Rootkits is one of the many different types of malicious software. Typically rootkit is installed in victim's computer after the attacker get access to the root-level of the victim's computer. The attacker can get this access by using password which he cracked or stole before or by using system or program vulnerabilities in the victim's computer.
Once installed, the rootkit is designed to do special task, which is making a cover-up, or disguise the attacker activities in the victim's computer. The attacker activities could be some harmful software which tries to steal your private data such as banking, credit card etc. The rootkit itself is not the danger, the activities that it try to hide is the real danger.
Other than covering up attacker activities, the rootkit is also capable of hiding itself from the operating system and also from antivirus software. New version of rootkit can be very good at hiding itself, making the task to detect and remove rootkits quite challenging. Not all antivirus software is capable of removing a rootkit, especially the new, younger generation of rootkits.
So far I know, there are no such kind of special rootkits scanner. If you have received an offer of free rootkits scanner online you should be careful. It could be a scam that will just install fake anti virus into your computer.
So, how to remove hidden rootkits from your computer? To do this, you will need a special antivirus or antimalware software which has intrusion detection or behavior blocker feature. Those features are designed to work independently from virus signature database. They are doing the task by recognizing the pattern or behavior of malware attack. Even though the rootkit itself is hidden, it will do some process to access systems function. When the antivirus detects a malicious access to any system function it will block the process and try to find the source and put it in quarantine. You will receive a warning, and then you could decide what to do with the finding.
If you try to clean the rootkit, you will have 50% chance of success. What I mean by this is when your antivirus software said that it has finished cleaning your computer, it only means that your computer is already clean from malware which is known and detected by the antivirus software. If later on you get the same warning from behavior blocker, then the chance is big that the rootkit is still hiding in your computer and cannot be detected. In this case my advice is to copy all your data and format all your drives. Thereafter you can make a clean install. In my opinion this is the smartest way to do.
If you suspected that your computer is infected by rootkits it is better that you try to download and install antimalware software with intrusion detection or behavior blocker function. Some antimalware software will allow you to download and try full version of antimalware software for free for several weeks.
Once installed, the rootkit is designed to do special task, which is making a cover-up, or disguise the attacker activities in the victim's computer. The attacker activities could be some harmful software which tries to steal your private data such as banking, credit card etc. The rootkit itself is not the danger, the activities that it try to hide is the real danger.
Other than covering up attacker activities, the rootkit is also capable of hiding itself from the operating system and also from antivirus software. New version of rootkit can be very good at hiding itself, making the task to detect and remove rootkits quite challenging. Not all antivirus software is capable of removing a rootkit, especially the new, younger generation of rootkits.
So far I know, there are no such kind of special rootkits scanner. If you have received an offer of free rootkits scanner online you should be careful. It could be a scam that will just install fake anti virus into your computer.
So, how to remove hidden rootkits from your computer? To do this, you will need a special antivirus or antimalware software which has intrusion detection or behavior blocker feature. Those features are designed to work independently from virus signature database. They are doing the task by recognizing the pattern or behavior of malware attack. Even though the rootkit itself is hidden, it will do some process to access systems function. When the antivirus detects a malicious access to any system function it will block the process and try to find the source and put it in quarantine. You will receive a warning, and then you could decide what to do with the finding.
If you try to clean the rootkit, you will have 50% chance of success. What I mean by this is when your antivirus software said that it has finished cleaning your computer, it only means that your computer is already clean from malware which is known and detected by the antivirus software. If later on you get the same warning from behavior blocker, then the chance is big that the rootkit is still hiding in your computer and cannot be detected. In this case my advice is to copy all your data and format all your drives. Thereafter you can make a clean install. In my opinion this is the smartest way to do.
If you suspected that your computer is infected by rootkits it is better that you try to download and install antimalware software with intrusion detection or behavior blocker function. Some antimalware software will allow you to download and try full version of antimalware software for free for several weeks.
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