Tuesday, July 10, 2012

No so smart...

My computer was hit by malware, a rogue called S.M.A.R.T. HDD.  Beware.  It is a, well, I cannot use language like that on this blog.  I was watching Pres. Harrison's vimeo video from the Michigan District convention when it came in.  It hides nearly everything and claims your hard drive has failed.  It tells you to buy its product and everything will be well.  It is a scam.  Once installed it is a bear to get out.  In my case, an old hard drive made me decide to upgrade and start with a new install even though that comes with many headaches.  BTW Apples are not immune from this.  So if my posts include misspellings or sound a bit off, well, you know why.  I am only now beginning to repair some of the damage.  I had McAfee and all the latest stuff and still the, well, you know the word, managed to sneak in and take me down... Watch it out there... 
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 10, 2012 at 8:27 AM

    Malware is God's way of saying
    you spend too much time on the
    internet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 10, 2012 at 8:52 AM

    Use the free software used by many public universities: Google Malwarebytes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brian YamabeJuly 10, 2012 at 4:15 PM

    S.M.A.R.T. is a valid drive technology for hard drive health monitoring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.). SMART HDD is malware/virus/malicious program (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_HDD). As far as I know, and according to Wikipedia, there is no version of SMART HDD that affects Macs though there is valid software that lets you see S.M.A.R.T. information on Macs. No illusions that Macs are safe from all malware, just safe from this one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJuly 10, 2012 at 5:28 PM

    If Macs even bother to recognize Windows viruses, they view malware as damaged files that can innocently be passed to other machines.

    ReplyDelete