Home Malware Programs Rogue Anti-Spyware Programs PC Speed Up

PC Speed Up

Posted: October 24, 2011

Threat Metric

Threat Level: 2/10
Infected PCs: 375
First Seen: October 25, 2011
OS(es) Affected: Windows

PC Speed Up is a Korean scamware program that imitates the features of an anti-spyware program and general Windows maintenance application, but has no real security or diagnostic features that would benefit your PC. A real anti-spyware program only detects genuine spyware infections, SpywareRemove.com malware experts have found that PC Speed Up will only create pop-up alerts and scanner results that threaten your computer with nonexistent infections that aren't on your PC at all. The foremost danger with any PC Speed Up infection is the potential for allowing PC Cleaner to trick you into spending your money on the pcspeedup.co.kr website, but other dangers, such as browser redirect attacks and blocked security software, may also be present. If you've come into contact with PC Speed Up or its website, you should remove PC Speed Up right away with a competent anti-malware program to insure security for both your finances and your PC.

'PCSpeedUP', a program completely different from 'PC Speed Up' mentioned in this article, is associated with the company TweakBit. Neither Tweak Bit nor their application PCSpeedUP has any association with malware or the PC Speed Up program described in this post.

PC Speed Up – the Worst Type of System Booster You Could Find

Although PC Speed Up's full lineage hasn't yet been delineated, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers note that all significant aspects of PC Speed Up's attacks are similar to those of other forms of Korean scamware applications, such as VIHunter, KSecurity, VirusCure and Ddosclean. Like these programs, PC Speed Up offers to clean your PC of spyware and other types of debilitating infections and system problems, but PC Speed Up doesn't have a drop of real anti-spyware functionality to back up its claims. Because PC Speed Up is Korean, only fragments of its text are in English, and the majority of its interface can appear to be gibberish, if your system doesn't have a Korean language package installed.

If you do have Korean language support for your computer, you'll notice that PC Speed Up has a tendency to create alerts about spyware, viruses, keyloggers and other PC threats on a regular basis. These alerts exist solely to allow PC Speed Up to excuse any other attacks that PC Cleaner makes on your PC and to encourage you to visit PC Speed Up's pcspeedup.co.kr site. SpywareRemove.com malware analysts particularly discourage the latter, since PC Cleaner may expose your PC to drive-by-download attacks that install other PC threats besides just pcspeedup.co.kr. Purchasing PC Speed Up will only harm your PC and should never be considered a viable solution to a PC Speed Up infection.

Kicking PC Speed Up in the Keister for Some Real PC Optimization

PC Speed Up, like most forms of rogue anti-spyware programs, may launch itself without your consent whenever Windows starts. While PC Speed Up is active, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers caution that you should be watchful for attacks like the following:

  • Web browser redirect attacks. These may redirect you to PC Speed Up's aforementioned website or block you from visiting sites that could help you remove PC Speed Up (such as anti-malware and PC security websites).
  • Security program malfunctions, including crashes or programs refusing to start. In addition, system scans that take place while PC Speed Up is still active, may be unable to detect PC Speed Up or related PC threats.
  • Loss of system stability due to PC Speed Up's usage of RAM and other system resources on a constant basis.

Selecting Safe Mode from the advanced boot options menu will allow you to start Windows while not launching PC Speed Up, as well. Afterwards, deleting PC Speed Up shouldn't be difficult, even for non-experts, as long as you have an anti-malware program that's up to the task.

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:



%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\PC Speed Up\PCSULauncher.exe File name: PCSULauncher.exe
Size: 80.68 KB (80688 bytes)
MD5: 506c5429b13280644f48a260f35f8a46
Detection count: 375
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\PC Speed Up
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: November 10, 2014
C:\Program Files\pcspeedup\pcs.exe File name: C:\Program Files\pcspeedup\pcs.exe
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file

Related Posts

2 Comments

  • Dan @ fixcleaner says:

    Thank you for sharing the valuable information. I just wanted to notice about another rogue anti-spyware tool to be cautious of: PC Cleaner. Just like PC Speed Up, PC Cleaner seems like a professional software, but is actually a scam in diguise. It gives false alerts and does a fictitional scan, trying to trick people into paying for a program, which has no real functionality.

  • Janean Wadlington says:

    I have been using Norton security suite for two years now and I have to declare it's really a piece of garbage. I'd gladly pay a lot more money for something that worked much better. This application is slow and does not give any assurance that it can be safeguarding my computer. I did find some good ideas from your website and will be researching them this week. Many thanks!

Loading...