Why no 'PUP.Optional...'?

Why is it that N360 does not find and quarantine PUP.Optional.SearchProtect.A and I have to constantly rely on manually running Malwarebytes to rid my wife's machine of the malware that she's picking up at a yet to be determined website?

 

Mark

PUPs like this are typically bundled with other software or software updates, and install because the option to include them with the main download is pre-selected.  If your wife is continually acquiring this optional program, I would suggest carefully reading every download and installation screen presented whenever you download or update a program - somewhere there is probably a box that needs to be unchecked to opt out of SearchProtect each time.

To pick up unwanted adware and PUPs that often, it might be a good idea to have your wife's machine checked to ensure there isn't something on board that is downloading its own friends.  Any one of these free forum can over-see the running of provided tools to ensure the machine is clean.

 


http://community.norton.com/t5/Tech-Outpost/Malware-Removal-Forum-Recommendations/td-p/1059145

Why is it that N360 does not find and quarantine PUP.Optional.SearchProtect.A and I have to constantly rely on manually running Malwarebytes to rid my wife's machine of the malware that she's picking up at a yet to be determined website?

 

Mark

Thanks for the referral list and heads up on the source and differentiation between the PUP variety and bad stuff.

 

Mark

Hi, Mark,

 

In this particular case, I'd especially encourage you to follow through with delphinium's suggestion. Malwarebytes is what I generally recommend for dealing with PUPs; it's very good at getting rid of them. But PUPs that keep coming back after Malwarebytes says your system has been cleaned are more often than not a symptom of a deeper infection, by something new and sophisticated enough that it requires expert human intervention to pull it out by the roots.

 

If you do this, it'll be important that you not post back here or talk with anyone but your assigned "removalist" about this problem until they tell you you're done. Getting directions or "ideas" from multiple sources during malware removal can leave you worse off than the bug, and many removalists will close your case if they discover you have been (to avoid the risk of bricking your system because of somebody else's advice they didn't know you had followed).

 

Good luck--and please do let us know, afterward, what it turned out to be.

 

V/R,

--DistEd2

I ran MWB total scan 2 successive days and her machine comes up clean.

 

I ran the Norton Eraser just to be sure and it too came up clean.

 

Even though she hardly ever downloads or installs absent me around, I've explained to my wife about the check off boxes found with installers.

 

I'll continue to periodically run MWB periodically.

 

I continue to think that the random, periodic problem she has either with a stalled shutdown or stuck boot is likely an OS quirk that may just work itself out over time.

 

Mark