3 ms·

I'd say the nuclear/final option would be getting a brand new system. Does malware which clings to the BIOS or specific hardware still exist today?

• etherealG 15y ago
  I think the point is that malware has the ability to put itself into your system in any way once it has access. that might include ways in which your removal software won't be aware of. the only "safe" option is to revert to a state previous to the malware being present. if no state like that is saved, then a reinstall from scratch.
  • Zirro 15y ago
    That's true, but what prevents the states from earlier times from having been compromised as well? (There appears to have been some confusion on my part here. When reinstalling the operating system was mentioned, I thought only of doing it from scratch. If there is a way to reinstall the system but keeping your files, it should clearly not be used in this case.)
    • viraptor 15y ago
      Encrypted backups kept off the main machine help with that. Even if they're on the machine, keeping them encrypted and with hash stored somewhere, you can tell which ones were tampered with (not that you can change an encrypted image without corrupting it of course).