Daniel C Berman Communications

Computer viruses have been around for well over a decade but recently it seems the social engineering has risen to a new level. Its no longer simply an attempt to get you to infect yourself with that file or hot pic on the Internet, its now a matter of offering to remove a “threat” for money toward a subscription a special anti-virus tool that will remove the threat that’s already on your machine. Sound like shades of the Mafia?

Two recent examples, Anti-Virus Live and Anti-Virus Soft apparently from similar families. I only have a screen shot from the first unfortunately, But as you can see it appears to be a “legitimate” piece of software, and very nicely laid out visually. Unfortunately it also will prevent you from accessing most of your system including task manager on Windows and there are uncertified reports of it preventing system shutdown on a Mac. Plus how did it get there if you did not install it?

Now for the good news, removal instructions for Anti-Virus Live.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-antivirus-live

and Anti-Virus Soft

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-antivirus-soft

Happy hunting and my best wishes for a disinfected machine. If anyone runs across either of these two beasts on a Mac, let me know and I will update this article with your removal instructions as well.