Following the dharma in the 21st century

That moment of panic … things start happening that you can’t explain … aliens have invaded your pc?  More likely you have a virus or spyware on your computer!  The sooner you take action when you think there is something “weird” going on, the higher probability that you will not sustain major data loss or other nasties such as identity theft.

Many IT companies question providing advice like this because it loses them trade – if their clients can find out on their website what to do, they won’t come to them to fix it and hence they lose money!

Our thoughts on this are .. how selfish!  If we can pass on my knowledge to you, and that knowledge makes you, our potential customer, more “savvy” and aware about internet security and protecting your computers, then when you DO come to us for advice or with problems, the chances are they are nowhere near as bad as they could have been, and we can probably retrieve all your data with minimal disruption.

There is nothing worse than having to tell a client that their photographs dating back 10 years, or their thesis they’ve been working on for the last 4 years, have all been lost because they “didn’t think it was serious” or “weren’t sure what to do”.

So, what should you look out for?

1. Popups, weird messages, or generally slow browsing – particularly if this is not related to the time of day (i.e. it’s slow during the day as well as at night) or has suddenly started happening
2. Difficulty staying connected to the internet
3. Not being able to access certain pages, or typing in a web address and ending up somewhere completely different – also if your homepage changes suddenly
4. Messages purporting to be from you appearing on social networking sites such as facebook, myspace and so forth
5. Unpredictable behaviour of your computer – for example, restarting unexpectedly, opening programs (such as internet explorer) without your intervention, strange icons appearing on your desktop, etc.

What should I do if I suspect I have a virus?

1. If you have antivirus software installed, ensure it is updated – if possible try to update this immediately if it’s out of date.
   If you don’t have any antivirus installed or you can’t update it, please contact Suffolk Computer Services by phone (0845 003 7235) or via our contact form (remember to leave a telephone number and your address (plus what antivirus you’re using if you can’t update it), which will be treated in the strictest confidence and used only for the purpose of despatching your disk) and we can send you a free of charge disk, with the latest virus definitions if you’re already using Antivirus, or a virus remover which you should be able to install onto your computer (providing it is not a severe infection) should you not already have any software, which should allow you to remove the viruses.
2. Boot into safe mode and ensure you select the option to TURN OFF YOUR NETWORKING – networking includes wireless, bluetooth, wired connections, modems … any way that your computer has to communicate with other computers.  Viruses SPREAD.  They spread via NETWORKS …. turn off the networks, stop the spread!
3. Once in Safe Mode, (see our article on using Safe Mode if you are unsure how this works) run a virus scan as soon as possible.  If you were not able to update your antivirus online, you can generally do so by visiting the vendor’s website and downloading their latest “Virus Definitions” to a pen drive or disk, then installing them via your antivirus program.
4. Depending on whether the results of your first scan show any infections in the System Restore files, you may want to consider turning off “System Restore” (which takes a snapshot of your system automatically to enable you to “roll back” to previous “snapshots” if things go wrong).  Sometimes viruses can lurk in the System Restore files waiting for you to roll back so they can re-infect again (pesky little critters eh!).  Once you have turned off system restore, run another scan to ensure everything has been removed.
5. Hopefully your virus scan has resolved any problems you may have had with your computer – if so, we would strongly suggest backing up your data (because if you haven’t already done so, you most definitely should now!) and rebooting back into safe mode and re-running the scan just to be sure. We also strongly suggest scanning your backups, and any removable media such as USB Pen Drives or CD’s you might have created – sometimes viruses can end up on these, which is a real pain when you’ve just spent hours removing them only to get them back again when you plug in your USB device – don’t forget, this also includes audio players and any storage devices!

If your scans are clear,boot back into normal windows, run a scan again, and if it’s clean you might well be ok!  When you’re happy that everything is resolved, connect to the internet and make sure that you download your latest antivirus definitions and also windows updates which you may be outstanding (a yellow shield will appear reminding you to install, or you can get them direct from microsoft at windowsupdate.microsoft.com)

If you still have residual problems with viruses after following the steps above, sorry but you might need to bring it in for further analysis.

The reason we say this is because there is a strong possibility that you may have more serious problems lurking, which require specialist interventions to remove.  We have professional software available to us which helps us remove almost all viruses, and while we cannot guarantee recovery of all files, we do generally have an exceptionally high success rate (please see our feedback for testimonials from previous clients).

What should I do now?

1. Consider why you got the virus in the first place!
   • Not running Antivirus (consider purchasing from us – for as little as £25 per year you can have two computers covered!)
   • Antivirus out of date (consider an antivirus program which automatically updates, not requiring any input from you)
   • Windows Updates not installed (consider switching to automated installation)
   • Not running a firewall (If you’re not using a router, consider using Windows Firewall or use software incorporating a firewall, such as Internet Security packages)
   • Using Internet Explorer (consider Firefox – www.mozilla.com)
   • Visiting “dodgy” sites (Don’t!)
   • Children visiting “dodgy” sites! (Consider using parental control – see our forthcoming article)
2. Consider the “what if” situation

• What if I lost all my data tomorrow? How could I get it back? Consider a backup system – for just £80 you could have a 1Tb hard drive to back up all your data, and if you have a bad memory like me, consider purchasing Backup Assist from us (we are authorised resellers) – totally automated backups – hassle-free, worry-free, and a ONE OFF PAYMENT FOR LIFE!

• What if I had a worse infection? Just how protected is my computer?  Do I need to think about an internet security package rather than just Antivirus alone?  Consider looking at our Internet Security packages (we are authorised resellers for AVG) for complete peace of mind – these are available for business and also home users.