How to Remove the Ezanga Computer Virus
Hop Off and Run
It wasn't a porn site. I never pick up bugs there, hi.
I was on www.techsupportforum.com, looking for help on opening ISO files.
Up it popped. I thought it was more advertising. A little green frog. How cute. Like the lizard that car insurance company uses.
Then pop-up ads began to appear about once a minute, on IE8 that I wasn't using.
Google searches, that I now needed to find out how to get rid of the thing, became disabled. In place of search results was the Google "oops" page.
An AdAware scan got me Google back, but didn't eliminate the popups.
Instead of searching for the cure, I checked out the company's web site.
Who is eZanga? reads the headline on its About Us page.
No; actually it should be "What" is eZanga. It's a company, not a person, and use of the personal pronoun "who" is thus incorrect. But the language is up for grabs these days, and the generation that invented its own part of speech -- the word "like" used to connect unrelated thoughts -- also decided it could rewrite the rules of grammar and capitalize the second letters of proper nouns.
"eZanga.com was founded in 2003," the blurb continues, "and is currently led by search engine veterans Richard Kahn and Angel Pabon as an effort to help people find information on the web faster and easier."
No; actually, it should say "eZanga.com, etc etc ... as an effort to take over people's computers with the toolbar they thought would make searching faster and easier, and then stuff down their throats so many popups that they can't get anything done."
On the first page of Google search results for "Ezanga," all but two told the viewer how to get rid of either the ads or the toolbar. (Faster and easier, was it?)
The exceptions, sponsored matches for Free Downloads Center, contained links where the unsuspecting could download the toolbar. Bless them, and their effort to provide us with what we need to enhance our Internet experience. Don't download it.
Several forum posters suggested using the malware remover HijackThis. It didn't work.
They work hard at eZanga, though. Reads the company's Values page:
"eZanga is as dedicated to our (its?) team as we are to our advertisers and members, adding to the enrichment of our employees' lives and careers. As a result, our employees naturally put forth an exceeding effort which is driven by the gratification and success received within their positions."
No slackers there; no spending the work day on Facebook and YouTube, not them! Firewalls? They don't need no stinking firewalls! Always more ad space to sell, and more code to write, to fool the latest popup blockers and malware removers.
They also play hard. If the work space gets too quiet, everyone starts throwing foam frogs at each other.
And they eat hard.
"Most new employees tend to put on a few extra pounds ... within the first few months. eZanga's kitchen is always fully stocked with everything from cereal and milk, fruit, candy, soup, oatmeal, chips, and so much more! There is something about free food that lifts the spirits of people and brings us together to work hard for you."
Elvis would love it there. Eat all day, and go home spiritually lifted knowing that your hard work forced several thousand people worldwide to unnecessarily reload their operating systems so they could get rid of the crap you helped create.
The free version of Malwarebytes Antimalware was the only program that found this nasty. Run it, remove everything it finds. A full scan takes less than thirty minutes for one 10G drive. It came through again. No more Ezanga. I can write again.
But what a cool place to work. Cupboards stuffed with food, frog fights ... reminds me of how dot.coms were before the bubble burst. I wonder if they're hiring.
Published by Tom Sanders
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- The Ezanga virus can be picked up even on legitimate Web sites and forums.
- It delivers so many popups that Web surfing becomes impossible.
- You don't have to re-load your OS. One malware program gets rid of it.
1 Comments
Post a CommentTom,
We understand your frustrations stemming from the virus you received on www.techsupportforum.com. We take great pride in our publisher network; however, just like any other network it is nearly impossible to keep it completely clean of malicious intent. If you have any other details regarding this incident, please email us directly at: Webmaster@ezanga.com so we can do our best to remove this publisher.