How to Remove Personal Security | Personal Security Removal Guide
Personal Security is a rogue antivirus application that comes from the same (dreaded) family as the Cyber Security rogue. It usually installs on the users computer without the permission of the computer user. Once installed on the system it will then perform supposed scans finding lots of virus infected files and popup all sorts of falsified warnings of other types claiming that there are numerous problems with your computer. All of these are falsified and have the goal of separating you from your money. As with all of these rogues it claims that it can’t fix the problems with your computer until you purchase. Read on for how to remove personal security.
Among the many messages this rogue pops up with are the following:
Privacy violation alert!
Personal Security has detected numerous privacy violations. Some programs may send your private data to an untrusted internet host. Click here to permanently block this activity and remove the possible threat (Recommended)
System files modification alert!
Important system files of your computer may be modified by malicious program. It may cause system instability and data loss. Click here to block unauthorized modification and remove potential threats (Recommended).
Internal conflict alert!
Personal Security has detected internal software conflict. Some application endeavors to access system kernel (such behavior is typical for spyware/malware). Click here to prevent system crash and remove potential threats (Recommended)
Spyware activity alert!
Spyware.IEMonster is a popular spyware that attempts to steal passwords from Web browsers, e-mail clients and other programs, including login information from online banking sessions, billing pages, CC transactions, etc. It may also create special tracking files to log your activity and compromise your Internet privacy. It is strongly recommended to prevent this threat immediately. Click here to get protection against Spyware.IEMonster.
Privacy Violation alert!
Personal Security detected a Privacy Violation. A program is secretly sending your private data to an untrusted internet host. Click here to block this activity by removing the threat (Recommended).
System files modification alert!
Some critical system files of your computer were modified by malicious program. It may cause system instability and data loss. Click here to block unauthorized modification by removing threats (Recommended).
System files modification alert!
Personal Security detected internal software conflict. Some application tries to get access to system kernel (such behavior is typical to Spyware/Malware). It may cause crash of your computer. Click here to prevent system crash by removing threats (Recommended).
Spyware activity alert!
Spyware.IEMonster activity detected. It is spyware that attempts to steal passwords from Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Outlook and other programs, including logins and passwords from online banking sessions, eBay, PayPal. It may also create special tracking files to log your activity and compromise your Internet privacy. It’s strongly recommended to remove this threat as soon as possible. Click here to remove Spyware.IEMonster.
Additionally you may see the following message when trying to visit web pages:
This website has been reported as unsafe.
We strongly recommend to discontinue the use of this website.
This website has been report to Microsoft for containing threats that might steal personal or financial information from your computer.
First you may wish to try visiting the control panel and the add/remove programs applet. From there try to uninstall personal security the traditional way. If it works, count yourself lucky! Then go ahead and scan your computer with superantispyware or malwarebytes antimalware and run a virus scan from a reputable antivirus product (trend micro housecall/mcafee/avg/etc.)
Even if the program cleanly uninstalls (or claims to) I wouldn’t trust the system until you’ve done a few good malware scans!
Next you may wish to block the following domain to prevent future infections (or to keep other computers on your network from catching the bug….)
browsersecessentials.com
At this point you will probably want to download malwarebytes antimalware or superantispyware free edition. I have a link to malwarebytes on the virus removal toolkit page. While you’re on that page you may also wish to download process explorer as it may come in handy later on in the removal process.
If you are unable to install malwarebytes you may try the following tricks to successfully install,update and scan your computer with it. 1) rename the installer from mbam-setup.exe to something else (firefox.exe) and retry the installer, update and run a scan. 2) reboot into safe mode (with networking) and install, update and scan. 3) follow the next step of a manual removal of personal security which is to terminate the running programs associated with personal security and then retry the install, update and scan.
The following processes should be killed off to continue in your removal of personal security. If you are unable to launch the task manager to kill them off (ctrl-alt-del and then choose task manager – or right click on the task bar and choose task manager) you may try the following tricks. 1) copy and paste the task manager program (taskmgr.exe) to your desktop. Once there, rename it to something else (iexplore.exe) and retry launching this newly renamed file. 2) reboot into safe mode and see if the processes listed below are running…. 3) use process explorer to kill off the following processes:
psecurity.exe
After this you can either use malwarebytes or superantispyware to clean up or proceed with another manual removal of personal security step. The following files and folders should be deleted:
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\PSecurity
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\PSecurity\Computer Scan.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\PSecurity\Help.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\PSecurity\Personal Security.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\PSecurity\Registration.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\PSecurity\Security Center.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\PSecurity\Settings.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\PSecurity\Update.lnk
%docs%\%user%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\PSecurity.lnk
%docs%\%user%\Desktop\Personal Security.lnk
%progfiles%\\PSecurity
%progfiles%\\PSecurity\psecurity.exe
%progfiles%\\Common Files\PSecurityUninstall
%progfiles%\Common Files\PSecurityUninstall\Uninstall.lnk
%win%\system32\win32extension.dll
After this you have completed most of the steps for a manual removal of personal security. Even with a perfect manual removal you will likely still have leftovers from the rogue on your system. For this reason go back and make use of a utility such as malwarebytes antimalware or superantispyware to scan your computer and clean up any leftovers. Then follow up with a trusted antivirus (trendmicro/avg/norton/etc.)