Profile and the fix for Audio Ads virus

Ethical merits of some computer world’s actors end where big money comes in, moreover that’s where technical sophistication grows exponentially. Whereas browser hijacking and similar adware-related activities has been prevailing as cybercriminals’ methods of delivering advertisements to users on the Internet, a fairly new yet more annoying tactic has emerged, impersonated by the so-called Audio Ads virus.

What this pest does is it generates sounds on the infected computer. These are ads for different services and products that the bad guys get paid for promoting, no matter how shady the ways are. The audio plays in the background regardless of whether or not a web browser is open, which means the malicious code attacks the target system on a higher level than most adware does. Turning the speaker volume down or off just to not hear all that stuff is certainly not an option as far as good user experience is concerned.

For precision’s sake it should be mentioned that the threat to blame for this activity is called Rootkit.Boot.Harbinger.a. Like all rootkits out there, it unfortunately does a heck of a job obfuscating its traces to evade detection. It spreads as a hidden bundle to some files and programs available online, where the install process says nothing about the attached unsafe payload. Also, the Audio Ads virus can be distributed through a network of compromised websites which deliver the malware without visitors knowing.

Since this infection is a rootkit, its removal is not trivial in contrast to the more common adware which can be wiped out using browser controls. A group of InfoSec experts have come up with a fix that will rid infected users of the Audio Ads threat completely.