Warning on stealthy Windows virus - "Mebroot"

BBC on Friday reported that a stealthy Windows virus "Mebroot" that steals login details for online bank accounts have been detected by Security firms.

Many systems are getting infected through vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Browsers while visiting booby-trapped websites.

Experts says that the virus buries itself deep inside Windows Operating system to avoid detection.
It is a type of root-kit and it tries to overwrite Master Boot Record (MBR).
Once installed the virus usually downloads other malicious programs, such as keyloggers, to do the work of stealing confidential information. Read more.

How to remove "Mebroot" ?

Microsoft has acknowledged it made a mistake over a security advisory it released concerning Office 2003.

The advisory, posted in December, told users that dozens of file formats had been blocked in the latest service pack for Office 2003--Service Pack 3 (SP3)--because they were insecure.

It provided a workaround for users who wanted to unblock the formats, but made the process complicated, requiring changes to the registry which could have made users' PCs inoperable if they were applied incorrectly.

On Friday, Microsoft admitted that the information it had provided was wrong, and that it had underestimated how many users had been affected. It now says that, instead of the file formats themselves being insecure, it is the parsing code that Office 2003 uses to open and save the file types that is less secure. Read more.