Bugged!

My computer got bugged

There, I admit it, A malware trojan managed to get into my system.

I’m a tech savvy and vigilant user of computing systems; I provide support to fix bugged systems.

I have firewalls and anti-virus app installed and running, then a trojan first identified around 2006 gets through everything, and goes viral – replicating itself nearly 100 times before the anti-virus scanner decided to do what I paid good cash for, and found the wretched thing.

The bug, identified as a variant of ‘tenga.gen‘

Tenga.gen opens firewalls and downloads other spyware from the net which will compromise any personal banking and such information. AVG does detect it!, but only after it has downloaded and attempts to run. The current version is masquerading as a Microsoft dotnetfx.exe, and carries a digital signature which identifies it as a Microsoft application. It is not. This virus is a serious risk and will inject code into other executable files if allowed to remain on a windows installation. The most vulnerable are users of Internet Explorer (so what’s new).
It also spreads via LAN!

This copied from a routine alert I send to colleagues and friends when identifying a new re-appearing bug.

Fortunately no real damage was done. I got lucky. It only replicated itself around 100 times and infected 36 executable files. These were all within a shared folder, only used to keep copies of downloaded app installers, some of which dated back to 2007!

I am also fairly certain it got in on the 28th, maybe 27th of this month, and ran after boot up in the morning of 29th….

The real damage was TIME. 6 hours to run a complete scan during normal productive time, several more hours looking for damaged files and deleting them. then running another scan – 8.5 hrs using House Call, the online app from Trend Micro, and lo, another couple of infected files the AVG scan ‘missed’

I know I’ve had a go at AVG Internet Security before, after a colleague’s system was repeatedly infected over a 6 month period, and required  complete re-format and re-installation of ever no less than 3 times in this time frame. This is also the second time a bug got into my system during the 9 months using the 2011 version of this app. The last time it was detected before it had done any damage, but only by running a manual full system scan, like this time, the internet security part of the thing failed miserably.

I can accept a new and unknown bug getting through heuristic scan algorithms, but a 6 YEAR OLD ONE. I am not impressed!

And evidently this is not the only AV app that does not stop this one getting into the system. Reading reports it appears several other of the major brand AV scanners also fail to detect it.

I am going back to Trend Micro Products. I used PcCillin for 4 years without a single instance of a bug getting in. I only switched because it is not the easiest app to get in South Africa. Yes, there is a local agent, but no means to purchase online. This is the 21st century,  if the locals can’t provide it online, I will send my money to a company in another country that provides the service.

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