What Do I Do If I Have A Computer Virus?
It Happens All Of A Sudden...
What is?...
A Virus - A virus is a program that
installs itself to your computer. It makes
your computer slow, because it uses
the computer’s resources to serve its
purpose.
A Worm - A worm is a program that
buries itself deep in your system until it is
time to attack your system. A worm may
go unnoticed by your antivirus sytem.
A Trojan - A Trojan is a program that
enters your computer and tries to fool
your system by making the protection
system thinks it’s not harmful.
SpyWare - Spyware is software that
tries to find useful information about the
user. This information can be used for
anything ranging from identity theft, to
marketing research. It may track your
every move on the system.
Scareware - Scareware mimics your
system’s protection and operating system
warnings about virus detection. It will
usually install a fake anti-virus program
and try to force you to purchase the
software.
Useful Tools...
Avast Free Antivirus (Active)
www.avast.com
AVG Antivirus (Active)
www.avg.com
Malwarebytes (Passive)
http://majorgeeks.com/downloads31.html
I
think we’ve all been there.
It’s just about time to save that report
or term paper and we receive the
dreaded message [A VIRUS HAS
BEEN DETECTED!]. No matter
how hard you try, you can’t get that
stupid window to dissappear. Or, your
computer starts acting “funny.” You
know it should be faster, and those
pauses between clicks become more
noticeable, and really annoying. You
KNOW something must be wrong.
You just bought the computer a year
ago.
What is happening? Is it a
Virus? Or that Spyware everybody
keeps talking about? Oh my God!
Do they see my passwords? Have
they broken my brand new laptop?!
My mom will kill me! How did I get
this? What am I supposed to do and
how do I find out what’s wrong?
In order to be better informed,
you need to know a few things about
what these things are and how they
affect your system. The panel on
the left gives you a basic definition
of the types of security problem you
may encounter. Ultimately, these
programs are really annoying to the
user and they serve many purposes
to the virus creator. Usually they
are made to get information, use
your network services or computer
resources, or outright attack systems
compononents.
How Did I Get This?
Even though you may practice
safe web-surfing, you may still
contract a computer virus. It has long
been a stigma that the reason people
catch computer viruses is because they
must be searching for pornography or
downloading illegal material. This is
no longer the case. While it’s true that
engaging in this type of web behavior
obviously places you at risk, it is not
limited to that anymore. In fact, virus
creators are more likely to infect a pc
that is just doing everyday tasks in
hopes to prey on unsuspecting users.
Unsuspecting users are more likely
to pay and be scammed for safety
services if the computer throws up a
warning signal.
Email can be used to transmit
these viruses and spyware as well.
They are tricky because they often
come in as an attachment from someone
you know. In some cases, spyware
tracks your internet purchases and the
emails are sent to you from what you
What Do I Do If I Have A Computer Virus?
Example of a fake antivirus warning
think may be the vendor. (ie. amazon,
ebay, etc.) You should always take
great care in investigating whether
or not these reputable companies
actually contacted you or if you are
being scammed into opening a virus
ridden attachment.
Furthermore,
reputable companies generally do
not ask for specific information about
you (ie. social security numbers, bank
account information, usernames or
passwords, etc.)
Unless you have
initated a request that requires this
information, beware of ANYONE
asking for it otherwise. Remember
this is your personal information
and you have every right to ask why
someone may need it. You also
ALWAYS have the right to deny
supplying the information if you feel
it is not necessary to give it out.
How Can I Fix This?
Sometimes, you may need
to contact a computer repair service
or talk to a friend who knows about
computers. Removing viruses can
have some unwanted effeccts, such as
an inoperable system. But if you must
do it yourself, please visit the sights in
the shaded orange area of this article.
These three tools are very powerful
in preventing and fixing virus issues.
But do not make the mistake of using
too much protection, and yes there is
such a thing. Virus protection systems
will fight one another for dominance,
causing your system to be painfully
slow or even be locked up completely.
This is why you should only pick one
active antivirus system. You may use
more than one passive system to find
issues that your active system did not
catch.
What are active and
passive antivirus
programs?
An active antivirus program
is a program that runs continously. It
searches your computer as you work
and loads on start up. You don’t
have to take action to run it, unless it
prompts you to do something. Active
systems are the ones we hear most
about. They include:
• Norton Antivirus
• CA Etrust
• McAffee Antivirus
• Trend Micro PCcillin Antivirus
• Nod32 Antivirus
• Avast Antivirus
• AVG Antivirus
These are the most common active
antivirus systems. There are some
differences in how they work, but any
of these will typically do the job and
deciding which one to use is a matter
of preference.
A
passive antivirus and
adware programs are systems that
have to be started manually by the
user and do not run tasks in the
background. There can be more than
one of these on a system because they
generally are not called to run by the
user simultaneously.
Eamples of these include:
• Malware Bytes
• Adaware SE Personal
• HiJack This
• WebRoot Spy Sweeper
Malwarebytes
is
the
best
recommended passive antispywareantivirus program.
How About Installation?
Installing these programs are
relatively simple and easy to follow.
Most software installation requires
very little user knowledge. For the most
part, if you are actively downloading
the software, you know that you want
to install it. The main concern for
most people are the prompts and the
questions. “Do you want to place this
program in xyz folder?” Or “Are you
sure you want to do xyz?” These
questions become confusing because
the user may not know these things.
Most of the time they are just little
notices that you have to participate
in. They are ok. Just click next and
let the program do its thing. The
program should typically download
and start immediately without much
interaction. The variable; software,
questions, operating systems, and
possible configurations that may
appear are too great to discuss in
detail in this knowledge base. Each
system may also be set up differently
as well. If the installation process is
too confusing or scary to you, have
someone who knows, do it for you.