Davey the Virus Slayer

The virus came without warning: Antivirus Suite first appeared as a green checkmark icon in my toolbar. Suddenly it was warning me that the PC was infected and I must immediately purchase a program to fix it. How dastardly!

Step 1 - Do a ctrl+alt+del BEFORE the virus has a chance to load, so you'll be able to delete the tssd.exe file that appears in Windows Task Manager.

Step 2 - Either initiate SpyBot or search for the culprit files directly and delete them.

I googled it up and found a computer board post indicating that the trigger file for the program always ended in "tssd.exe" so I did a local disk search, and found:

IDGAVWOTSSD.EXE-041265E7.pf

I had to go into task manager (which has to be done quickly, ctrl+alt+del, as soon as the pc starts) once in task manager I went to processes, searching for anything ending in tssd.exe. I deleted it from there and searched for the entire name that ended in tssd.exe. When the search results showed up I deleted it again and then emptied recycle bin.

With IDGAVWOTSSD.EXE-041265E7.pf disabled, I started up Spybot Search & Destroy, which found and killed the associated or root files

"Fraud.AVSecuritySuite" and "Fraud.Sysguard" - which, had I known their names, I could probably have deleted myself when I found the .pf file. Anyway, I re-booted the PC and the infection was GONE!

What is disturbing is that the intruder hopped aboard the system while I was on a secure financial website. I guess if my money is gone next time I log in, I'll know where it went...

Should you ever notice an icon appear in your toolbar that looks like a little white checkmark on a green brackground, get in and get it out immediately... it may just sit there, innocently, but it is really waiting for something to trigger it. Be ready!

Tags: Antivirus Suite, Antivirus Suite