On one of the test beds (computers we utilize to check up on the internet on a daily basis – and see which parasites are new and running rampant…) – well today, the newest threat is none other than Antivirus 2010 Security Centre, also referred to as: Antivirus2010SecurityCentre, Antivirus 2010SecurityCentre, Antivirus2010 SecurityCentre.

As with many such fake spyware remover programs, Antivirus 2010 Security Centre tends to generate imaginary system scan reports, which claim to have found serious infections and system risks on the infiltrated computer system.

Antivirus 2010 Security Centre will, as with all these type malicious applications, claim that all threats found can only be removed upon purchasing of the “full” license package of Antivirus 2010 Security Centre. In fact this tactic is specifically created to coerce and frighten computer users into buying this dubious software.

Don’t fall prey to this trick, as these notifications will NOT go away once you have made your purchase. Antivirus 2010 Security Centre will continue to display these pop-up messages, again and again. Antivirus 2010 Security Centre may even install itself onto a user’s computer without the user’s consent or knowledge, via Trojans or misleading websites that contain rogue content.

Be aware of this extremely dangerous rogue application, as it is able to slowdown your computer, limit internet connection and may even result in or even increase system crash.

Once inside and active, Antivirus 2010 Security Centre will bombard the user with pop-up messages and fake system notifications, supposedly to inform the user of multiple threats present on their system.

Antivirus 2010 Security Centre will try to reassure its claims by providing falsified system scan reports. These scan results should NEVER be trusted! Antivirus 2010 Security Centre is also likely to hijack the user’s browser (homepage, searches), and redirect the user to various sites of dubious nature.

The ultimate goal this parasite has is to get the user to purchase the “licensed version”, which is entirely non-functional. If you encounter Antivirus 2010 Security Centre, do NOT download or purchase it and you should instead block Antivirus 2010 Security Centre’s homepage by making use of your HOSTS file.

This dubious application displays a few key properties:

Antivirus 2010 Security Centre is a corrupt Anti-Spyware program
Antivirus 2010 Security Centre may spread via Trojans
Antivirus 2010 Security Centre may display fake security messages
Antivirus 2010 Security Centre may install additional spyware to your computer
Antivirus 2010 Security Centre may repair its files, spread or update by itself
Antivirus 2010 Security Centre violates your privacy and compromises your security
Antivirus 2010 Security Centre is installed without your permission.
Antivirus 2010 Security Centre reputation online is terrible.
The official website of Antivirus 2010 Security Centre is poorly built and lacks basic information.
The payments website of Antivirus 2010 Security Centre is suspicious.
Performance of Antivirus 2010 Security Centre is poor.

Important to bear in mind is the fact that Antivirus 2010 Security Centre program may be difficult to remove manually, and will continue to try to recreate itself.

Delete this parasite ASAP!

So, how would you know if you had Antivirus 2010 Security Centre embedded on your system or not?

Well, if I were you, I would check out and make use of a fully functional and up-to-date antispyware application, note: a legitimate one – and remove Antivirus 2010 Security Centre as soon as possible!

Good luck – and remember: Computer safety First!

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We will discuss how to remove this computer virus. It is very essential to remove Antivirus 360 and all its components. To successfully remove virus or get rid of Antivirus 360, we have created a manual computer virus removal instructions. As usual, confirm that you back up all important data before you proceed. The virus removal process requires some endurance and keenness to experiment.

Antivirus 360 Virus Removal Instructions:
Stop Antivirus 360 Processes:
av360.exe
antivirus360.exe

Find and Delete Antivirus 360 Files:
av360.exe
antivirus360.exe
Antivirus 360.lnk
uninstall Antivirus 360.lnk
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Antivirus 360.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Antivirus 360
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Antivirus 360\Antivirus 360.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Antivirus 360\Help.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Antivirus 360\Registration.lnk

Remove Antivirus 360 Registry Values:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run Antivirus 360
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\13376694984709702142491016734454
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “13376694984709702142491016734454″

Once installed, Antivirus 360 will be configured to start mechanically  without any intervention when you start Windows. Initially once in progress the program will perform a scan, and when completed, will list a range of genuine or missing files as infectious that cannot be removed unless you first purchase the program. What is so dangerous about these scan results is that the files that Antivirus 360 states are infections are actually legal Microsoft files, that if deleted, will make Windows unfeasible. Therefore, if someone believes the results from this program they may manually delete the files thinking they are infections and cause their computer to no longer function. Some files that it states are infections are:

C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Windows\System32\alg.exe

While running you will notice a continuous bombardment of fake security alerts show that your computer has a ample of security risks. These risks vary from files being customized to private data transferred to a distant host. These alerts, are shown to further scare you, thinking you are infected but although they are false, when in reality the Antivirus 360 program is the real virus.

Virus Removal Instructions for Antivirus 360 using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware:

Take a print out of the following instructions as you will have to close every window that is open later in the fix.
Download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:
Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish button.
MBAM will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically update itself after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and you will now be at the main program.
On the Scanner tab, make sure the the Perform full scan option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Antivirus 360 related files.
MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.
You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.
You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.
When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.
You can now exit the MBAM program.

Your computer will definitely now be free from the Antivirus 360 program.

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History:

There are competing claims for the innovator of the first antivirus product. Possibly the first publicly documented removal of a computer virus in the wild was performed by Bernt Fix in 1987.Before Internet connectivity was widespread, viruses were typically spread by infected floppy disks. Antivirus software came into use, but was updated relatively infrequently. During this time, virus checkers essentially had to check executable files and the boot sectors of floppy and hard disks. However, as internet usage became common, initially through the use of modems, viruses spread throughout the Internet.Powerful macros used in word processor applications, such as Microsoft Word, presented a further risk. Virus writers started using the macros to write viruses embedded within documents. This meant that computers could now also be at risk from infection by documents with hidden attached macros as programs.Later email programs, in particular Microsoft Outlook Express and Outlook, were vulnerable to viruses embedded in the email body itself. Now, a user’s computer could be infected by just opening or previewing a message. This meant that virus checkers had to check many more types of files. As always-on broadband connections became the norm and more and more viruses were released, it became essential to update virus checkers more and more frequently. Even then, a new zero-day virus could become widespread before antivirus companies released an update to protect against it.

Identification methods:

There are several methods which antivirus software can use to identify malware.Signature based detection is the most common method. To identify viruses and other malware, antivirus software compares the contents of a file to a dictionary of virus signatures. Because viruses can embed themselves in existing files, the entire file is searched, not just as a whole, but also in pieces. Heuristic-based detection, like malicious activity detection, can be used to identify unknown viruses.File emulation is another heuristic approach. File emulation involves executing a program in a virtual environment and logging what actions the program performs. Depending on the actions logged, the antivirus software can determine if the program is malicious or not and then carry out the appropriate disinfection actions. 

Signature based detection:

Traditionally, antivirus software heavily relied upon signatures to identify malware. This can be very effective, but cannot defend against malware unless samples have already been obtained and signatures created. Because of this, signature-based approaches are not effective against new, unknown viruses.
Because new viruses are being created each day, the signature-based detection approach requires frequent updates of the virus signature dictionary. To assist the antivirus software companies, the software may allow the user to upload new viruses or variants to the company, allowing the virus to be analyzed and the signature added to the dictionary.
Although the signature-based approach can effectively contain virus outbreaks, virus authors have tried to stay a step ahead of such software by writing “oligomorphic”, “polymorphic” and, more recently, “metamorphic” viruses, which encrypt parts of themselves or otherwise modify themselves as a method of disguise, so as to not match virus signatures in the dictionary.

Heuristics:

Some more sophisticated antivirus software uses heuristic analysis to identify new malware or variants of known malware.Many viruses start as a single infection and through either mutation or refinements by other attackers, can grow into dozens of slightly different strains, called variants. Generic detection refers to the detection and removal of multiple threats using a single virus definition.For example, the Vundo trojan has several family members, depending on the antivirus vendor’s classification. Symantec classifies members of the Vundo family into two distinct members, Trojan.Vundo and Trojan.Vundo.B.While it may be advantageous to identify a specific virus, it can be quicker to detect a virus family through a generic signature or through an inexact match to an existing signature. Virus researchers find common areas that all viruses in a family share uniquely and can thus create a single generic signature. These signatures often contain non-contiguous code, using wildcard characters where differences lie. These wildcards allow the scanner to detect viruses even if they are padded with extra, meaningless code. Padded code is used to confuse the scanner so it can’t recognize the threat.A detection that uses this method is said to be “heuristic detection.”

Issues of concern:

Unexpected renewal costs-

Some commercial antivirus software end-user license agreements include a clause that the subscription will be automatically renewed, and the purchaser’s credit card automatically billed, at the renewal time without explicit approval. For example, McAfee requires users to unsubscribe at least 60 days before the expiration of the present subscription while BitDefendersends notifications to unsubscribe 30 days before the renewal. Norton Antivirus also renews subscriptions automatically by default.Open source and free software applications, such as Clam AV, provide both the scanner application and updates free of charge and so there is no subscription to renew.

Rogue security applications-

Some antivirus programs are actually malware masquerading as antivirus software, such as WinFixer and MS Antivirus.

False positives-

A false positive is identifying a file as a virus when it is not a virus. If an antivirus program is configured to immediately delete or quarantine infected files (or does this by default), false positives in essential files can render the operating system or some applications unusable.Certain AV software, such as AVG Free has a reputation for false positives.

System related issues-

Running multiple antivirus programs concurrently can degrade performance and create conflicts.It is sometimes necessary to temporarily disable virus protection when installing major updates such as Windows Service Packs or updating graphics card drivers. Active antivirus protection may partially or completely prevent the installation of a major update.

Effectiveness-

Studies in December 2007 have shown that the effectiveness of antivirus software has decreased in recent years, particularly against unknown or zero day attacks. The German computer magazine c’t found that detection rates for these threats had dropped from 40-50% in 2006 to 20-30% in 2007. At that time, the only exception was the NOD32 antivirus, which managed a detection rate of 68 percent.The problem is magnified by the changing intent of virus authors. Some years ago it was obvious when a virus infection was present. The viruses of the day, written by amateurs, exhibited destructive behavior or pop-ups. Modern viruses are often written by professionals, financed by criminal organizations.Traditional antivirus software solutions run virus scanners on schedule, on demand and some run scans in real time. If a virus or malware is located the suspect file is usually placed into aquarantine to terminate its chances of disrupting the system. Traditional antivirus solutions scan and compare against a publicised and regularly updated dictionary of malware otherwise known as a blacklist. Some antivirus solutions have additional options that employ an heuristic engine which further examines the file to see if it is behaving in a similar manner to previous examples of malware. A new technology utilized by a few antivirus solutions is whitelisting, this technology first checks if the file is trusted and only questioning those that are not.

Other methods-

Installed antivirus software running on an individual computer is only one method of guarding against viruses. Other methods are also used, including cloud-based antivirus, firewalls and on-line scanners.

Cloud antivirus-

In current antivirus software a new document or program is scanned with only one virus detector at a time. CloudAV would be able to send programs or documents to a network cloud where it will use multiple antivirus and behavioural detection simultaneously. It is more thorough and also has the ability to check the new document or programs access history. CloudAV is a cloud computing antivirus developed as a product of scientists of the University of Michigan. Each time a computer or device receives a new document or program, that item is automatically detected and sent to the antivirus cloud for analysis. The CloudAV system uses 12 different detectors that act together to tell the PC whether the item is safe to open.

Network firewall-

Network firewalls prevent unknown programs and Internet processes from accessing the system protected. However, they are not antivirus systems as such and thus make no attempt to identify or remove anything. They may protect against infection from outside the protected computer or LAN, and limit the activity of any malicious software which is present by blocking incoming or outgoing requests on certain TCP/IP ports. A firewall is designed to deal with broader system threats that come from network connections into the system and is not an alternative to a virus protection system.

Online scanning-

Some antivirus vendors maintain websites with free online scanning capability of the entire computer, critical areas only, local disks, folders or files.

For best and 100% protection you may use McAfee UK.