Very sorry to here about the situation you are going through! We have to make sure that we are dealing with the real source, 2 or 3 verifications. Otherwise we Equifax ourselves/computers.
ARE YOU LOGGED ON?
It is time to start over with that PC and I mean from bare metal. The hard drive needs to be re-partitioned, fully formatted and Windows reinstalled. How technically savvy are you? If not very, this is a job for a competent PC shop...
Russia?
PEBKAC error;
Basic mistake, NEVER, EVER use an email link to go to a website.
Just curious but was the notification through an email or pop up?
Thanks for the warning. Sorry to hear of your trouble. Hopefully you backed up.
I’ve always thought the most nefarious attack vector would be for the bad guys to get a list of all the installed AV software from one of the major vendors, then send out an evil automatic “update.” What safeguards are in place to prevent this from happening?
I get auto update all the time for Apple macOS, IOS, for Adobe Apps, every app I’ve bought on the app store and more. Many of these are auto-installed in the background. Who protects the safety of these updates?
I guess Malware really does bite
So you can’t do a clean install? Seriously?
~Got an official-looking update from Malwarebytes
Just how exactly did you get this official update?
Did it fall out of the cloud?
I’ve used Malwarebytes for years with nary a glitch.
I’ve been running some flavor of Linux since 1994. Past 15 years almost never fire up a Windows computer.
Seldom ever have problems with it. Very stable.
And not any harder to install now than most Windows installs.
In the beginning there were issues with printer drivers and sound card drives. Most of that is past.
Almost no malware or virus issues.
Check out ‘image’ software. They can make a bit-by-bit or contextual [used space] image of your hard drive(s). These kinds of programs are useful if you lose your OS drive. They have saved me several times over the last decade.
There are several image software programs available, and some have free-for-home-use versions.
I currently use Macrium Reflect.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
I also partition my large hard drive to set my programs and OS on C: and data on D: partition. And of course, back up essential data occasionally to an external USB hard drive.
Good gosh. I got the same thing and downloaded it. As it was downloading I saw this post of yours. It then said “install”.....I said NO. So far, everything is ok. I did not install it. I just ran a scan and no threats detected.
So it’s downloaded but not installed. Do you think I am ok?
Run MacOS in a virtual machine and you won’t have this problem.
Yes, I’m kidding.
I got an email from a buddy of mine just this morning. All it had was a link. I knew it was bogus just because of that. He had gotten a virus that parsed his email and blew-out that same link to everyone.
Not to dog you out but to demonstrate that bogus emails come in all shapes and sizes.
I hate when these hacking conventions happen...always new toys for idiots to play with on the zero day sites...
Did you contact Malwarebytes about it?
There is nothing about a virus associated with a
Malwarebytes update popup in an internet search about it.
There is nothing on the Malwarebytes website forum about it.