Rootkits are the crème de la crème of malware, operating in a manner not unlike elite Special Forces units: sneak in, establish communications with headquarters, recon defenses, and tip the odds in favor of the soon-to-arrive main-attack force.
Rootkits are similar to Special Forces in another way, if found and attempts are made to remove them, all hell breaks loose. Every rootkit remover worth its salt warns that removing the rootkit could cause problems for the operating system, to the point of where it may not boot.
That’s because the rootkit buries itself deep in the operating system, replacing critical files with those under the rootkit’s control. And when the replaced files associated with the rootkit are removed, the operating system could be rendered inoperable.
Enter Malwarebytes
It’s a pretty safe bet IT professionals, who deal with malware including rootkits, have a copy of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (
MBAM) at their disposal. I know several who say they owe their sanity and good customer rapport to MBAM. Another safe bet: the people at Malwarebytes are doing something right, particularly when bad guys add code to their malware installers to
prevent MBAM from installing, or if already installed, from running. (More on this later.)
