Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud

Posted: October 28, 2011

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	8/10
Infected PCs:	7

First Seen:	October 28, 2011
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud is a dropper Trojan that assists the propagation of rogue anti-malware programs from the 'OpenCloud' family. An initial attack by Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud is most likely to occur after you visit a malicious site that uses drive-by-download scripts to install Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud, although other means of infection (such as by P2P files) are also possible. Because Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud's presence almost always coincides with the presence of highly-visible scamware products, you should have little trouble figuring out if Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud is on your PC. However, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers caution against trying to delete Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud yourself, and recommend, for the safety of your computer, that you use appropriate anti-malware programs to remove both Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud and any OpenCloud products that Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud may have installed without your consent.

Why Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud Only Has Fake Threat Detection to Offer You

Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud and its cohorts (the rogue anti-malware programs known as Cloud Protection, Cloud AV 2012, OpenCloud AV, OpenCloud Security and OpenCloud Antivirus) may look like respectable security products and may even create realistic-looking error messages, but SpywareRemove.com malware analysts have long since discovered that they lack any form of genuine anti-malware feature set. Instead of giving your PC actual protection, products that are installed by Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud will interfere with your PC in an attempt to make you spend money on a panicky quick-fix. Issues that are associated with Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud and its scamware payload include:

Fake warning messages, system scans and other forms of misinformation that wrongly portray your PC to be infected by nonexistent threats (such as keyloggers or banking Trojans).
Browser redirect attacks that redirect your web browser to OpenCloud websites.
Security programs that fail to launch or experience malfunctions while in use.

All of these attacks are designed to deprive you of real anti-malware software and encourage you to pay for an OpenCloud program that Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud is peddling, just so you can put a stop to the above problems. However, SpywareRemove.com malware experts are glad to note that this is an unnecessarily-wasteful solution, since Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud and its payload can be removed without spending a single cent on the matter.

Getting Rid of Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud with Your PC Intact

Even though Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud's rogue security products will try to make you think that purchasing them could be your only solution, the real cure to a Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud problem is to delete Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud and its respective payload with a real anti-malware application. Since Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud may try to block your software, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers recommend the following ways of working around Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud's defenses:

Renaming your anti-malware program's .exe file so that it matches the name of a commonly-allowed process. Basic Windows programs like 'winlogin.exe' and 'explorer.exe' are generally-effective for this purpose.
Disabling Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud by rebooting your PC and tapping F8 until the advanced boot menu appears. From this menu, you can select Safe Mode, which will launch Windows with a minimum of processes (hopefully-excluding Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud).
Booting Windows from a CD or USB device (which bypasses the system components that Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud uses to launch itself).

Use SpyHunter to Detect and Remove PC Threats

If you are concerned that malware or PC threats similar to Trojan-FakeAV.Win32.OpenCloud may have infected your computer, we recommend you start an in-depth system scan with SpyHunter. SpyHunter is an advanced malware protection and remediation application that offers subscribers a comprehensive method for protecting PCs from malware, in addition to providing one-on-one technical support service.

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Why can't I open any program including SpyHunter? You may have a malware file running in memory that kills any programs that you try to launch on your PC. Tip: Download SpyHunter from a clean computer, copy it to a USB thumb drive, DVD or CD, then install it on the infected PC and run SpyHunter's malware scanner.

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

file.exe

File name: file.exe
Size: 288.76 KB (288768 bytes)
MD5: 5606a39ac4cffe4a25a9fb6a897eb310
Detection count: 3
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: November 2, 2011

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