How Do I Know If I Have A Virus?

Does your screen hang low?  Does it wobble to and fro?  Do all the pop-ups on your monitor make you want to tie your cables in a bow? Well then my friend it's possible we may have an infection going on.

Some tell tale signs are:

·      Your computer is shutting off and restarting on its own.

·      It may take 5-10 minutes to start and then it runs sporadically.

·      Your default homepage in your Internet browser has changed on its own and you can't change it back.

·      You set your anti-virus software to scan and it quits after a few seconds or just plain freezes.

I Don’t Play On The Internet Much.  How Can I Possibly Have A Virus In My Machine?

A virus can never come into your computer if you have:

·      Never connected to the Internet.

·      Never have ready any email.

·      Only run authentic manufacturers installation CD’s .

·      Never put any homemade discs or diskettes into your computer.

·      Are not connected to a network where all computers have met these same criteria.

Many viruses or “spyware” programs are embedded into webpages.   As you view one of these sites, you are actually downloading the program into your computer. Even some legitimate sites have become infected through Hackers from time to time.

Email is a popular way that viruses are spread.  You normally can’t get a virus just by looking at your email, but opening the infected attachments will cause a world of pain to you and your computer.  Even if the mail came from someone you know, it can be infected.

Most infected emails will come from a slightly familiar looking address and try to trick you into opening the attached file.  Some in the form of making you believe that your email will soon be turned off if you don't act now.  Always be cautious when opening attachments, even if you expect it.

Using pirated CD’s and installation disks can also bring you to new heights of hair pulling.  Not only is it illegal to share legal copies of programs and to use pirated programs, some can hold Spyware that install itself when at the same time as the program installs.  Usually, these are there to inform the “pirate” as to your where about, so they can send you other exciting offers or look onto your machine and copy your passwords to banking and other sensitive information that may be stored on your computer.

Once, on a re-installation, I did have a legal, authentic installation diskette that was infected. Possibly copied there by itself from an infected machine. Original authentic manufacturer CD's are pretty safe and usually require that your virus software be turned off before installation. It's the CD's that have the crack.exe file that you must be careful with.

If you are connected to a network and do not have Internet or email access, the possibility to be infected is still there.  Perhaps there is one computer on the network used for email and surfing the net, little programs like worms can creep in unnoticed.  They come in through open ports and do their business. By sharing files back and forth a Virus can raise it's ugly head and smile at your system.

What Is A Port?

Think of your computer as a house.  There are ways into and out of any house.  The most popular is the front door.  We could call this port “80” or the one used by your web browser to surf the net.

Perhaps you have a back door, which is very close to your car and one used for fast transmissions, we can call this one port “21” or what the FTP protocol runs on.

You have a mailbox, don't you?  Port “25”.  Now, all the windows and vents are other portal ways for iworms to creep in.

One popular way to open up a port the size of your living room wall is to install a music download/sharing program. You know which ones I'm talking about. Sharing music, viruses, iWorms, malware. Using a reputable site such as iTunes will bring you great listening and not a big lawsuit from the record companies.

BUT I HAVE A FIREWALL!  HA!!

Firewalls range in price from $50.00 (software driver) to $50,000.00 (separate hardware and software).  Windows does have a lot of holes, but Microsoft has identified (most of ) the holes and provided patches.  Now how did you get the worm?  One popular way is those programs that allow you to search and download songs from other peoples computers.  When you run these programs, you are essentially going into a room and opening the window (port) to allow others (and iworms) to cruise into you computer.  They are basically all in the same class; music sharing, game sharing, virus sharing…..You get the picture. Yes you had a firewall, but you opened the ports (doors) and allowed the whole world to come in. Kaspersky personal protection suite offers a great solution for this.

Do Anti-virus Programs Work?

Absolutely!…with exceptions!

Anti-virus programs are all similar in how they work, but only to an extent.  They have a database where the virus definitions are stored.  What is this database?  Think of it like a spell checker program.  Each word is matched against the programs database of known words and returns the incorrect or misspelled words.  Anti-virus programs run the same way.  They check the files, as they arrive, against their database of known infected files.  If not in the database, they are deemed good.  Most can even check for files that are executing suspicious activity.  New viruses seem to come out daily, therefore, the need to update your virus definitions file.  Anti-virus companies make these updates easily available to licensed customers.  Each year, you will need to buy a new license to be able to keep your virus definitions up-to-date.  Please don't pirate or share with someone else as these license fee keep the anti-virus companies on top of things.

How Often Should I Update?

Everyday!  Everyday that you use your computer, you should run the update.  A good idea is to update as soon as you start your computer each day, before you download your email. Some virus companies only offer updates once a day. Some offer updates every 3 hours.

What is Spyware?

Spyware are little programs that do just that – SPY.  They spy on you and what you are doing.  Some come in the form of automated search boxes that claim to be the best search tool yet made.  Some you don't even know they are there and they are just waiting for you to start your browser.

Every once in awhile I will come across a computer that when connected to the internet, the user cannot function from all the Pop-up ads that continue to take over the computer.  When this occurs, I immediately go for spyware removal software, which is readily available from the Internet for no charge for the basic version.

Search Boxes are one trick to find information about the computer user. What the search boxes do is register every search you make and categorize the list.  Now it knows something about your interests and is able to call Pop-ups that you would more likely be interested in.

As for the other little guys, some of them change your home page.  Some will redirect you to an infected web site where embedded into the code lays a virus waiting for you to enter bank and credit card information.  As time goes on, more and more will accumulate and degrade your computer system.  The most I have ever found on one computer at one time was 397.  Each on of these files uses up some of your computer’s resources to function.

Malware. The big bad brother to spyware. Mal=Malicious. It's there to report one thing, anything and everything about your habits on the computer and send the info back to it's author, or should we say hacker. It can record keystrokes and gain passwords to your banking and other personal/private information. At the same time it can put a real hurting on the performance of your machine. Sometimes to the point where you toss the machine out the window and head down to the Apple store and buy a Macintosh. :-)

Can A Virus Ruin My Computer?

YES!!!

Some are only there to steal information about your bank and credit card accounts.  Some will actually go one by one and compress, encrypt or rewrite system files.  Left unchecked, your operating system can be turned into guacamole in a very short period of time.  Sometimes recovery is not even possible.  Along with this, some types will look for any file in your machine that may contain email addresses.  With addresses in hand, some of the more clever viruses actually have their own SMPT engine (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).  Even if you don’t have an email application installed, it can send itself and spam to every email address it found. Then, on those infected machines look for every email address it can find and send spam again and itself to reinstall (infect) those machines as well.

Oy!! What to do?

Well, let's not rush and say Beetlejuice three times just yet. If you do not have a Virus Protection Solution, I personally like Kaspersky Labs. When testing solutions a few years back, I tried 4 different very popular anti-virus engines. All said the machine was clean. I then installed the demo version of Kaspersky Anti-VIrus and it took about 90 seconds to find a virus in the system32 folder.

For Adware, Spyware and Malware detection, there are many that are free but only detect and don't cleanse. One tool I like is Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. Why this one? Some people like tacos, some would rather have a hamburger and some chicken. Just my personal preference and it gets the job done.

Duarte Systems Disinfects and cleans systems of viruses and spyware.  In a full service, emptying of Internet caches, registry optimization and defragging are included.  On site, ship to us, or pick-up and deliver service is available. Weekend appointments in your home are available!

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