Viruses on the loose

LW was called on Tuesday about a client computer that looked like it was about to get hit with the Antivirus 2009 bug. The user had seen it before and had a strong feeling that it was the same one that nearly wiped out her home computer.  Oddly, she doesn’t visit much of anyplace at work – except Facebook.

It turned out NOT be the actual Antivirus 2009 bug, but she had shut her computer down immediately before the machine could become any more infected. She said she was standing across the room and happened to look up and saw a full screen porn ad – and it certainly wasn’t something she was expecting!

Finding the computer virus and removing it

LW took the hard drive out and did multiple scans on it and only found a couple of virus files. They were removed and the hard drive reinstalled and fired up. Immediately things started popping. Hijack This is a great way of actually checking what is going on with your startup files and we make fine use of it in solving computer issues. It’s also very handy for removing those annoying “We need to be running this tray app JUST IN CASE you happen to need it” apps.  After a bit of removing startup entries, the virus activity was stopped. And indeed they had been sprouting from the IE cache temp files.

We can never pin down exactly where these viruses originate, but they are getting more and more troublesome. Not necessarily any worse, but just more numerous. The minute a new venue to get a virus on a computer arises, there is some clown out there trying it out.

Facebook Viruses

Facebook has been of concern lately – with new viruses appearing on FB with some regularity -which is a shame. It’s a great site/app, but until FB starts policing some of it’s own policies that have perhaps been left a little loose, there are going to be virus issues.  We can’t complain though – that is the biggest single reason PC users call us – their computer has become infected and totally unusable.

There is no single app that will ever guarantee your computer stays clean of viruses, but we wish there was. LW would rather work on improving your pc experience – not mopping up after some sloppy script kiddie hack.  Though there do seem to be some pros out there writing some of these viruses. The recent viruses we’ve cleaned are far more convincing than those of the past. A lot of the viruses present VERY convincing messages and interfaces – as opposed to the misspells and horrible grammar that has traditionally been a hallmark of virus writers!

Just be aware of what you’re clicking on and keep your antivirus updated! If you need a good cleaning and antivirus installed on your computer – call Lizardwebs now. A little service now is far cheaper than a whole lot of service later! But we’ll be glad to help you out whichEVER side of that spectrum you fall on!