Over the past couple of weeks, we have received some support calls from clients who are worried that they have been infected by a virus. The warning comes from some anti-virus software - but not the one they have installed on their PC (ie Kaspersky, F-Secure, Norton etc) - instead, products such as 'Internet Security 2010' or 'Antivirus Lite' present the warning.
The virus they claim to have found varies, but often the warning looks like:
Security Warning!
Worm.Win32.NetSky detected on your machine.
This is often accompanied by a warning such as:
Application cannot be executed. The file is infected. Please activate your antivirus software.
Many programs are altered by the fake software to display the fake warnings - and this alteration can damage those programs. I assisted a customer today whose copy of Outlook had been damaged by this software.
Activating the software will cost you money - DO NOT DO SO. The fake software may also claim that your video and sound (sic) codecs need updating. Again - don't do this - the program they suggest you download - VSCodec Pro - costs and won't fix anything!
As you can see, these fake anti-virus programs such as Internet Security 2010 were created to scare you into purchasing them. Do NOT do so, and if you have, you should contact your credit card company and dispute the charges stating that the program is a scam.
Removal
ClystNet can undertake the removal for you - however, you may wish to try the following yourself first:
1. Download the following file and run it - yes it is safe! This will temporarily 'kill' the rogue Antivirus software. DO NOT restart your computer after running it - the key word here is 'temporarily' - if you restart at this stage the fake anti-virus software will restart.
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/rkill.com
2. Having temporarily killed it, we now need to remove it. Download the program below.
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe
3. Having downloaded, shut down all open programs on your PC and close all windows (including this one). Now click on the program you have downloaded to install it. Stick to all of the default settings, and agree to everything. You now need to the 'Update' tab, and run the update, and then go to the Scanner tab, and perform a 'Full Scan'.
4. Once finished scanning, go to the main scanner screen and click 'Show Results'.
5. Select everything it has found and select 'Remove Selected'.
You have now removed the threat!
. 
Many thanks to 'BleepingComputer.com' for hosting the removal software and for their guidance - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-internet-security-2010
