Microsoft Official: Malware Recovery Not Always Possible

[rkr1958]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — In a rare discussion on the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft (MSFT) security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation.

"When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit," Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, said in a presentation at the InfoSec World conference here.Offensive rootkits, which are used hide malware programs and maintain an undetectable presence on an infected machine, have become the weapon of choice for virus and spyware writers and, because they often use kernel hooks to avoid detection, Danseglio said IT administrators may never know if all traces of a rootkit have been successfully removed.

Rest of the article at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190544,00.html

[dipstick]

This is why I love Ghost so much. Though lately I've been using SnapShot drive imager and actually like it better.

Once I do a fresh install of windows on a PC, I image the OS partition and back it up to externall drives and optical disks. No need to run Antivirus programs in the background that only bogg down the system. If by chance I pick up a virus or trojan, I can simply restore my system in 2-5 min tops. I haven't had an Antivirus program running in the background in over 5 years. I do ocasionally run a Virus scan from a program I have on a USB thumb drive once a month or so just for kicks. No problems so far.

[oldandinthe way]

It's really wonderful that the European Union is forcing Microsoft to publish more kernal hooks to ensure competition.

Every time Microsoft is forced to open the box, our systems become less secure.

[bevills1]

Completely agree with dipstick on usefulness of Ghost. I did a fresh Windows install followed by Ghost image after I got preferences set the way I want. Now all I need to do in case of malware disaster, hardware failure or problems of any kind is restore Ghost image in just a very few minutes followed by latest Windows and anti-malware updates.