My Security Shield is a rogue anti-spyware program from the same family as Virus Doctor. This infection is promoted through web sites that show advertisements that pretend to be online anti-malware scanners. These scanners will then pretend to scan your computer, and when finished, will state that your computer is infected and that you need to download and install My Security Shield to protect yourself. The truth is that these online scanners are all fake and are only an advertisement. They have no way of knowing what is running on your computer.
Once My Security Shield is installed on your computer it will be configured to start automatically. It will also create numerous files that will be detected by the program as malware. Some of the files that are created are:
%UserProfile%\Recent\cid.drv
%UserProfile%\Recent\CLSV.tmp
%UserProfile%\Recent\DBOLE.exe
%UserProfile%\Recent\delfile.sys
%UserProfile%\Recent\fan.dll
%UserProfile%\Recent\grid.sys
%UserProfile%\Recent\kernel32.exe
%UserProfile%\Recent\kernel32.sys
%UserProfile%\Recent\PE.dll
%UserProfile%\Recent\PE.tmp
%UserProfile%\Recent\runddlkey.drv
%UserProfile%\Recent\SICKBOY.drv
%UserProfile%\Recent\std.dll
%UserProfile%\Recent\tempdoc.tmp
%UserProfile%\Recent\tjd.sys
When the program scans your computer it will detect the files it created and state that they are infections. It will then prompt you to remove the files, but will not allow you to do so until you first purchase the program. This is a scam as the files are all harmless and are created by the My Security Shield program in the first place. Therefore, please ignore any of the scan results this program displays.
While My Security Shield is running it will also display fake security warnings that are designed to make you think that your computer has a severe computer security problem. The text of some of the alerts you will see are:
Warning! Access conflict detected!
An unidentified program is trying to access system process address space.
Process Name: AllowedForm
Location: C:\Windows\...\notepad.exeWarning! Identity theft attempt detected
Memory access problem
WindowsErrorForm has encountered a problem at address 0x1FC408.
We are sorry for the inconvenience.
If you see this error again, operational information can be irrevocably lost.Warning! Virus detected
Threat Detected: Trojan-PSW.VBS.Half
Description: This is a VBScript-virus. It steals user's passwords.
As all of these security alerts are fake, they should be ignored.
As you can see, My Security Shield is a scam and was only created to trick you into purchasing it. You should not purchase it, and if you have, you should contact your credit card company and dispute the charge. To remove My Security Shield and any related malware, please follow the steps in the removal guide below.
My Security Shield Removal Options
Self Help Guide
If you are uncomfortable making changes to your computer or following these steps, do not worry! Instead you can get free one-on-one help by asking in the forums.
- 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
My Security Shield
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
My Security Shield
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
My Security Shield
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
My Security Shield
. 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. Do not reboot
your computer after running RKill as the malware programs will start again.
If you continue having problems running RKill, you can download the other renamed versions of RKill from the RKill download page. Both of these 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. - At this point you should download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, or MBAM, to scan your computer for any any infections or adware that may be present. Please download Malwarebytes 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 mb3-setup-1878.1878-3.0.6.1469.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 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 start and you will be at the main screen as shown below.
Please click on the Scan Now button to start the scan. If there is an update available for Malwarebytes it will automatically download and install it before performing the scan. - MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can
take quite a while, so we suggest you do something else and periodically
check on the status of the scan to see when it is finished.
- When MBAM is finished scanning it will display a screen that displays any malware that it has detected. Please note that the infections found may be different
than what is shown in the image below due to the guide being updated for newer versions of MBAM.
You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the seleted 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. - You can now exit the MBAM program.
- As this infection also changes your Windows HOSTS file, we want to replace
this file with the default version for your operating system. Please note
that if you or your company has added custom entries to your HOSTS file then
you will need to add them again after restoring the default HOSTS file. In
order to protect itself,
My Security Shield
changes the permissions of the HOSTS file so you can't edit or delete
it. To fix these permissions please download the following batch file and
save it to your desktop:
hosts-perm.bat Download Link
When the file has finished downloading, double-click on the hosts-perm.bat file that is now on your desktop. If Windows asks if you if you are sure you want to run it, please allow it to run. Once it starts you will see a small black window that opens and then quickly goes away. This is normal and is nothing to be worried about. You should now be able to access your HOSTS file. - We now need to delete the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\HOSTS
file. Once it is deleted, download the following HOSTS file that corresponds
to your version of Windows and save it in the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc
folder. If the contents of the HOSTS file opens in your browser when you click
on a link below then right-click on the appropriate link and select Save
Target As..., if in Internet Explorer, or Save Link As..,
if in Firefox, to download the file.
Windows XP HOSTS File Download Link
Your Windows HOSTS file should now be back to the default one from when Windows was first installed.
Windows Vista HOSTS File Download Link
Windows 2003 Server HOSTS File Download Link
Windows 2008 Server HOSTS File Download Link
Windows 7 HOSTS File Download Link - Now reboot your computer.
- 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 My Security Shield 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.
