Over the weekend, I noticed that some pages being shared on the social network StumbleUpon have malicious code. The sites distribute a Trojan which installs a rogue anti-virus program without the user’s knowledge or consent. Once installed, the user will be alerted with false threats on the computer. In order to remove these false threats, the user will have to pay for a full license of the software. The rogue antivirus program is called MS Tool Removal which is in the same family as Security Tool Virus and System Tool.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to detect if a page is harmful from the StumbleUpon tool bar until you arrive at the site. If you have the WOT (Web of Trust) Firefox or IE add-on installed (Recommended before sharing pages), you will get a prompt that the site is rated as dangerous. This is not 100% full proof as some sites may have never been rated, therefore a user is exposed to the Trojan via Drive-by.

What’s a Drive-by? It is when a download of spyware, viruses or malware are installed on a person’s computer without a person’s knowledge.

How to remove MS Removal Tool

To remove MS Removal Tool, follow the instructions below which are the same steps in removing both Security Tool and System Tool.

1. Download MalwareBytes to your desktop and rename it to Explorer.exe as MS Removal Tool blocks the program named MalwareBytes. If you can’t download files, try using another machine that’s not infected and saving the files to a flash drive or other storage device.
2. Reboot your PC and hit F8 to run your computer in Safe Mode with Networking.
3. Run RKILL to stop all background processes related to MS Removal Tool.
4. Launch MalwareBytes and run a (Full Scan) to remove infections.
5. Delete the file called “Hosts” in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\HOSTS and add the default Hosts file (below) for your operating system in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\

a.      Windows XP HOSTS File Download Link
b.      Windows 7 HOSTS File Download Link

1. Reboot your computer.

Your computer should be clean and working normal again.

For more detailed instructions, visit http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-ms-removal-tool

Related Articles
Rogueware and Fake Antivirus will Dominate in 2011
How to Remove SystemTool 2011
How to Remove Security Tool Virus

If you are not a StumbleUpon user, you should consider signing up. You never know what web site you may stumble upon to see some of the most amazing things that you can find on the internet.

Here are some cool stumbles I came across the last few days

Logo Design Gone Wrong: 10 Offbeat Examples – Logo designs that should of put the marketing team in hot water. I found these to be hilarious and I am sure you will to.

Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks – Using the Google search operator commands in the search box can lead to some useful and not so useful information.

Seven super scary landing strips – If you have a fear for flying, these landing strips may have you white knuckled in your seat.

11,760 Years to Restore a Mac Hard Drive – I know, I didn’t stumble this, but I still think it’s funny to poke at Apple once in a while.

Oldest Duck Dies – I didn’t know we were keeping records on the oldest duck, but this guy did live for 22 years.

How to Build a Luxury Bomb Shelter – For the rich who need to be pampered during a crisis or invasion, here’s what you can do to keep yourself in luxury while hidden away from bombs.

30 Photos of Cute Baby Animals That Can Change Your Mood – I am sure if you’re in a bad mood, these cuddly animals can change the way you feel.

9 Ways iPhone Apps Can Save You Money – If I can save a few pennies using any of these iPhone apps, I am all for it and most are free.

Unusual Computer Mice You Probably Haven’t Seen Before – I am sure you never seen these before and once you do, you will be amazed.

Top 10: Weird Exam Answers – Who makes up this stuff?

30 Hilarious and Entertaining Caricatures of Famous Celebrities – These exaggerated or distorted portrait are unbelievable. I can only wish I could get beyond the stick figures.

10 Strange Company Names – What were they smoking that made them come up with these strange names?

Top 10 How Dirty is Your Mind? – These weren’t done on purpose; they just naturally ended up this way.

What is your Date really thinking? – This is very interesting and surprising, but could prove to be a great guide for those who are actively dating.

That’s the short list and I am sure I could have found more gems this week. You should consider signing up at StumbleUpon.com and if you do, follow me (SocialBeaver).

Happy Stumbling!

StumbleUpon reaches 10 million users as of May 17, 2010. This is double the amount of users than in April 2008. The 10 millionth user was Nellzom who is from Colombia.

It’s a great milestone, but how many users are still active? StumbleUpon was a giant back in 2004 in the social network space and now with Facebook and Twitter as the King and Queen, it seems that StumbleUpon has lost its popularity.

StumbleUpon is still going strong even though it has some heavy competition. According to StatCounter, a popular analytics website, StumbleUpon still out paces Twitter, Reddit and Digg when it comes to driving traffic to websites.

StumbleUpon by the Numbers – In a recent blog post at StumbleUpon, the company also shared some interesting stats:

- 118% growth rate in active users since 2009
- 5.4 billion recommendations since April 2009
- In March 2010 alone, half a billion recommendations
- StumbleUpon users stumble links 25 times a day on average
- Users of the Mozilla add-on stumble something 400 times a month on average
- Over 100,000 Facebook fans

You can now add 10 million users to the list. Congrats StumbleUpon!

What’s next for SU?

It has been a busy year, but one that was exciting and filled with a lot of buzz. TechJaws has published over 600 articles in 2009, covering everything from Antivirus to SEO and so much more. We look forward to writing and sharing new blogs in 2010.

Our top ten blogs by referral and search traffic and comments

How to Remove Security Tool Virus – 68,536 unique visitors from Google search
Security Tool Virus is a rogue anti-spyware program that’s distributed through websites that simulate virus scans. The user is than prompted to download the software to clean the infected PC. The tool provides false alerts [...] Full Story

StumbleUpon WTF! – I am absolutely beside myself on how bad the moderation has become on StumbleUpon. I see many messages coming through my toolbar that look like (Please S.t.um.b.le if you like). What’s with the periods between words? The [...] Full Story

A List of Dofollow Blogs to Improve Your Pagerank – I know many of us have read many SEO articles that explain that commenting on Dofollow blogs, with good Pagerank, will improve your Pagerank over time. The toughest challenge is finding blogs that have a [...] Full Story

Dell’s New Studio Hybrid Good or Bad? – This is Dell’s most stylish, modern design desktop PC yet. It’s designed to fit into any environment while protecting the environment. Personalize with 6 interchangeable color sleeves or bamboo, Ultra-compact design with Intel mobile technology performance Features [...] Full Story

Google Pagerank Update Coming Soon – This reminds me of the lyrics from the ketchup commercial song by Carly Simon:
Anticipation, anticipation
Is making me late
Is keeping me waiting
Google Pagerank toolbar updates approximately every 3 months, but there’s no way in telling when, [...] Full Story

StumbleUpon Friends Appreciation Giveaway – It has been a while since we had a giveaway, but this one is for our StumbleUpon friends who liked many of the articles published on TechJaws. This giveaway is simple, and anyone can win some [...] Full Story

PHP Script Injection Exploit in WordPress 2.7.1 – I experienced my first site hack this weekend thanks to a warning message from Kaspersky Internet Security. When I logged into the admin panel of WordPress, it detected the gumblar.cn/rss/?* in my Firefox browser. After [...] Full Story

StumbleUpon is Stumbling Downward – The popular social network StumbleUpon has lost a lot of steam when it comes to referral traffic. Since January 2009, Stumble Referral traffic is down by more than 66% according to Google Analytics. Back in [...] Full Story

Unblock Blocked Calls for Free – Sick of getting calls with blocked numbers on your cell? Here is your solution Trapcall. Trapcall will unblock and reveal the actual caller ID when a call has been blocked. No software or download needed! [...] Full Story

McAfee Doesn’t Subscribe to Their Own Medicine – What if you went to a Ford dealer and walked over to the employee parking lot and noticed that not one employee drives a Ford. You would begin to lose confidence in their brand. Guess [...] Full Story

I would also like to mention the hottest blog sites of 2009 in no particular order.

• Kikolani – This blog has been on fire and for good reason, the content is A+.
• Advanced Life Skills – If you want to improve your health and well being, this is a must read blog.
• Connect with your Teens – If you are a parent with teens, this site is full of great articles.
• Extreme John – This blogger tells it like it is. The blog features business news, rants, rantings and more.
• The Range Blog – It’s all about SEO and  Marketing from the Pros!
• HTS Tech Tips -  This blog is all about Computer Tips, Technology News & Computer Support.
• Jay Zuck’s Sketch of the Day – The sketches featured here are off the hook.
• PetLvr – A blog for pet lovers. Hart provides valuable information on pet care an so much more.
• Bunny Got Blog – A blog for women in business and so much more.
• Internet Secutity Blog – MyWot – This blog provides insight into Internet security and online safety provided by the organizers of WOT.

The best of 2009 and more to come in 2010!

It has been a while since we had a giveaway, but this one is for our StumbleUpon friends who liked many of the articles published on TechJaws.

This giveaway is simple, and anyone can win some cool prizes. We are giving away not one, but three prizes!

Prizes – We will randomly choose 3 winners. The first winner will have a choice on what prize they would like. We will use random.org to select the winners.

1st Winner – Get Weighed and Measured or $25 Cash via PayPal

Listen, we aren’t going to love you up, verbally speaking. Sharks don’t give out love, even for the right amount of bait. What we will do is give you a straight-up honest review of your site, here on the main homepage for everyone to see, with a link back to your blog or web site. The review will consist of 200+ words and you will be rated on the following;

Rating (1-5) 5 being the best
Design
Content
Activity
Overall

2nd Winner – Get Weighed and Measured or $25 Cash via PayPal
This depends on what prize the first winner selects.

3rd Winner – $15 iTunes Gift Card

How to enter

It’s simple and it takes just a few minutes to do.

First, leave a comment and your StumbleUpon name and you’re entered in the “StumbleUpon Friends Appreciation Giveaway.”

Earn more entries by performing the following;

• If you like this post, Stumble it and earn 1 extra entry.
• Stumble and review this post and earn 2 extra entries.
• Share this post with your friends and earn 2 more entries.

By performing all, you can earn up to 5 entries to win one of three prizes.

All entries must be completed by Sunday November 8th, 12:00 PM CST. The winners will be included at the bottom of this post on Monday November 10th at 12:00 PM CST.

You must be a friend on StumbleUpon to enter. Not a friend? Just subscribe to my favorites (socialbeaver).

Again, thank you all for all your help. It’s very much appreciated!!!

The Winners

1st Place
Mike McEvoy – SU Name (mikehts)
Web: http://www.htstechtips.com/

2nd Place
HART (aka PetLvr)
Web: http://petlvr.com/blog/

3rd Place
Susie – SU Name (sdk1988)
Web: http://soul-to-soul.com

What Social Network are you an active member of? There are so many social networks that it’s almost impossible to be a member of each one. If you’re a blogger, social networks are a proven method to drive interest to your blog or website.

Social Network Humor

I Ask my wife if there’s anything to eat, and she tells me there’s plenty of leftover food. I find myself doing a Backflip over what to eat. I have so many Fave foods to choose from, but I am so undecided on what to eat. I grow hungry and begin to Feed Me Links and Squidoo on the side. It was so Del.icio.us I had to Mixx up another batch. I than ask my wife to share Co.mments on what to make for dinner. I Digg through the refrigerator to see if there’s anything good. I than StumbleUpon some leftover pasta my wife made. I start to eat it and enjoy it so much I gave my wife a big Hugg. I am still not satisfied yet, so I begin to look through the Yellow Pages and order Mister Wong Chinese. The door bell rings 30 minutes later and it’s the delivery guy, Yahoo! I am finally satisfied and I begin to drink a few cocktails until I have a nice Buzz.

I tested many social networks to see how effective they were in driving referral traffic to my blog. It’s important not to over extend yourself by participating in too many social networks. Keep it simple by selecting no more than 4, so you can put more time and focus in each network, thus getting better results.

My Social Network IDs

Please feel free to add me.

StumbleUpon – socialbeaver
Twitter – TechJaws
Reddit – FrankJov

We baited the waters and caught a boat load of Sharks for this weeks Feeding Frenzy. Do you have something worthy for our Sharks to feed on?

Fish on!

The Bait Bucket – Writing, Self Improvement and Health

Fetching Friday – Resources Mashup, Follow Friday, & DoFollow Resources – A great inventory of blogs by Kristi. It gets better every week!

Deep Insight on Life From My Grandpa – I truly enjoyed reading this article authored by Jonathan. It reminds me a lot about the relationship I had with my Grandpa.

How Seriously Do You Take Blog Comments? – Insightful and informative article by Ching.

Complaining – Stop complaining, life is too short.

Transform Negativity – How to keep a positive outlook. Welcome to the blogosphere Neva Flores!

Tasty Technology Bytes – Tech/Sci News, SEO, Security

Want a link on a throw-away domain? – Here are seven reasons why this is not a “Wow! A PR3 home-page link!”

Writing for Search Engines and People – Great tips on writing content.

9 Tips for attracting Twitter followers – We all want followers and this post could get you more.

Integrate wordpress Blog In Joomla Website – An informative article how to article for anyone that uses Joomla!

Thesis Theme discount – some things to watch out for! – Things to look out for before you send a refund to someone who tells you they purchased Thesis from your link.

Who Invented Television – The first idea foe this great invention was from a 14 year old!

When Spell-Checker Programs Go Rogue – The online spell checker program at Triond can be more damaging than helpful. Find out why.

How to Free Your StumbleUpon Inbox From “SPAM” Shared Messages – We all get many spam messages and here’s a tip on how to be spam free.

We Need a Bigger Boat – Marketing, Business and Making Money

Working From Home: Coffee – Tea – Or Me – A gathering of random thoughts about business, men, and women today.

A Make Money Business Opportunity – It’s important to be aware of any business opportunity, especially now.

Hook, Line and Sinker – Odd stuff, Humor and Ramblings

A real Bronx tale a time for WAR – A bloggers story growing up. This article may not be suitable for all audiences. I dare you to read it.

If Websites Were Like People – This is so hilarious and it fits well.

Trophy Catches – Arts and Entertainment

Stevie Ray Vaughan – 19 Years & Still Missed – Susie is a huge fan of Stevie and I am sure that on this anniversary of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s death was hard to deal with. We still have his music, which will never die!

Treehouse – I can relate to this blog because when I was a kid we would always build forts.

Christina Aguilera At The Video Music Awards – Photos and videos that are sure to enlighten fans.

Autumn Colors In Canton, Ohio – Absolutely stunning pictures of autumn.

Your Bark is Bigger than Your Byte – Animals and Pets

Can You Determine Your Pet’s Worth? – Is it actually possibly to calculate your pet’s worth into dollars and cents?

Library Cats – Who said that only humans love to read?

Special Mention

This weeks article called StumbleUpon WTF! caused its own feeding frenzy. This article had more than 80 comments, but it wasn’t the amount of comments that stood out, it was the comments from Serina that put things in perspective. You can visit Serina’s StumbleUpon blog at http://serinadruid.stumbleupon.com/. Thank you Serina!

Week in review at TechJaws

How to Choose the Right Color Scheme for Your Website
How to Detect and Remove Malware and Rogue Software
StumbleUpon WTF!
Internet Addiction Center Are You Kidding?
How to Prevent Comment Spam

Want to be featured your blog article to be featured in the Feeding Frenzy?

We all love link juice and a little recognition. The articles that we feature in the Feeding Frenzy are from people who leave comments on the articles we have published this past week.

I am absolutely beside myself on how bad the moderation has become on StumbleUpon. I see many messages coming through my toolbar that look like (Please S.t.um.b.le if you like). What’s with the periods between words?

The reason for the periods between words is to mask the actual message. It has been known that StumbleUpon is automatically flagging messages through the toolbar from members asking or exchanging Stumbles. Here’s the problem I have with this rule. If people like what you stumble and add you as a friend, than why is it against the rules to share content that people are interested in?

I think this falls under a very gray area called self promoting. If I own a blog and I am sharing what people are interesting in, how is this self promoting? I am not sharing a post that’s selling a service or product. I feel that this needs clarity, but it has been like this since day one. If you have a dot com you are considered a commercial site.

If you are sending a page through the toolbar and you’re simply saying – (I hope you like) or (I sent you this page that you may find interesting), how is that self promoting? You are not directly asking for a thumbs up or review.

The Bigger Problem

There’s a group on StumbleUpon that acts like a vigilante and is doing more harm than good. This group has formed a coalition that has influenced the StumbleUpon staff to place member accounts under review. If your account ever gets placed under review, you can kiss it goodbye. I know many members that were put under review for no apparent reason. These members shared their blog posts with friends, which is not spamming. If a member is adding you as a friend, than it’s the same as opting-in. They didn’t discover their own articles, so don’t even go there.

The so-called vigilante group goes by the name SP@M FREE. I’m disappointed that StumbleUpon permits such cowardly behavior from a group that acts on opinion and not facts from research and proper moderation tactics. What do you expect for free?

StumbleUpon Community Rules

1. No posting of illegal, threatening, libelous, or obscene content.
2. No posting of another person’s or members personal data, such as contact details.
3. No publication of or forwarding of private messages (PM’s) to 3rd parties without permission.
4. If you are in dispute with another member, please keep the matter private and contact StumbleUpon Support immediately.
5. Reviews or tags should not be used to level personal attacks on other members, site owners or contributors to the sites reviewed.
6. Do not impersonate other members.
7. Multiple accounts per user may not be created without permission from StumbleUpon.
8. No mass unsolicited messaging or commercial spamming permitted.
9. The Group Share tool may not be used to request ratings and reviews.
10. Exchanges of ratings and/or reviews are not permitted.
11. Requesting ratings and reviews from other members is not permitted.
12. Payment or receipt of compensation in exchange for ratings or reviews is not permitted.
13. You cannot use 3rd party clients or scripts to access StumbleUpon.

We need StumbleUpon to improve and clarify the rules for sharing.

If you recently had been put under review, you can contact Walter, StumbleUpon Community Manager. Good luck in getting a response.

eBay was attempting to sell off its stake in StumbleUpon, the website recommendation service it bought for $75 million in 2007. That didn’t happen. Instead, the company has been bought back by its investors and original founders. It emerges once again as an independent startup.

The new company is led by co-founder Garrett Camp, who now steps into the CEO role.

Yes, StumbleUpon is once again a startup. “The company is amply funded. And everyone is glad that the company is away from eBay,” a source tells us. It had been looking for at least $75 million we hear but wasn’t able to find a taker for that amount. Our understanding is that Sequoia place a competing bid, but Camp and investor Ram Shriram went with Accel and August Capital.

Below find the press release:

StumbleUpon Goes Independent; Backed by Founders and New Investors

April 13, 2009 – StumbleUpon, the best way to discover new content on the Internet, today announced that after nearly 2 years as a subsidiary of eBay Inc., it has returned to the ranks of an investor-backed startup. StumbleUpon is now backed by the original company founders, Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith, as well as a number of well-known investors including Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures, Accel Partners, and August Capital. Camp takes on the role of CEO of StumbleUpon. “We are grateful to eBay for its guidance.  However, we realized there were few long-term synergies between the two businesses. It is best for us to part ways and focus on our respective strengths,” said Camp. “This change makes it possible for StumbleUpon to continue to innovate and focus on becoming the Web’s largest recommendation service.”

“StumbleUpon helps users discover the best of the web – it’s a way to find interesting content you wouldn’t think to search for,” said Shriram. “StumbleUpon’s personalized recommendation engine brings serendipity back to websurfing, and lets users sift through socially-endorsed content with a single click.”

StumbleUpon will remain focused on helping people discover interesting content by increasing the accessibility of the StumbleUpon service and the quality of recommendations. In addition, StumbleUpon has plans for several new products and features to be released in the upcoming months.

About StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon discovers Web sites based on your interests, learns what you like, and brings you more. With more than 7.4 million users and 425 million recommendations per month, StumbleUpon is the leading way to discover great content on the Internet. More than 20,000 advertisers are using StumbleUpon to promote products and services.  Founded in 2001, StumbleUpon is based in San Francisco and backed by the same investors as Google and Facebook.  For more information, visit www.StumbleUpon.com.

This is a must have addon for anyone wanting to know the number of Diggs, Reddit Votes, Stumble Thumbs and or Reviews, Del.icio.us tags, Tweets, Sphinns, Mixx, and Tip’d votes so you can quickly see how popular certain content is. It also scans said social sites to show you what content hasn’t been submitted to other social news sites so you can be the first to add it.

If you own a blog and want to see how many votes or thumbs up your page received, than this addon is for you!

After it is installed close all Firefox browsers, then open a brand new browser window and you should see the this

You can configure the social networks that you’re most interesting in knowing. It’s obvious that you will only select the ones (in most cases) that you participate in.

Automatic is a setting that will automatically check every url you go to without you having to hit the manual button. It is recommended that you use the manual button when browsing individual pages. You should set it to automatic when browsing social sites, as in Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Del.icio.us.

Download this great add on by visiting https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7888.