If you own
an Asus PC and have been reading recent headlines, you may be a little worried.
So what’s the story and do you really need to be concerned? Dave’s Computers
investigates.
The story
broke in March that potentially millions of Asus computers had been unwittingly
infected with malware. The ShadowHammer malware was sneaked into the supply
chain and onto the Asus update server. This means every Asus computer that
contacted the server for updates could potentially have been infected.
The malware
was live on the server between June and November 2018 and could have been
downloaded thousands of times. Discovered by Kaspersky, as their software runs
on many Asus computers, the company traced it back to the source and said it
alone had dealt with over 57,000 infected machines.
What to do if you may
have been infected
If you
think you may be one of those users infected by ShadowHammer, you need to run
your antivirus software and a separate malware scanner. You can also download Asus’ new Live Update
software (version 3.6.8) which will tackle any malware installed on your
computer.
While you
may find it difficult to trust Asus Live Update, the company assures us that
version of 3.6.8 is perfectly safe and can remove the malware from your
computer. Asus has also beefed up the security on their servers and implemented
as much security as possible to stop it happening again.
Keep on top of
antivirus and malware
If a
reminder was ever needed, this is the ideal lesson to remind all of us to keep
on top of our computer security. It’s easy to get caught up in daily goings on
and lose track of when we last performed a malware scan or antivirus check. The
sophistication of this attack shows what lengths people will go to in order to
attack our technology.
Always use
an antivirus product on every device. Have it set to automatically scan if it
has the option and to automatically update. Run a malware scanner after your
antivirus. Malwarebytes or
something similar is free and very simple to use. Get into the habit of using
both of these regularly.
If you’re
still concerned or wonder if you have gotten rid of ShadowHammer, bring your
computer to Dave’s Computers in New Jersey. We can perform our own checks just
to make sure.