Yesterday I downloaded a free software application recommended by a friend to view his .mkv type file. Without a doubt, I proceeded. During the process, I selected "customized installation" to avoid unwanted spyware. There was one software that says, "we do not share your information with third parties, only study your own behavior for research purpose periodically." I clicked yes, and that was the cause of the virus.
Next I know is whenever I opened my Google chrome browser, I noticed the home page is fixed to point to "search.certified-toolbar.com", regardless if the browser setting was set to point to the other web page I want.
Googling the web led to reports to confirm that it is a virus that has the capability to steal the infected computer's user online behavior such as information entered on web pages (username, password..etc)
I used the free virus-scan tools of trendmicro, and other free tools of trendmicro. None of them produced any virus found report. Trendmicro's tool may be good for less advanced virus. I have to give Trendmicro credit indeed. Its browser guard has helped blocked a trojan horse to install in the past when I clicked on an image on a website.
My solution: use eset online scanner.
1. Run a free computer virus scan using eset oline scanner.
Five virus found on my laptop
2. Select to allow eset to remove these quarantined files. (It took 10 hours to finish)
3. My Chrome browser home page was still pointing to search.certified-toolbar.com. I exported the bookmarks from the Chrome browser as a html file, re-installed the Chrome browser with all histories and cookies cleared, then imported back the bookmark html file. The new Chrome browser points to the home page I want. I repeated the same steps for the FireFox browser. Step 3 is required for any browser (Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc) which you have clicked to opened after the virus is installed in your computer.
4. Enable Windows 7 Firewall in normal mode, and check the security files to confirm unwanted permission is not set.
5. Re-run the eset scanner again to verify no virus is found. Success!
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