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Published: July 10, 2007
The aim of the Malware Removal Starter Kit is to provide reactive guidance and
prescriptive steps to help you recover a computer that has been exposed to malicious
software. It is important to understand that no process can guarantee a full recovery
from the damage that malicious software can do. For this reason, there is no substitute
for solid defenses and reliable backup and recovery processes. In this way, if the
worst does happen and you have to rebuild the computer, the impact will be minimized.
If you do use the recovery steps in this guide, we recommend spending some time
after the computer is fixed to investigate how the malicious software was introduced
to it. This effort should attempt to learn how the problem was introduced rather
than trying to find something or someone to blame. If the weakness was with a technical
defense measure, such as a firewall or antivirus program, you can review it and
update the measure as required. If the problem was introduced because of the actions
of staff, additional training may be required to ensure the problem is not repeated.
Remember the golden rule: “Prevention is better than cure.”
Finally, while this guide is specifically written to help IT Generalists repair
computers attacked by malware in small- to medium-sized organizations, much of this
information is valuable for protecting the home computers that belong to you and
your staff. For more information about protecting home computers, visit the
Microsoft Security at Home Web site. Feedback
Please direct questions and comments about this guidance to
Security Solutions Questions & Feedback. Acknowledgments
The Solution Accelerators – Security and Compliance group (SA-SC) would like to
acknowledge and thank the team that produced the Malware Removal Starter Kit. The
following people were either directly responsible or made a substantial contribution
to the writing, development, and testing of this solution. Authors, Contributors, and Writers
John Cobb - Wadeware LLC
Mike Danseglio
Charles Denny
Richard Harrison – Content Master Ltd
Frank Simorjay Editor
Jennifer Kerns - Wadeware LLC Product Managers
Alain Meeus
Jim Stuart Program Manager
Bomani Siwatu Release Manager
Karina Larson Testers
Gaurav Singh Bora
Saurabh Garg - Infosys Technologies Ltd
Sumit Parikh - Infosys Technologies Ltd Reviewers
Cindy Agnew - Fife School District, Dr. Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, Joseph
Kessler, Thom Nesbitt, Sterling Reasor Reviewers (Microsoft)
Rebecca Black, Anthony Blumfield, Derick Campbell, Chase Carpenter, Shiroy Choksey,
Bret Clark, Steve Clark, Greg Cottingham, Jeremy Croy, Fidelis Ekezue, Joe Faulhaber,
Karl Grunwald, Kumi Hilwa, Bashar Kachachi, David Kennedy, Jimmy Kuo, Greg Lenti,
Nishanth Lingamneni, Mark Miller, Adam Overton, Sanjay Pandit, Bill Stackpole, Max
Uritsky, Jeff Williams, Lee Yan | |