Welcome aboard! Lets secure you computer so that you never see again how the Malware Removal Assistance forum looks...
Now, from now on it your duty to keep your family safe from malware. First lesson? Software can't always protect you so you need to learn how malware is distributed and avoid it. I have wrote awhile ago this article, and if you have the time, you should read it:
http://malwaretips.com/blogs/how-to-easily-avoid-pc-infections/
Real-Time Protection:
You've got some tweaking to do to your Avast Antivirus:
1.
Enable Hardened Mode
Hardened Mode is designed to make protection tougher without interfering with the computer usage much.
avast! by default checks suspicious files with DeepScreen within virtual environment to see how they behave. But if you use Hardened Mode, it starts to behave a bit differently.
Hardened Mode: Moderate
Under normal conditions, if avast! decides that some file is too suspicious by various characteristics, it then throws it into the DeepScren for further scanning. But if Moderate Hardened Mode is enabled, avast! automatically blocks files that are detected as suspicious by preliminary analysis.
In most cases DeepScreen checks the file and if it doesn't find obvious malicious problems with it, those files are started automatically after analysis. But Hardened Mode (Moderate) blocks it right there.
Hardened Mode Agressive
This mode behaves a bit differently. It actually relies on analysis on a very small scale and mostly relies on a huge whitelist database located in avast! Cloud. If file is located within the cloud and flagged as safe, it will allow to run it. If it's not found or marked as bad, it will block it. So, at least based on my experience, Aggressive Mode is actually much more secure and also a lot less intrusive. Only time that it will cause problems is with some very rare old software or very very new software that isn't used by thousands of users. Usually some very specialized programs used by only few users.
Moderate mode often feels a bit too paranoid (despite its name) because it often blocks safe programs just because they exhibit local suspicious file characteristics that are basically ignored by the Aggressive mode.
To enable Avast's Hardened mode to go:
Open Avast, click on
Settings, then on
Antivirus and check "Enable Hardened Mode", then put a check-mark on Aggressive or Moderated as you wish.
View attachment 7700
2.Enable PUP Detection:
A PUP (potentially unwanted program) is a program that may be unwanted, such as spyware, despite the possibility that users consented to download it. This usually includes: toolbars, browser hijackers or adware (ad-supported software)
- Open Avast, click on Settings, then on Active Protection and click on the gear next to the Files System.
- In the "Sensitivity", select "Scan for potentially unwanted software (PUPs)".
Next, you will need to do the same for the Web Shield so lets do it.
Click on
Settings, then on
Active Protection and click on the gear next to the
Web Shield. Then select
Sensitivity and check "
Scan for potentially unwanted software (PUPs)".
3. Enable Warn when downloading files with poor reputation.
In the Web Shield field, you can enable "Warn when downloading files with poor reputation", and it does what it says.. it will warn you when you are downloading a file with a low reputation...
To enable it, click on
Settings, then on
Active Protection and click on the gear next to the
Files System. Then select
Web Shield and check
Warn when downloading files with poor reputation..
Browser Protection:
Adblock Plus: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/
You need an adblocker becauser apart from the simple fact that most ads are annoying, some of them might even lead you to adware or potentially unwanted programs. This add-on will block all the ads from a web page, making it look very clean and neat!
WOT (Web of Trust):
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/wot-safe-browsing-tool/
To help you avoid malicious sites you can use Web of Trust (WOT) a website rating browser plugin. After you add it to your browser make sure you only visit websites rated "Green" by WOT. Here is how it works:
Virtualization
A virtualization software will allow you to browse the web or run another application in a completely safe environment. This is especially useful when visiting high-risk web sites, whether accidentally or deliberately, as the Web browser will be completely contained within the virtual enviroment, preventing any damage to your computer.
A sandbox can also be used to run any other applications which you think may be suspect - you can run the program inside the sandbox to determine whether or not it is safe while remaining completely protected against any malicious actions that it may try to carry out.
I strongly advise you to install Sandboxie and use it for when you're browsing the Internet or running shady or unknown programs.
Sandboxie (Free/Paid) -
link
Sandboxie runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer.
Always run suspicious of freshly downloaded files in a Sandboxie to verify that he download isn't compromised! Sandboxie will replicate perfectly your operating system so all the files should run without any problems in it.
If you learn how to properly use Sandboxie, then you really decrease your chances of gettings an infection, I'm always running my web browser sandbox just to be on the safe side.....
Welcome... That's it for now.. I'm waiting for you reply for more..
