Recently, a Trojan horse program named Powelik has went crazily on the Internet and has successfully affected many computers after its stealthy infiltration without raising attention. The certified security team intends to decode the Trojan.Powelik in a more professional manner herein and offer practical solution as well as future prevention tips.
As a Trojan horse, Trojan.Powelik is capable of packaging itself as a computer/browser friendly program featuring powerful functions. It then was put onto some phishing websites or advertising platforms to trick people into downloading. Or, the Trojan horse simply piggybacks on other types of computer threats for dissemination. There are cases when Powelik Trojan attacks loosely programmed website or applications to spread itself.
But there’s one way that Powelik Trojan lands onto a machine without tricks. That is Powelik Trojan hacks the backdoor of some installed program it uses for real-time improvement or rectification or capitalizes the bug/loopholes found on a compromised machine for infection. Therefore, it is kindly suggested not to download and install loosely programmed, freeware or shareware and to check computer security regularly for timely fix.
Once you learn Powelik’s payloads, you’ll learn how it dodges detection and escape from the automatic removal by the installed security tools:
Even the security utilities are so intelligent that they have removed and exterminated many computer threats, they are not able to differentiate the real system files from the fake ones based on names instead of content. When the fake ones are inserted into Windows Protected Folders, the background processes and drivers concerned will turn to work for Trojan.Powelik.
This is why manual removal guide is highly recommended to defeat and remove Powelik Trojan horse. Stick to the steps below during the implement. Any slight mistake or deviation could result in undesirable result or permanent damage over time. If you are not that technically sound, contact technicians certified by VilmaTech Online Support with the live chat button below.
A
Shut down System Restore function to prevent Powelik Trojan from accessing information from the past and remove its restore files.
1. shut down System Restore function.
2. remove restore files.
B
Show hidden files and folders to sort out and remove the items generated on and after the detection of Trojan.Powelik.
1. show hidden items.
Windows 7/XP/Vista
Windows 8
2. navigate to the following directories respectively and remove the items according to the creation date.
C:\Windows
C:\Windows\System32
C:\windows\winstart.bat
C:\windows\wininit.ini
C:\windows\Autoexec.bat
C:\Users\[your username]\Documents\
C:\users\user\appdata\local\
C:\Program Files\
C
End the services related to Powelik Trojan.
Windows7/vista/XP
(Tip: head back to the directories and remove the files you failed after ending the related services.)
Windows 8
(Tip: head back to the directories and remove the files you failed after ending the related services.)
Trojan.Powelik is a set of malicious program that can be only removed through manual method. The above thread should lead to success unless there are more damages done as listed below. In that case, one should follow further steps for complete removal for second infiltration. This is why VilmaTech Online Support experts always lay the significance on quick removal. If you are not able to deal with the residual damages on your own, you’d better get exclusive help according to your concrete situation from VilmaTech Online Support.
Though damages are what have been done to the targeted computers evidently, what Trojan.Powelik aims is money procured by reselling confidential information, empty out the financial account with password stored in the compromised computer and introducing in additional computer threats. It is advisable to change your password you ever typed on the computer upon the complete and through removal of the Powelik Trojan.
Running scans after the manual removal of Trojan.Powelik is still necessary for a thorough clean up. Yet some date files from Powelik Trojan may not be considered as vicious and usually speaking, they are scattered around to take up the limited space. To use your computer to its potential and regain high performance, it is wise to do defrag after the Trojan horse removal. Here’s the video to show how:
