CCleaner Hacked! Here's the bad news:

CCleaner hacked - hearing another round of Malware news, researchers with Cisco Talos have discovered a popular program infected with malicious software. The program ‘CCleaner’ was infected with malware that collected and encrypted some information about the computer it was running on.  This information was then sent to an unknown server to store information.

Even when you are downloading software from a legitimate company you just can’t be 100% sure of what you’re downloading. This is why having security features, such as antivirus, is so important.

CCleaner averages millions of downloads per month, and CCleaner hacked could be extremely dangerous depending on what the hackers will do with the information they’ve collected.

The Good News

Although this "CCleaner hacked" is potentially a huge security breach there is good news.  The malicious code was only a part of the 32-bit download and was only being distributed for about a month.  The version that was affected was available from August 15, 2017, through September 12, 2017.  Most systems are 64-bit operating systems these days.

Step on How to Check your Operating System

1.)  Navigate to the control panel.

2.) Once you’re at the control panel you’ll need to look for the System and Security section.

3.) From there click on the “System” section.

4.) Look for the “System Type:” and your version of the operating system should be displayed.

 

The other good news is that it only affected CCleaner version 5.33.

To see what version of CCleaner you’re running simply open the program and look in the top left corner.

Although it doesn’t appear this "CCleaner hacked" is a major threat, it is a very stark reminder of the dangers of internet browsing these days.  Even when you’re downloading legitimate software from a legitimate company, you can still be downloading malware. 

Remember, there isn’t much an antivirus program can do if you download and run the virus.

If you think your machine might be infected feel free to give us a call and we'll get it cleared up for you!