Starting today I have asked my Lead Shop Technician, Ryan Gingerich to take over writing the "Monthly Newsletter". I'm sure you will find that his writings on computers and related subjects interesting and useful. You can always e-mail me with comments Erich@ericscomputers.net
Thanks for your continued support making Eric's Computers a success
Eric
For those who have not met me, my name is Ryan, and as the Lead Shop Technician for Eric's Computers I would like to spend some time further educating our customers about everything from the risks to the solutions of computer virus infections. For the past three years I have been working at Eric's Computers, I have repaired more computers with nasty virus infections than anything else. With a little extra knowledge and a habitual maintenance schedule, I hope to help you all avoid the risk of computer virus infection.
Viruses, worms, and trojans; they are all forms of malware, but how can you avoid them? As our computers become better and more powerful, the different types of malware are also becoming more potent and sophisticated. The internet, more than any other outlet, is an amazing place for information, but is also riddled with an increasing number infected web sites that are just waiting for unsuspecting visitors. The risk of infection does not stop at infected web sites, and is also very common with downloading services (like LimeWire and Torrents), and even social networking web sites (like Facebook and MySpace).
While speaking with our customers about how their computers may have become infected, the vast majority have agreed that they had accidently visited an infected web site. These web sites are very hard to detect until it is too late, and can seem nearly impossible to avoid. With that said, here are a few tips on how these web sites can be avoided:
· When using a search engine (like Google), make sure to look closely at each result before clicking on it
o Avoid results that have your exact search word or phrase along with irrelevant information
o Make sure the title and description make sense and are not just random strings of words
o Make sure that the web site address looks familiar and does not look like it could have been randomly generated
o When in doubt, don't click on it! - this could save you big time
· Avoid opening e-mails, attachments, or downloaded files unless you can verify that they came from a reputable source
· Think twice about clicking on links in email messages
· Heed warnings from web browsers, search engines, and security products that try to protect you from known or suspected threats
· Keep your computer and especially your AntiVirus software up to date
o If you don't have an AntiVirus we would strongly recommend Microsoft Security Essentials, which is completely free and can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/
· And most importantly, know what your legitimate security software warnings look like
o Infected web sites will frequently try to imitate legitimate security software and trick you into installing it
o Beware of popups that say something like "Your computer may be infected, please click OK to install AntiVirus 2010"
o Sometimes infected web sites will just look like a normal virus scan program and will act like it is scanning your system and finding all sorts of infections (at this point your computer is still actually clean, but they will say that you have to buy or install their software to clean the fake infections)
What if I end up on an infected web site? The first thing I tell customers to do when one of these web sites are accessed, is to unplug their internet cable from their computer or disable their wireless internet connection. This will prevent any malicious software from being downloaded and installed onto your computer. Then it is safe to close everything, and I recommend restarting the computer and running a quick virus scan with your current AntiVirus software.
And what if it is too late, and my computer is already infected? In most cases this is when it is time to bring the computer to us or have us come to you and clean it up on the spot. But before doing that I would recommend trying to download Malwarebytes from http://www.malwarebytes.com, updating it, and running a quick scan. As long as the infection is not blocking your internet connection or blocking Malwarebytes, there is a good chance a quick scan with Malwarebytes will be enough to clean it up. If none of this works, make sure you shut the computer down to prevent further problems and give us a call asap.
I also find it important to mention that although the idea of downloading free music and movies may be quite enticing, it is yet another source of high virus infection rates. To keep things simple I would recommend avoiding downloading services and programs like LimeWire and Torrents. The only way to avoid viruses from these sources is to (I hate to say it) pay for more legitimate services like iTunes or Rhapsody. I find these to be very reasonable substitutes with zero virus infection risk.
Lastly, Facebook and MySpace (amongst many other social networking web sites) are great ways to keep up with your friends and family. Unfortunately they have also become riddled with infection risks. What has been happening lately is user accounts are being hacked and used to spread spam and virus infections. So the next time you received a wall post, private message, or what have you… don't just assume it is legitimate because your friend sent it to you. Your friend's account may have been hacked and may be being used to send spam messages with links to infected web sites.
"Why won't my AntiVirus software prevent these infections from spreading to my computer?" you may ask. In my experience we have cleaned viruses from customer computers that have had just about every form of AntiVirus software (i.e. Norton, McAfee, AVG, etc.) "protecting" them before they were infected. More frequently we are seeing viruses that are designed to trick Windows into thinking that they are just another legitimate program that you, the user, are trying to install. Unfortunately the creators of such viruses also have a "one up" on security software companies. New viruses are released into the wild every day and can go undetected for quite some time until they are finally reported to or discovered by the security software companies.
To sum it all up, now more than ever we should all be extra cautious when browsing the web. Do not be afraid of second guessing links, emails, supposed security risks, etc.
In the next edition of the Eric's Computers newsletter I will elaborate on the aspects of maintaining a more secure and up to date PC.
Until then, I look forward to hearing what you would like us to write about in future editions of our newsletter. Feel free to email your suggestions to me at ryang@ericscomputers.net
