What do I do if I have a Virus
or Spyware PROBLEM?
Virus Solutions page
Saturday, June 13, 2009
The one thing to remember with Viruses is: You are allowed ZERO mistakes! Remember this number. Be CAREFUL when dealing with these nasty creatures and you will do fine.
ONE NOTE HERE: It is best to be proactive, rather than reactive when dealing with virus or malware. The first step is to install anti-virus software on your PC or Mac. Yes, I can hear Macintosh enthusiasts saying “You don’t need to run Anti-Virus on a Mac.” To this I say, “Yes, you do, so just do it.”
There are good commercial software solutions out there, as well as good shareware and freeware solutions for this. Norton Antivirus is always a favorite on the PC and Mac, Intego VirusBarrier X5 is another Mac-specific choice. McAfee is always in the running on the PC and the Mac.
For freeware solutions, some PC choices are:
° Avast
° AVG
On the Mac, a couple of free choices are:
Virus Removal
Most of the antivirus programs will do a quick scan of your system before installation. If this option is offered, take it. Next, install your antivirus software. After installation is done, you will need to update the virus definitions for it. This is a very good idea, since new strains of virus come out every day, and your best protection against attack is up-to-date definitions.
Most virus programs put themselves into executable files, but there are a few, such as the Word and Excel macro viruses that attach themselves to documents of that data type. These are truly multi-platform, and they use the MS Office programs to create a running environment for themselves on either platform. Because of this, the best bet is to scan program and data files. The minimum I will personally scan is executables and Word and Excel documents.
If the virus scanner finds ANY infections, make sure the program has fixed them. Always re-run your antivirus scanner to check and make sure that all infections are eliminated. I have seen several times that a virus was found, and after clean-up and re-scanning, another virus is found. This is most likely because virus scanners look for file alteration which is a signature that a virus has infected a file. After one virus is removed, the signature of another virus may be easier for the scanner to catch. It is kind of like piling stuff on your desktop - you have to remove one layer to recognize what is under it.