Malicious Software - What to look for
You’ve heard the terms; you can probably use them in conversation, too, but how much do you really know about malicious software. You know the ones I’m talking about. Spyware, Malware, Viruses, Pop ups, etc…
Often, viruses start with a pop up on your screen, but pop ups are not always bad. If you know what to look out for, you can prevent a virus nightmare from occurring which saves you money and time. A couple of things that clue me in as a tech are the types of pop ups you have on the screen, the wording/grammar in the text of the pop up and the content of what’s in the pop up. Most of the time the language of the pop up window want to get an emotional response from you about the security of your computer system. If you have this kind of response, most likely it's not safe, and you're playing right into their hands. Pop ups shouldn’t come up unless you’ve just clicked on a request for either a link or a download or something like that. If your computer has pop ups that come up on their own without any request from you, then you’ll want to get your computer checked out.
The “bad guys” who are attaching their malicious pop-ups onto sites want you to click on theirs, so they’ve become really good at making them look legitimate. Often, they’ll look like a Microsoft program or telling you that you have been infected and in order to get rid of it (remember the emotional response), you must download their software and pay a fee as well. By “purchasing” their software, you’ve just given your credit card information and have made it easy for them to steal your identity.
We see a lot of users who have 2,3,4 and more virus/spyware removal tools. Did you know that if you have an antivirus program installed and then install another one, your computer may not be able to get into Windows the next time you reboot? Because of those risks, we recommend only having one type of antivirus program installed on your computer at a time.
If you think that your computer may have viruses or spyware installed, please let us know and we’ll be happy to take a look. Often, we don’t even need to come out to your office to remove the malicious software. Through the advancement of technology, we’re able to set up a remote session with your computer so that we can take control and get rid of all those things that are slowing you down.
