Spyware iStartsurf │ (Not Related to Unreal)

[Nikola-(DOG)-]

Hello guys!

I got an issue there with spyware named iStartsurf. Well I tried many things to fight against this but nothing happened. Do you have any experiences with this?

WOOF! WOOF!

[Nikola-(DOG)-]

Thanks BBG! I try it

edit 20.9. 15:40
All works fine now, thanks!

[Minus]

For future reference to anyone with this problem I will suggest you follow this guide step by step.It works very well for all OS and very good for Win 8 as it's not supported by Combofix,which I would never recommend to a novice user.
Just follow the guide and you'll be surprised at what you find on your PC/Laptop that you didn't realize.

http://malwaretips.com/blogs/malware-re ... r-windows/

I would also suggest downloading all of the mentioned programs and keeping them on a flash drive.I just rename them keeping the same name but adding a number for the running order.

[Dr.Flay]

Glad to see you fixed it.
Now the next thing is to look into a better AV package, or find out why your current AV did not block it.

All of the current AV software, has become less capable at pro-xctive defence, so it is becoming more important not to just rely on one you are familiar with, if there is better for free.
https://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative

Even the mighty Kasperski has dropped a shocking amout

My own choice is Avira free and MalwareBytes Antimalware.
The free MalwareBytes does not run as real-time protection, so does not interfere with other AV.

[Minus]

Lol,I do this for a living.Let me tell you right now,Microsoft Security Essentials is the best free protection out there.The others just give a ton of false positives.
It will not prevent malware or spyware on your PC,nor will malwarebytes if you click on something you shouldn't have.
The people putting the garbage out there are much smarter than companies that peddle protection.
Using common sense when web browsing is a must.Also don't use IE as your browser,your just asking for trouble.I prefer Firefox but there are others out there.

[Dr.Flay]

You should perhaps look at the evidence regarding MSE.
Also remember that your careful browsing means you are not having to test it very often. Indeed Expert knowledge and net use can negate the need for any installed AV software.

I have the personal evidence of MSE's lack of ability in the last laptop that came in for repair. And it was as infested as an old tramp.
Fortunately I also have several years experience with Defender and MSE on my XP and Win7 PCs, and as I regularly download infected files for analysis, and sandbox inspection, I have rarely seen it catch anything brand new.
I ran it so I could submit unknown malware to Microsoft, but after a while I questioned the legitimacy of supporting it, as I felt they should leave it to the professionals.
It is still installed on the PC I am currently using, but only because I catch all the malware before it has a chance to see it.

I use VB100 comparisons and AV-Comparatives each month to see how things have changed (and they do, but MSE just gets lower).
https://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/vendors
MSE is the dotted line running though this test http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php
(Quote "Microsoft is used as non-competitive baseline since 2013")
Microsoft history - http://chart.av-comparatives.org/awards ... p?venID=11

I never take my own word for it, or my own experience with my personal choice of AV, but I refer to the sites that do the comparing and check for false-positives.
But in this case I also refer to Microsoft's own announcement in 2013 that it should only be considered to be basic protection.

http://microsoft-news.com/microsoft-sec ... ows-users/

http://lifehacker.com/microsoft-admits- ... 1441135677

http://www.infoworld.com/article/261237 ... esign.html

http://dottech.org/130828/microsoft-adm ... nti-virus/

It seems many people still have more faith in it than Microsoft, and that is dangerous.
The sooner MS, Mcafee and Norton stop trying to compete in a world they cannot, we will see less hijacked PCs and bank details.
All the really good AV is made by companies that do nothing else. More levels of all of their companies are hackers, programmers or cryptographic experts.
Microsoft does not have enough black-hats, and MSE was designed in the board-room not the war-room.

I also give security advice for a living, but malware detection and reporting I do for a hobby
https://www.virustotal.com/en/user/Dr_Flay/
However like I always say regarding security, "Never take my word for it". The evidence and examples are out there, and Virus Total shows you easily which current AV can see what malware using the latest databases.

[Minus]

I know it got a bad rap in 2013 as they admitted themselves but the truth is no anti virus will stop today's infections 100%.
The nastiest infections are disguised as links,images,etc. and when you click you're pretty much saying come on in.
I am a firm believer in freeware but I do believe in paying for malwarebytes as it's real time scanner can stop a lot of nasties but I've seen it fail as well as not being able to remove some of the latest malware infections.
Education of safe web browsing is the key but most people don't want to hear that.They just want to click away.The plus side of this is it puts $ in my pocket.

[Dr.Flay]

Indeed well said. Education is the absolute best armour/shield you can get.

I had a good example last week that shows exactly that you cannot trust any 1 AV (even if you pay for a "good" one).
A laptop came in that would not login or shutdown (only hibernate).

I chose a "Top-end" commercial AV ISO live-disc "Kasperski Labs".
I booted from the CD and from the Linux desktop I deleted the contents of the main Temp folders so I had less to fix.
Kasperski found various malware installed since 2013, and removed what it could find.

Hooray! Now it booted and could login, so I installed Malwarebytes Antimalware and let it loose from inside Windows, while I investigated why MSE was not doing anything.
It seems that in 2013 there was an MSE engine update that required the user to say yes please. The definitions have been updating but not the engine.
The flaw there is not MSE, but Microsoft not letting the AV do all it's own updates.

Needless to say having full access Malwarebytes found a bunch more malware.
Once I got all the updates sorted I let MSE have another scan and it came up clean.
However due to the level of competence of the owner, I decided I could not trust him to keep it updated so I opted to replace with Avira.
Out of curiosity I let Avira have another scan, and was surprised to find a few more nasties buried in the file system.
I figure that the full version of Malwarebytes may have done a better job, as it would be embedded deeper into Windows.

Whichever order I ran all the AV in, I am confident that they would all have missed something.
One day the world maybe lucky and governments decide that it is illegal for the AV companies not to share their definitions in a standard format.
All AV should be using a pool supplied by all of the companies, so the choice comes down to the GUI or the engine.
In ye olde days on the Amiga we had "Safe Hex International". All AV providers contributed to this so users had real freedom to choose the client that fit their needs.
But then again it was not about money back then, only security. Nice ethos, but a bit old-fasioned it seems.