Warning: Microsoft Privacy Center is a Virus

The other day my mom called me at work for some computer help. I work at a software company as a marketing and PR manager. This also means that I am my parents’ help desk by association. I know just enough about technology to be dangerous.

So mom calls and says that MS privacy center is running on her computer and the voice of a British woman is talking in the background. So while she was on the phone, I searched MS Privacy Center and discovered that it was a rogue virus, malware to be exact. And it’s not pretty.

It took over her computer by autorunning and scanning her computer and she could not do anything else. It also prompts for you to buy the software and enter credit or debit card payment. DO NOT DO THIS.

She hit control-alt-delete and was able to go to the task manager. From there, we were able to disable the .exe file under the processes tab and then I sent her an email to download the malware remover software. This took about a half day but was worth helping my mom out. Here are instructions if this happens to you.

If you see this or if it happens on your system, follow these steps:

Disable the exe file in the Processes tab of Task Manager (filename: pc.exe)

Download this link and run the malware remover software: Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Download Link

Here is another explanation to remove the virus.

Be careful out there!