How to get rid of Skype malware

Have you seen this charming chap’s face on your screen lately?

Congratulations, you have malware.

This has been a source of great frustration for us the last couple of days. If one of your Skype contacts sends you this message: “Your skype does not support extended icons. Please download the extension here: http://skypemoticonsbox.com/?skype=1”, they’re most probably not aware that they sent it, nor of the fact that they might have malware. The sender can’t see the message that was sent on their behalf so they don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. Downloading the emoticon extension will make you the next host and continue the cycle by infecting your contacts and so on.

Long story short: do not open the link and download the emoticon extension package. 

This malware sneaks in under the extension “SE.exe” and the only way to get rid of it is to remove the extension. 

Here’s how:

• In Skype, open Tools -> Options -> Advanced settings. At the bottom of this screen you should see a menu item saying “Manage other programs’ access to Skype”. Click on this menu.

• You should see the SE.exe application as an allowed program. Hover with your mouse over the SE.exe item. Note location of this application. Remove this application from the list of allowed programs (press the Remove button).

• Lastly, on your PC, delete the whole folder where the SE.exe file is located.

If you have any problems or get stuck with the cyber crawlies getting into your Skype, they have a brilliant community forum where you can ask advice:

http://community.skype.com/t5/Security-Privacy-Trust-and/Skype-Emoticons-Is-this-real-or-virus/m-p/1975339/highlight/true#M22780

Written by: Christine Kleyn
Copywriter at The Computer Guyz Cape Town and Centurion