Automated identification and clean-up of malicious computer code

A computer readable medium containing a computer program product for automatically cleaning-up malicious computer code from a target computer, the target computer having computer memory and an associated operating system, the computer program product comprising:

• program code for enabling an operating system to automatically boot in the computer memory of the target computer, from computer readable media, the booted operating system comprising an operating system other than the operating system associated with the target computer;
• program code for enabling the booted operating system to automatically run a malicious code processing script in the computer memory of the target computer, under control of the booted operating system;
• program code for automatically identifying a malicious code that has infected the target computer;
• program code for automatically copying at least one malicious code clean-up script for the identified malicious code from a location;
• program code for automatically running the at least one copied malicious code clean-up script in the computer memory of the target computer;
• and
• program code for automatically cleaning-up the identified malicious code from the target computer.

A computer system for automatically cleaning-up malicious computer code from a target computer, the target computer having computer memory and an associated operating system, the computer system comprising:

• an operating system booting module, for automatically booting an operating system in the computer memory of the target computer from computer readable media, the booted operating system comprising an operating system other than the operating system associated with the target computer;
• a script running module, for automatically running a malicious code processing script in the computer memory of the target computer, under control of the booted operating system, and for automatically running at least one malicious code clean-up script in the computer memory of the target computer, the script running module being communicatively coupled to the operating system booting module;
• a script copying module, for automatically identifying a malicious code that has infected the target computer, and for automatically copying at least one malicious code clean-up script for the identified malicious code from a location, the script copying module being communicatively coupled to the script running module;
• and
• a malicious code clean-up module, for automatically cleaning-up the identified malicious code from the target computer, the malicious code clean-up module being communicatively coupled to the script running module.