Weddingbee Blog

We received emails from a few users that their computers were infected with WinPC Defender, a fake anti-spyware application.  WinPC Defender claims to be an anti-spyware program, but it actually isn’t.  It displays pop-up ads encouraging you to buy the “licensed” version of WinPC Defender software to “remove” it, which itself is a fraud.

We’ve done a security audit of our site and our advertisers, and there’s no trace of WinPC Defender.  We’re investigating what could’ve caused this - but in the meantime, I did a ton of research on the program, and thought I’d share what we’ve found.

This isn’t a subtle program: if you’ve been infected, it will probably be obvious.  Infected users will see regular ads for a licensed version of WinPC Defender.  If you think your computer may be infected with WinPC Defender, a number of sites (like here) recommend you install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware software to remove it.

I found an Editor’s review by CNET that gave them a great review: “Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a surprisingly effective freeware antimalware tool. It’s a relatively speedy malware remover, with the quick scan taking about 8 minutes even with other high-resource programs running.”

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a free program: if you’ve been infected, you can install the program using the link here (there are great reviews by users as well as a video by the CNET editors).  I also installed the program myself, just to test it out - it took about 8 minutes to run a scan, just like CNET said.  Here’s the link to download the program:

• http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

In terms of protecting yourself in general:

• If you use a secure browser, you are generally much safer while browsing the Internet.  Google Chrome is probably the most secure, followed by Firefox.  I would not recommend that you use Internet Explorer; if you absolutely have to, make sure it’s a recent version of IE (IE 7 or 8, not IE 6 or earlier).
• This is a PC based program, so Mac users should be safe.

An up-to-date version of good anti-virus/anti-spyware program should also help protect you in general.  I use AvG Free for anti-virus, but I’ve heard McAfee is also good.