Scan Your System
After my last hassle with the rootkit virus a couple years ago I told myself I'd try and remember to run a virus scan on my system once a month. So much for intentions. It's been some time since I ran one, maybe over a year.
Yesterday I finally broke down and did a full system scan. Shortly after I started it, my Avast anti- virus showed an infection. I was disappointed more than surprised. It turned out to be the Win32Adware-gen virus- a higher risk one according to Avast. Not sure how it got there. It can come from downloaded files or malicious web sites.
I seem to have gotten rid of it, at least for now. From what I've read this virus is like other ones that can hide deep in your computer and then emerge later on. We shall see.
My point being you can't rely on your anti- virus to stop things from sneaking into your computer. You should run a system scan fairly regularly.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 7:49 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
True. Before I got a Mac I had someone run a virus scan and it came up with over 2500 hits. I had no idea.
I used to have an E-Machines 600mhz computer I used before this current Alienware. I had that old E-machines sitting on the other table for at least a couple years and only turned it on to get the various updates. Then I'd turn it back off.
We decided to give it to a sister- in- law. Before sending it to her, I ran a virus scan just to make sure. Came up with 25 viruses, although they were all the same one. Probably replicated itself somehow.
How that computer got infected from pretty much only having it on to get Windows updates was beyond me.
And, yep, a lot of people don't even do the most basic protections. Was talking to an older lady friend about some computer issue. I reminded her to make sure her virus definitions were updated. She said, "What's that?". I knew we had a problem at that point.
Install Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free and good. It will scan downloaded programs at the moment you try to run them.
I have used Kaspersky for about 10 years on both my work and home computers and laptops and have not had any virus problems. Kaspersky quickly identifies problems and isolates them. It is expensive and can be somewhat difficult to install and does slow things down a bit but I think worth the price(s).
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