Saturday, March 14, 2009

Trojan Alert: Don’t Google Glenn Beck’s 912 Project Today!

Update: Monday March 16

Conservative Paranoia Disclaimer:

Judging from some the comments I’ve received on this post, I have to wonder about the issue of political paranoia. Do my fellow conservative bloggers actually believe that I copied this post from somewhere else and posted on my site because I’m gullible??? No. This virus attack happened to me. This was my original post. I posted my experiences as a service to all.

I happen to be one of Glenn Beck’s biggest fans, and I fully intend to help promote The 912 Project and web site as soon as I’m sure it is up and running and free from virus attacks.
In the mean time, be assured that Anti-Virus – Number 1is alive and well and lurking somewhere out there in surf land just waiting to invade your computer.

Original post starts here:

The overwhelming response to Glenn Beck’s “We Surround Them,” The 912 Project Special, which aired Friday March 13, crashed their servers. This morning I decided to Google The 912 Project to see if the servers were back up.

BIG, BIG, BIG MISTAKE!

As soon as I clicked on the link to The 912 Project, a virus alert popped up on my computer from Anti-Virus – Number 1.

It looked just like my usual virus alert. But this nasty Trojan IS cleverly disguised as a virus alert.

Then a Windows alert popped up. It looked just like my Windows manager. These things kept popping up constantly – about every 30 seconds.

The Anti-Virus – Number 1 had insinuated itself into my computer without me even clicking anything (except the link to The 912 Project site) to open it in the first place.

I did a Google search for Anti-Virus – Number 1 and discovered that it is a nasty Trojan that attaches to your computer while you are doing a search; Usually when you are searching a very popular site because it spreads from other computers searching that site.

This virus escaped the notice of my firewall and my virus detection (shame on Norton 360).

Here’s what Anti-Virus Number 1 is

What is Anti-Virus-1?

Anti-Virus-1 is a rogue anti-spyware program similar to Antivirus2010. Anti-Virus-1 was created to trick you into believing your computer is infected with spyware to then offer Anti-Virus-1's full version to remove the supposed threats. Anti-Virus-1 may enter your computer system with the help of Trojans (such as Zlob or Vundo). Once the Trojan is installed, you'll receive numerous popups and fake system alert notifications informing you about imaginary infections. In addition, Anti-Virus-1 is able to perform a fake system scan and generate a list of spyware as a result. Anti-Virus-1 will use all its fraudulent mechanisms to finally redirect you to a malicious website that sells Anti-Virus-1 as a legitimate spyware remover.

They also have detailed removal instructions here.

After searching Google I found several folks that recommended the free download Malware detection program called Malwarbytes.

I downloaded it and did a quick scan. But the quick scan didn’t find Anti-Virus – Number 1. Then I did a complete scan which took over 2.5 hours to complete.

It eventually found it and I was able to remove Anti-Virus – Number 1.

Save yourself a wasted day of grief and wait a while before visiting The 912 Project.

9 comments:

  1. Why not just go to glennbeck.com to read about the project?

    I suspect that you found a fake site intended to either smear Glenn by trying to associate him with a virus or to cash in on his popularity.

    I hope you aren't trying to scare people away from him with this post!

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  2. Bless you heart Chris. I know you mean well but I went to the actual site, which at that time, was still down. That didn't matter. I got the virus anyway. If you read and understand what has been written about this particular Trojan, then you can begin to understand how an extremely popular site can become victim to this Trojan. But since you are looking for conspiracies, please do visit the site, and then maybe you can enjoy killing your day tomorrow!

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  3. Funny thing is that people are still that gullible when it comes to the internet. Real shame ...

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  4. Anon - Searching for something on google and then clicking on one of the results is hardly what I'd call gullible.

    Thanks for posting this, Barb. I cross posted over at TLC.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the heads up on this, Barb. I have alerted my readers over at Talk Wisdom about it. Reluctantly removed the link from my blog - temporarily.

    Just goes to show how fearful the Libtards are of Glenn's great ideas. Creating a virus to combat free speech just goes to show that their liberalism IS A MENTAL DISORDER!

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  6. Thanks for the update Barbara, I will run a notification also.

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  7. thanks so much for the heads up..how sad though!

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  8. Going directly to the site appears to be OK.

    I would caution everyone to be careful using a certain search engine. Instead, copy this link (and take all the spaces out) some place into your favorites so that you will not make any mistakes in the spelling, capitalization, etc. regarding the website address:

    h t t p : / / w w w . t h e 9 1 2 p r o j e c t . c o m /

    ReplyDelete
  9. So the Professional site was down for days and was spreading a trojan? My site, The Original Project 912 gets reviewed as fake... How does that work?

    ReplyDelete

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