New Security Tool to Help You Fight the Bad Guys! – Malwarebytes

I came across a posting over at zerosource.org that peeked my interest.  It is new security tool called Malwarebytes (available from http://www.malwarebytes.org/) that according to the site:

“can identify and remove malicious software from your computer. When your computer becomes infected, Malwarebytes can provide the needed assistance to remove the infection and restore the machine back to optimum performance.”

This hit my radar because I got a call from a friend a couple months back who was having problems with the Microsoft AntiVirus 2009 malware.  Malware, a portmanteau from the words malicious and software, is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent. 

This particular one is installed and advertised through the use of misleading web sites that attempt to make you think your computer is infected with a variety of malware.  Once installed,it will scan your computer and list a variety of fake infections that can’t be removed unless you first purchase the software. These infections are fake, though, and only being shown to scare you into purchasing the software.

So if you have seen this on your computer before or you are having some system performance problems, it might be a good idea to download this tool and run it on your PC, just to be safe.  It’s free for the download as well as future updates.  I have tested it on both my Windows Vista and Windows 7 beta boxes without any issues.  The scan took under 5 minutes for the quick scan and an hour and 22 minutes for a full scan on my PC.

Remember, I search so you don’t have to!