No, the global A.I. network of man killing machines from the Terminator movie is not on your computer, it’s just a browser redirection rootkit.

Figure 1 – The Skynet Rootkit

I went over Tom’s house last night on the report that he couldn’t run a quick scan with SuperAntiSpyware (his box blue screened with a bad pool error). When I got there he said he couldn’t load some websites when he searched for them on Google because of a “syntax error”. That “syntax error” turned out to be a malvertised search engine that wasn’t working. Tom’s queries were being redirected. I thought it was a little unusual because Tom had a fully updated and enabled copy of Avira AntiVir 9 free along with Malwarebytes and Sas (free versions). It turns out this rootkit went right through Avira.

Combofix laid waste to this rootkit along with about 24 other pieces of adware. I advised Tom to pick up a copy of Kaspersky Internet Security.

You can remove the Skynet rootkit with combofix, rootkit repeal or a bootable av disc with updated signatures.