showthread.php?p=1319733

http://willtoexist.com/malware-hijacked-my-google-toolbar-and-killed-search_1167/

I noticed that everytime I surfed I was always going to analitic-checks.google.com, and connection was sluggish.   So in the forums someone suggested using Apple's browser.  So I try to go to Apple's Safari website, and I was diverted, I typed the name into the toolbar and I was blocked.  So I use the computer next to me to download Safari, installed it on my computer to see if it worked.  IT DIDN'T, safari was comprimised also, I was either blocked or diverted.  

So to sum it up, safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer browsing either diverted me or entirely blocked the websites of Norton, Microsoft, Hijackthis, Lavasoft, and all other websites which have forums or software that deal with virus, malware, and spyware.  And to make it worse, I read this malware was only a month or a couple weeks old and there probably wasn't a definition file on it yet. 

And I also read that if you DO click on the antivirus 2009 link you are even more screwed then I was, with popup gallore.

Someone suggested I download Malwarebytes' Anti-Maleware, their website was blocked and diverted so I download it on another computer then put it on my computer, and it fixed it.  Phew.

So what I think what happened was that everytime I browsed, I was sent to analitic-checks.google.com, and analitic-checks.google.com had a database of websites it didn't want me to go to.  Specifically any website had real anti-virus-malware-spyware software was blocked and diverted, INCLUDING RANDOM FORUMS that get top google hits of "antivirus 2009".

you really shouldn't advertise the malware name here....especially 11 times lol. That's not good.

But thanks for the heads up!

this is where you sigh in relief and say "gf mr.malware, but you aint getting my computarz today"