Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch
la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.
A TDSS Rootkit is designed to work together with malware on your computer. Once this rootkit manages to get inside the system, it downloads and executes other threats, interrupts its victims with annoying ads and disables them from using security and other programs. It is known under several names and is one of the most advanced and aggressive rootkits today. The reason rootkits are so dangerous is because malicious programs can use them to hide any file, process, folder, or registry keys from detection by an anti-malware program. This makes it almost impossible for a security scanner to repair the damage once a system has been infected. Sophisticated rootkits even install invisible services and drivers that can transmit personal data to hackers or hijack the computer for botnet attacks, phishing and spam distribution purposes.
The Kaspersky TDSSKiller is a utility that does one thing: detect and remove known rootkits. The download is a zipped folder with two files. The first is the End User License Agreement which consists of six short paragraphs. The other file is an .exe that scans your computer. It is a stand alone utility and does not install anything in your registry. When you run the program, it first checks for updates. The scan takes about ten seconds on my computers. After scanning, you might have to reboot your computer.
To download the utility, click here. For more information and complete instructions, check this Kaspersky FAQ.
If you like this program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.