http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/03/1951222 **$tarDu$t** recommends a Washington Post Security Fix blog post dissecting the Tigger.A trojan, which has been keeping a low profile while exploiting the MS08-66 vulnerability to steal data quietly from online stock brokerages and their customers. An estimated quarter million victims have been infected. The trojan uses a key code to extract its rootkit on host systems that is almost identical to the key used by the Srizbi botnet. The rootkit loads even in Safe Mode. "Among the unusually short list of institutions specifically targeted by Tigger are E-Trade, ING Direct ShareBuilder, Vanguard, Options XPress, TD Ameritrade, and Scottrade. ... Tigger removes a long list of other malicious software titles, including the malware most commonly associated with Antivirus 2009 and other rogue security software titles... this is most likely done because the in-your-face 'hey, your-computer-is-infected-go-buy-our-software!' type alerts generated by such programs just might... lead to all invaders getting booted from the host PC." http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/02/the_t-i-double-guh-r_trojan_ic.html
Notice in the article and related links that AntiVir (free antivirus www.free-av.com) is the only antivirus to catch it still. Nothing is 100% and nothing will replace being sensible what you click on, but AntiVir plus weekly manual scans with free Spybot (www.spybot.com - untick everything except desktop icon on install) is the standard for those who want a lean, fast and secure trading system. Antivir will only consume around 10MB of system resources, once settled. If you have a router, you do not need another firewall in addition to it and the built in windows firewall.
I have the integrated Norton Protection Center that came shipped with my laptop. Would I need to uninstall it in order to run the above programs? I am worried about system conflicts if I have more than one anti-virus software installed simultaneously. I believe Norton Protection Center has it fingers deep throughout the operating system, which makes me worry about side effects if I uninstall it.
You do need to uninstall everything thoroughly. Some manufacturers like Packard Bell even hide the Add/remove program entry to keep you on the Norton subscription treadmill (they get a cut). Any problem with removal or just in case anyway download the Norton Removal tool here: http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039 There is one for Mcafee also called MCPR get it here: http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe Your only side effect once removed will be a massive increase in performance.
Caution: Removing ALL of your Norton Anti-Virus software is a tremendous pain in the ass. It is not as simple as uninstalling the software, because "remnants" still remain on your hard drive and if not removed, will create all sorts of conflicts.
It takes a while but use the Norton Removal Tool and it is just a few clicks to remove all of Norton all at once, with no conflicts. The only complication could be Norton Go Back or Ghost which might require uninstalling first then a restart. Having done this procedure for many hundreds of customers in recent years, I can assure you it works, even if the regular uninstall procedure fails.
Better than uninstall is to make a restore point before installing anything and revert the computer back to the restore point.
Sounds like a lawsuit in the making. Yet another reason to ditch PCs if you can do your stuff on Linux or a Mac.
Better still... when you get a new computer, do a fresh install of the OS and never put the crapola on it...