How does Antivirus Security Pro malware get onto a computer?
Antivirus Security Pro can be manually and voluntarily downloaded from malicious websites though most of the time Antivirus Security Pro is present without consent. Antivirus Security Pro is often downloaded via exploit kits and trojan horses located on compromised and hacked websites and in some cases advertisements, email spam, and social media content.
Antivirus Security Pro may have also bundled with third-party freeware, shareware, codecs, and may have been included in files associated with torrent downloads.
Antivirus Security Pro also shows bogus security alerts like these :
Warning! Infected file detectedSuspicious activity detected in the application notepad.exe to the behavior of the virus Win32/Conficker.X. For your security and to avoid loss of data, the operation of application cmd.exe has been temporarily restricted.
Warning! Network attack attempt detected.To keep the computer safe, the threat must be blocked.
These kind of alerts are only meant for threatening the computer user so that he/she gets extremely worried about the problems with their computers and the important stuff inside it. Nobody wants to suffer a data loss at any cost and even when It is not going to happen, a fake warning is enough to get you extremely worried.
At the same time when you are thinking what to do, Antivirus Security Pro malware will tell you to purchase its full version to remove all the threats. You might jump on the offer to get rid of problems with your computer and buy Antivirus Security Pro right away not knowing that this is the biggest problem itself. Once you pay for the software, you money will be received by the scammers and in return, you’ll get a registration key to register Antivirus Security Pro.
After entering this ‘so called’ registration key, the software will stop showing any infections and tell you that everything is in good shape. You’ll be happy that everything is fine but the real culprit of all the problems is still inside in your computer. If you don’t buy Antivirus Security Pro, It will make your life miserable. This rogue malware will :
1. Make your computer run extremely slow and block all legitimate programs.
2. Fake warnings will pop-up from everywhere in your computer.
3. You won’t be able to go online or search for a solution easily
4. Some core settings on your computer will get manipulated by the rogue malware.
If you’ve already bought full version of Antivirus Security Pro scamware, contact your credit card company and file a dispute to get your money back. Read next part of the guide to learn about Antivirus Security Pro removal methods.
How To Remove Antivirus Security Pro
Anybody who has got this scary virus in the computer wants to remove it asap. We have analyzed this malware in our research lab and It is extremely easy to remove by employing automatic removal tools. You can also try your hands on manual removal method but this is something we don’t recommend to try If you’re not well versed with computer. You can read about both removal methods below :
A) Automatic Removal Method
This removal method emphasizes on removing the malware using automatic approach. You need to use a genuine malware removing application to remove Antivirus Security Pro from your computer. By using this method, you just need to scan your computer and click few buttons to bring everything back to normal.
This removal method is best for everyone because It is fast, effective, easy and It works 100% of the time on all computers. Even If you’ve not removed a virus before, this removal method will help you. You can remove Antivirus Security Pro yourself without seeking any sort of help from anyone.
Here is what you need to do :
Step 1: This malware is very nasty and watching everything you are doing in your computer. For this reason, It won’t let you run any applications and first we need to terminate Antivirus Security Pro somehow so that we can move on to next steps.
To do that, please Download Process Explorer. It is a utility from Microsoft which works exactly same as Task Manager. Since Task Manager is no longer working in your computer, you can use Process Explorer to End Task this process.
When you download Process Explorer, please make sure to save it in on Desktop as “explorer.exe”. Please note that you MUST save the downloaded file as “explorer.exe”, otherwise the malware will block it.Explorer.exe is the name of a critical Windows Process and malware doesn’t attack on files having this name and we need to take advantage of this.
Step 2: After running Process Explorer, you’ll see a list of running process in your computer. You need to find a process having extremely strange name and right click over it. Then select “End Task” to close Antivirus Security Pro forcefully. Look at the image below :
Step 3: After terminating the rogue process, you need to download Spy Hunter to scan your computer. Please note that malware is not out from your computer yet and you need to do a full scan of your computer asap before the malware launches once again. To Scan your computer, you can download Spy Hunter by clicking the button below :
Step 4: After downloading Spy Hunter, follow the instructions thereon to install this software completely and update its virus database. After that, do a “Full Scan” of your computer and sit back to see how many threats are hiding in your computer.
Full Scan will take some time and It will automatically catch Antivirus Security Pro virus as well as lots of other threats which are hiding in your computer and making it run slow.
Step 5: Once the scan is complete, click on “Fix Threats” button and everything should be back on track. Just by clicking a button, Spy Hunter will remove the malicious files, correct all registry entries, remove malicious desktop icons as well as restore all harm created by the malware to your system. That’s it!
As you can see, this removal method is so easy to follow and it works all the time!
B) Manual Removal Method
This removal method is not complete in itself but It depends on several factors which are out of our control. We don’t suggest this removal method for everyone because there are chances that you’ll end up messing your computer even further. If you’ve not edited System Registry before, this removal method is simply not for you.
If you’re highly skilled with computers, you can follow this removal method with caution :
1. First of all, you need to stop running this malware so It can’t interfere with removal process. To do that, follow Step No.1 of Automatic Removal method (i.e.Downloading Process Explorer and terminating rogue software).
2. After terminating the rogue software, you need to delete its files from computer. These files are :
%CommonAppData%\HaSpsq\
%CommonAppData%\HaSpsqDD1
%CommonAppData%\HaSpsq\HaSpsq.exe
%CommonAppData%\HaSpsq\HaSpsq.exe.manifest
%CommonAppData%\HaSpsq\HaSpsq.ico
Please note that virus creates random file names on all computers and for this reason, you need to look for the suspicious folder yourself. If you can find that folder, that will makes things much easier for you.
3. Now you need to Editor the registry to unblock programs as well we remove the malware’s startup entry. You can do that by using registry editor and related registry entries are :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Please don’t edit the registry If you’ve done this before. Registry is the most core part of your computer and editing it incorrectly means you can corrupt your computer yourself.
If you’re in doubt about what to do and Manual Removal method doesn’t help you get rid of Antivirus Security Pro, you can opt for Automatic Removal method which works in all cases.
