General Questions re: Malware

Hello to all,

First time posting. I am a desktop support tech for a law firm. Our security is tight enough that we don't have any malware issues in-house. But at times we get users who bring us laptops (sometimes firm issued, usually personal) with malware. Usually something that Symantec can't take care of. I've had to deal with malware issues before on forums such as this one. I know and understand it can take some time to go through the logs, create a fix, have the user run the fix, have them send another log and start the process over again.

In a law firm though, we can only spend a certain amount of time per issue and as unimaginative as it sounds, reimage is usually the course of action taken. Unfortunately, that doesn't help the users that bring in personal laptops (nor does it leave me with time for any fun).

I've run through the READ & RUN ME FIRST and Understanding, Cleaning and Preventing Spyware threads and still have some more to go through. By the way, they're excellent write-ups and put me on to a few more clues.

So, here is my question:
Other than trying what is suggested in the above threads and if that doesn't work, post your issue in a new thread, is it safe to say that there is really no quick fix to the more serious malware infections? I've tried to explain this several times to users that this isn't something an automated fix can always take care of. Sometimes you luck out, but when it's hijacked your homepage, desktop and you're getting false Google pages, it usually requires a little back and forth between the user and computer security forums. I would greatly appreciate the opinion of the helpers on this forum. That way, I can feel 100% that I am telling the users I service correct information verified from the best the security community has to offer!


On a side note - how do you guys feel about winpatrol as an effective means of keeping an eye out for registry changes?

Thanks to all.

 

chaslang - Thank you for taking the time to respond. I know you guys are busy and I appreciate you confirming what I had long suspected.

I agree about Winpatrol being a little too much for novices. I use it on my home PC, but I never install it on somebody that I assisted or when I prepare their computer with anti-malware apps.

I definitely agree with that!:-D

Again, thanks for responding. And keep up the good work!

 

Cool, thanks for the heads up.