Win32.Gael.3666 got past Windows Defender

[Doug]

Hi,

Sorry for the intrusion. If I am off-topic here please redirect me.

I'm in a bit if a pickle that will take me some time to recover from because
I thought that Windows Defender was all the virus protection I needed. Both
my Vista and WinXP machines have become infected by the Win32.Gael.3666
virus and I dare not even try to boot them. They were both running Windows
Defender which was right up to date. When I became concerned about a virus
infection I obtained a version of F-Secure from my ISP which identified the
virus in the Subject: line. Running an antivirus program on an infected
machine only makes things worse. I think the virus was active in my home
network for more than a week before I became concerned. Automatic updates
were turned on and any strangeness I thought was due to new Microsoft
software.

My first concern will be to recover and store my valuable records in a safe
place. I have physically removed an infected drive and replaced it with an
old Vista backup drive in order to post this online.

Could someone offer some insight into the Win32.Gael.3666 virus and a
suitable disinfection strategy?

Thanks.

 

[philo]

Win32.Gael.3666 virus

I have a machine on my bench running XP and the Avast virus checker
used it specifically for cleaning infected drives.

I simply pop the infected drive in the bench machine and once Avast is
updated...perform a full scan.

This method has given me excellent results and has even been able to
remove root kits that were not even caught by root-kit detectors.

For me, the free version of Avast has been an excellent tool.

Though I've never gotten the machine infected...
there is nothing critical on the machine...
in the event I'd have to re-install the OS

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "philo" <[email protected]>

< snip >


| According to the website I visited

| Security Essentials would have caught it.

| Hope the OP did not think Windows Defender was an anti-virus solution
| but he might have thought that!

He wrote "I thought that Windows Defender was all the virus protection I needed. "

He was wrong :-(

 

[philo]

From: "philo"<[email protected]>

< snip>


| According to the website I visited

| Security Essentials would have caught it.

| Hope the OP did not think Windows Defender was an anti-virus solution
| but he might have thought that!

He wrote "I thought that Windows Defender was all the virus protection I needed. "

He was wrong :-(

That's for sure!