Infected!

So the call comes in about an infected PC and I step up and go to work on it. This PC is so polluted with spyware, malware, downloaders, and other viruses it's not funny. To top it off, about every three seconds another pop-up warning manages to get in the way. I manage to get SuperAntiSpyware installed and start the scanning. Luckily it kills the easy stuff, but it leaves behind a couple of the downloaders which proceed to bring down more junk.
I end up installing PCTools Spyware Doctor, which has a free scanner, but you have to purchase it in order to actually clean the infections. It helps me find the rest of them so I can manually clean them off with SpyBot Search & Destroy. While I'm working I notice the normal virus software isn't even installed. So I make note to fix that later.
I worked on that PC for over seven hours to get it clean. During that time I begin chatting with the user:

GTG> When did you start noticing all these pop-ups and warnings?
User> Oh about three days ago.
GTG> Three days ago?
User> Yeah, I was doing some Googling to lookup some things and this warning came on about my machine being infected.
GTG> You didn't call us?
User> No, I just closed it, but it came up again about 10 minutes later.
GTG> You didn't call us?
User> No. There was no need. I wasn't feeling well so I went home sick.
GTG> But you didn't call us.
User> I wasn't here all day yesterday, so there was no point.

I don't think she understood that leaving her PC on allowed this thing to download more and more junk while she was out. I could have scanned and fixed the PC while she was out and when she returned she would not be sitting around twiddling her thumbs.

I was able to clean the machine and the next day the user calls me.

User> Hey, thanks again for fixing my machine. It's running great now.
GTG> No problem.
User> I was at this web page just now and another warning came up.
GTG> I'll check it out.

The warning is from the virus software blocking junk coming in from the website she is currently on. I let the user know that this is the normal software blocking it and to quit going to these infected pages.

One Finger Salute - Storm Worm

Well that didn't take very long. The Storm Worm is now one year old and still making my life miserable.

USAToday has the story. Enjoy reading that while I spend the next two hours disinfecting a couple of laptops.

The Brilliance

So a virus alert goes off. I spend 10 minutes tracking down the source. It turns out to be an email with a Microsquish Word document attached to it. The virus is W97M/Marker.gen and is embedded in the document. The guy sending the email doesn't realize it. I can tell from the fact he sends the document over and over again. It's blocked each time, so no damage is done on my end. So to be nice, I email him with some tips on how to get rid of it and tell him to scan the machine just to be safe.
The reply is priceless: "I'm on a Mac. They don't get viruses." Well guess again, Bozo... Your attachment is infected and you have infected two other people at your office asking them to try and email the document for you.
Good thing the virus scanner is smart enough to stop it.