Virus from FS download

Pro Member First Officer
beroun First Officer
Joined: Mar 12, 2006 Posts: 114 Location: New York City
Asked
Sun Apr 12, 2015 8:54 pm

Hi,
Firstly this is not intended as criticism, yes I am downloading a lot of FS scenery and aircraft enhancements and MANY thanks to all those who make the free downloads available!
To the point, have recently downloaded V1... call gauge and also Autoland, I think I used a link from some chat room and unfortunately have collected a virus Trojan.Powerliks.gm....somehow it was related to gauge dsd_xml_sound3.gau, which I think came with autoland to trigger the autoland sounds.
I am relieved that my PC is OK now, but it took Norton rep about an hour to clear this up. I am a bit reluctant to
download anything now. Any clue on how to avoid picking up the virus would be much appreciated.
AGAIN, no criticism and many thanks to all those freebies from AVSIM, FlightSim and similar websites.
Peter

Answers 3 Answers

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Pro Member Chief Captain
RadarMan Chief Captain
Joined: Aug 25, 2003 Posts: 17934 Location: U.S.A
Answered
Sun Apr 12, 2015 11:48 pm

Just download from major sites.
I stay away from small site downloads, in fact there are many sites that I never heard of that I wouldn't even click on.
Too much malware nowadays.

Radar

Pro Member Site Admin
Fly Away Simulation (Flyaway) Site Admin
Joined: Jun 28, 2003 Posts: 1305 Location: UK
Answered
Mon Apr 13, 2015 9:44 am

You'll be pleased to know that all of the files uploaded here are scanned with ClamAV on a regular basis. This is something that even the big sites don't do.

Pro Member First Officer
beroun First Officer
Joined: Mar 12, 2006 Posts: 114 Location: New York City
Answered
Mon Apr 13, 2015 12:05 pm

Thanks guys, I have no doubt this site is safe. My malware obviously came from someplace else. One think though is strange. Even reputable sires AVSIM, Flightsim provide download of gauge dsd_xml_sound3.gau. This is usually associated with with sounds needed for V1 calls and similar. Whenever I download this gauge Norton removes it claiming it is a threat. Obviously I cannot use the application without this gauge. Any clue on this one?

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