What does virtually every computer we check-in at Gakidoo’s Computer Repair repair have in common? For one, they are infected with some form of malware, spyware or adware. Another is that they all pretty much have an AntiVirus program installed already. So how did they get infected? First of all, while viruses and malware are both unwanted, they are not the same types of infections, so it makes sense that they require different types of security programs to protect against them.
Is it Really a Virus?
We actually don’t see many “true virus” infections, mostly we see Trojans which are virus-like but they differ from viruses in that they do not replicate. Trojans can quietly reside on your hard drive and do nothing until they are triggered, making them difficult to detect with just an AntiVirus program.
To make matters worse, we are seeing a rise in Rootkit infections (invisible trojans) . Rootkits can be difficult to detect and even more difficult to remove, even by an experienced PC Tech, and sometimes requires your hard drive to be reformatted with a clean Windows installation.
As far as true viruses goes, we have seen more W32/Virut virus infections in the last 2 months, than we have seen in the last 2 years. Virut infects every .exe file it can, and if and when your AntiVirus program picks it up, it may try to delete these infected .exe files. Virut will also jump onto a flash drive lickity-split and if you plug this drive into another computer, you will soon have your whole office infected with it. We have to reformat about 7 of every 10 computers we check-in with the Virut virus. AVG has a free removal program for W32/Virut infections you can download called rmviurt.exe. In my opinion, it is excellent at detecting when Virut is running in memory, but won’t completely clean a system that is severely infected with Virut. If you have Virut, you might as well format your hard drive and perform a clean Windows installation, it will be much quicker.
Which AntiVirus Program is the Best?
Whether you have Symantec Norton products, McAfee, Computer Associates, Trend Micro, AVG, Avast, even Kaspersky, they all come in with infections, why is that again? Another reason is that they are either expired or don’t have the most recent virus-definitions installed. Most computers come with a pre-installed trial version of Norton or McAfee which expires after 60-90 days.
We still check-in computers with trial versions that have been expired for several years. Some customers don’t know they have to renew their AntiVirus subscriptions annually, and some of the ones that do, are not comfortable renewing online with their credit card. Others just take their chances to save money … for now. Then there are those who have ISP’s such as Road Runner that provide free AntiVirus protection for their customers. The problem here is that many novice computer users think they are automatically protected just because they have Road Runner, they don’t realize they have to actually download the installer program, activate and update it themselves. Some of these customers get surprised when we suggest selling them an AntiVirus program when they thought they already had one. We really can’t warrant against a reinfection if the computer leaves the shop without a current AntiVirus program. Even so, we only recommend the best AntiVirus program available…ESET Nod32 AntiVirus. We actually stand behind this product because we have been using it ourselves for over 4 years. We wouldn’t lie to you and say that if you use Nod32 you will never get reinfected, but your chances are much less, and if you did, it probably won’t be as severe. Another benefit is that Nod32 will not slow your computer down like the popular products you already know in the red or yellow box.
So what can you do if AntiVirus programs are not enough? Nowadays you must also have an active antispyware program as well, if you are a moderate to high-risk internet surfer. There are many reputable products available, but be advised that some of the most popular ones you will find pushed in the big stores are going to significantly slow your computer down as well. We highly recommend Malwarebyte’s AntiMalware. They have a free product that offers passive protection, while the paid product offers active protection with automatic updating.
Does a Firewall Help?
What about firewalls? Anybody can get hacked if someone really wants to get in. As it is for most home users, firewalls don’t prevent virus and spyware infections, although they might help block outgoing communications from a malware program already on your computer. The average computer user doesn’t know how to use a firewall, and as easy as the consumer firewall products have been made to use, there is much more than just setting a slider-bar to low, med or high protection. When outbound program alerts pop-up, you can’t just set every alert to “always allow” or “always block”. You have to do a little homework for each alert to know how to answer each one properly. You might end up blocking Internet Explorer itself and wonder why you can’t view your home page, or you might just give a malware program full permission to do what it wants, making your firewall useless.
Final Analysis
In the final analysis, AntiVirus programs are not enough, not even when combined with active AntiSpyware and Firewall programs. We have come to an age where dealing with malware and viruses is part of online life now (PC life anyway). What I can tell you is that it is over 99% preventable. The solution lies in every person sitting behind the keyboard of your computer. Would you loan your car to an irresponsible teenager? Probably not, just because you probably won’t wreck it doesn’t mean they won’t. In my opinion, knowing that there are bad guys out there, you just need to stay away from them. Having a security program certainly helps, but I view that like I view depending on a bullet-proof vest when I know someone is shooting at me. They don’t protect your whole body and don’t usually stop armor-piercing rounds. Wouldn’t it be better to just avoid the firefight altogether? With that said, every computer user has got to learn how to be internet savvy. It is not my goal to teach you how to remove viruses and malware, that is an art that takes time to learn, and most techs really aren’t that good at it, they would rather just reformat your drive than employ the lost art of debugging. For us, reformatting is the last resort, not the first.
Preparing for a Disaster
Anyway, you can’t click on random google results with impunity, you can’t just open up that email attachment (even if it came from your grandmother), you got to be cautious about anything that is popular or seems too good to be true, and if you are someone who can’t lay off file-sharing programs like Limewire, or can’t get enough online gambling, downloading pirated software, or the worst…adult sites, you might as well buy a Mac, because you are painting a big bullseye on your head and your bullet-proof vest isn’t going to help you because you are bypassing your security by inviting it in with open arms. But, we have a solution for you called “preparing for a disaster”. It’s nothing new. We do it for all our shop computers because we don’t have time to debug our computers when they might break – time is money. Preparing for a disaster involves nothing more than having a customized backup of your hard drive, such as a Norton Ghost Image of your C drive, either on another partition, or hard drive, even on an external hard drive or DVD. You can also keep a cloned or mirrored copy of your hard drive as well. With this, you can probably recover from a major software problem, be it a virus, or whatever in a matter of 30 minutes or so.
We will get in more detail about “preparing for a disaster” later, because this technique will save you time and money for the 3 – 5 years you get out of your computer, not to mention data loss prevention and the hours of frustration trying to fix your problem yourself, spending hours on the phone with tech support, making it worse by having “that friend” who knows computers mess it up more, giving up, or finally taking off from work so you can take it in to a computer shop, only after wondering what to disconnect, what to bring, and all those phone calls using the yellow pages to find the best price. Then you have to get off from work again to pick it up, drive home and hook-up all those cables under the desk again. Not to mention that not all PC Techs are the same.
Choosing a Technician
Price alone should not dictate who you choose to repair your computer; the tech’s experience, passion for computer repair, honesty and work ethics, as well as customer service should all be considered. What might you get for 2 hours at $75/hr vs 1 hour at $150. Is the $150/hr tech just that good he can do it in an hour and charges top dollar for his superb abilities. Or is the $75/hr tech that spends 2 hours milking the job … or is he just spending the necessary time to do the job right, repairing things that the $150/hr tech overlooked. Or is the $75/hr tech honest and hard working, but lacking experience so that it took him 2 hours for a job that should only take 1 hour? It’s your hard earned money, so you make the call. Of course there are more things to consider when choosing a technician, but more on that later.
At Gakidoo’s Computer Repair, we hope you take charge and beat this virus/malware problem so you can spend more time using your computer for bigger and better things, things we hope to share with you in the future, so please come back.
