After a hacker attack – How to check if your computer is infected

The computer manufacturer Asus has been hacked. Unknown attackers played a bad update on the computer. To check if you are affected.

Update of March 27

Since then, Asus has confirmed the claims and provided a diagnostic tool allowing users to check if their computer has been infected. This reports "Caschys Blog". Click heredownload the software.

According to Asus, the foreigners wanted to attack a "very small and specific group of users". "Caschy's blog" reports that computers from some international organizations are affected. Data from private users, attackers should not have them apart. The affected customers should also have been contacted by Asus.

Users must also update Live Update Tool to the latest version (version 3.6.8.) To protect against malware. If the diagnosis shows that the own computer is affected, Asus advises the interested party to immediately make a backup of all data. Then you need to reset Windows to the factory settings. This completely removes the malware from the computer. For Windows 10, the reset works under Settings / Update and Security / Recovery.

All owners of an Asus laptop that has Live Update installed must install the updater to the latest version 3.6.8, which fixes the vulnerability, depending on the manufacturer. If you have any other questions, customers can contact the Asus support service by calling 02102/57 89 557 (Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm), by online form or by e-mail. by chat.

Original message

The Taiwanese computer manufacturer Asus has been the victim of a huge cyberattack. According to winfuture.de, about 500,000 users are concerned. According to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", the attackers have entered the update server of the company. Computers treated it as an ordinary Asus update: download a malware.

The attack took place between June and November 2018, according to security researchers at Kaspersky Lab. It was only in January 2019 that Asus was informed of the incident. According to "SZ", 57,000 customers of Kaspersky and 13,000 of Symantec were affected. According to Kaspersky, more than one million users are concerned.

Attack unconfirmed by Asus

According to winfuture.de, the update tool is preinstalled on most Asus computers. Updates would be automatically installed as they become available. In case of hacker attack, the infected update packages were downloaded without warning the user. The hackers apparently succeeded because they were using a valid Asus security certificate.

According to the "SZ", although a number of computers were attacked, hackers only targeted a fraction of the users whose MAC address was stored in malicious code. Once a malicious program has arrived on one of the listed computers, the malicious update has downloaded more malware. Kaspersky has released a tool that allows users to check if their computer is also affected.

According to winfuture.de, Asus has not yet confirmed the attack. Customers have not yet been informed. Stolen security certificates are therefore still in circulation. Who is behind the big hacker attack is not clear either.