Remove Defence Center (Uninstall Guide)
Posted by Lawrence Abrams on September 4, 2010 @ 07:15 PM · Views: 4,727
What this infection does:
Defence Center is a rogue anti-spyware program that uses deceptive
scan results to trick you into thinking that you are infected. When installed
Defence Center will be configured to start automatically when you start Windows.
Once started the program will scan your computer and state that there are numerous
infections, but will not remove any until you purchase the program. The infection
results, though, are all made up with little or no information as to what files
are actually infected. It provides so little information because there are actually
no infected programs other than Defence Center itself. It is only stating that
there are infected files on your computer in order to scare you into purchasing
the program.
Defence Center screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 2 images you can view.
As you can see, Defence Center was created to scare you into thinking your
computer has a security problem so that you will then purchase the program.
Please do not purchase this program, and if you already have, please contact
your credit card company and dispute the charge stating that the program is
a scam. To remove Defence Center for free, you can
use the removal guide below.
Threat Classification:
Advanced information:
View Defence Center files.
View Defence Center Registry Information.
Tools Needed for this fix:
Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:
O23 - Service: smmservice - Unknown owner - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\smmservice.exe
Guide Updates:
09/04/10 - Initial guide creation.
09/08/10 - Updated to remove statement that this program is installed via malware.
Automated Removal Instructions for Defence Center using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
- Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is
open later in the fix.
- It is possible that the infection you are trying to remove will not allow
you to download files on the infected computer. If this is the case, then
you will need to download the files requested in this guide on another computer
and then transfer them to the infected computer. You can transfer the files
via a CD/DVD, external drive, or USB flash drive.
- Before we can do anything we must first end the processes that belong to
Defence Center
so that it does not interfere with the cleaning procedure. To do this, please
download RKill to your desktop from the following link.
RKill
Download Link - (Download page will open in a new tab or browser window.)
When at the download page, click on the Download Now button
labeled iExplore.exe download link. When you are prompted
where to save it, please save it on your desktop.
- Once it is downloaded, double-click on the iExplore.exe
icon in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with
Defence Center
and other Rogue programs. Please be patient while the program looks for various
malware programs and ends them. When it has finished, the black window will
automatically close and you can continue with the next step. If you get a
message that RKill is an infection, do not be concerned. This message is just
a fake warning given by
Defence Center
when it terminates programs that may potentially remove it. If you run into
these infections warnings that close RKill, a trick is to leave the warning
on the screen and then run RKill again. By not closing the warning, this typically
will allow you to bypass the malware trying to protect itself so that rkill
can terminate
Defence Center
. So, please try running RKill until the malware is no longer running. You
will then be able to proceed with the rest of the guide. If you continue
having problems running RKill, you can download the other renamed versions
of RKill from the rkill
download page. All of the files are renamed copies of RKill, which you
can try instead. Please note that the download page will open in a new browser
window or tab.
Do not reboot your computer after running RKill as the malware programs will
start again.
- Now you should download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following
location and save it to your desktop:
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Download Link
(Download page will open in a new window)
- Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including
this one.
- Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe.
This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
- When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue
with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings
and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the
Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish
button. If MalwareBytes' prompts you to reboot, please do not do so.
- MBAM will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that
you should update the program before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically
update itself after the install, you can press the OK button
to close that box and you will now be at the main program as shown below.
- On the Scanner tab, make sure the the Perform
full scan option is selected and then click on the Scan
button to start scanning your computer for
Defence Center
related files.
- MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can
take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically
check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the
image below.
- When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image
below.
You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with
the
Defence Center
removal process.
- You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should
click on the Show Results button.
- A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown
as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different
than what is shown in the image.
You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove
all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry
keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM
may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message
stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer
has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the
steps.
- When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and
display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad
window.
- You can now exit the MBAM program.
- As many rogues and other malware are installed through vulnerabilities found
in out-dated and insecure programs, it is strongly suggested that you use
Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs on your computer. A tutorial on
how to use Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs can be found here:
How to
detect vulnerable and out-dated programs using Secunia Personal Software Inspector
Your computer should now be free of the
Defence Center
program. If your current anti-virus solution let this infection through,
you may want to consider purchasing the
PRO version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to protect against these types
of threats in the future.
If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:
Preparation Guide For Use Before Using Malware Removal Tools and Requesting Help
Associated Defence Center Files:
c:\protocol.log
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\smmservice.exe
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\mswd\
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\mswd\Base.dat
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\mswd\db.avdb
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\mswd\DefenceCenter.exe
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\ Defence Center .lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Defence Center\
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Defence Center\ Defence Center .lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Defence Center\Uninstall\
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Defence Center\Uninstall\Uninstall.lnk
Associated Defence Center Windows Registry Information:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\DefenceCenter
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\smmservice
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