MalwareBytes - Removes Malware Doctor

3rd June 2009

One of our biggest pains at IT for Starters is tackling the ever changing and evolving world of Malware. You think you have it beat and then a few days/weeks later you come across it again and this time someone has changed the coding and put the thing on steroids so it is much more difficult to remove.

Yesterday I has such a battle with Malware Doctor which seems to have come back into the ring and now has the added ability to lock out the task manager and regedit.

Malware Doctor

As you can expect this software installs itself and claims to be a legitimate piece of software. Like other programs it claims to have found various spyware/viruses and recommends installing the software to remove them.

 

The client phoned up with the complaint of the pop-ups requesting purchasing the software and instantly we requested them to run taskmanager to kill the process. They quickly told us the taskmanager was not accessible. We asked them to run regedit and the response was the same.

 

Other protection did not find Malware Doctor

The client already had Trend Micro Antivirus installed along with PC Tools Spyware Doctor and Spy-bot. All were up-to-date and non of them cleaned the machine.

 

I had heard various reports and read excellent reviews of Malwarebytes so thought it was worth a try.

 

MalwareBytes removes Malware Doctor

The client was instructed to do the following:

 

• Download and install MalwareBytes AntiMalware
• Start MalwareBytes AntiMalware
• Please DO NOT run MBAM in Safe Mode unless requested to, you MUST run it in normal Windows mode.
  
  • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  • Select the Update tab
  • Click Update
• When the update is complete, select the Scanner tab
• Select Perform quick scan, then click Scan.
• When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
• Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected .

It was a relief to me (and more so the client) when the Malware was removed and the machine was clean again.

 

MalwareBytes Free Version

MalwareBytes has a free version which requires manual updating and scanning with no real time protection. This means you can use it to fight the fire but as we all know prevention is better than cure.

 

Activating the full version unlocks real time protection, scheduled scanning, and scheduled updating. For consumers and personal use, it is a one time fee of approx £19 which looking at how much time it saved the client with troublesome pop-ups I recommended they purchase the software straight away to keep up the protection it offered against the new variant of Malware Doctor.

 

MalwareBytes Support

Now many free products have limited support but Malwarebytes support looks excellent and the forum is updated by MalwareBytes Technical Support staff so you quickly get a response to any help you require.

 

Conclusion

The reviews are excellent and with good reason, the scan is quick(ish) but thorough and certainly in this instance cleaned the machine of the pesky malware easily without a visit to the client becoming necessary. I will certainly me recommending installing this to other clients in the future

 

Darren