Ctrl-Alt-Delete column in the People section of The Greene County Daily World published Wednesday, July 23, 2009 titled Modern-Day Viruses Are Sophisticated.
Question:
How does my computer get viruses and spyware?
Answer:
Thanks for your question! I hear this question often.
Viruses, spyware, and malware infect computers in many ways. One of the most common ways is from clicking through prompts without reading or understanding what they do. For example, an Internet pop-up might appear asking to install a special plug-in and the user just accepts it and clicks through the prompts without fully understanding what they are allowing the software to do.
Another common way for a computer to become infected is by opening email attachments. Even when they are from friends, family and co-workers the attachments may still be infected. Oftentimes, the person sending it has no idea the attachment is infected. If you do not know the person who sent the attachment, I suggest not opening it and delete it instead. Simply ask the sender to resend the attachment if it was something important or needed.
A third way is by not running updates regularly. Many updates are security updates and not being up-to-date can therefore be a big security risk. Do not forget to update browser plug-ins, office packages, and any other software used often. Configure anti-virus scanning software to check automatically for updates on a daily basis.
Many infections are a result of visiting places on the Internet that contain pirated software, music, or movies. Very often, these files contain viruses, spyware, malware and other malicious software.
Downloading any kind of software from the Internet can be risky. It is important to use trusted sources when downloading and to read all the prompts when installing.
Not having anti-virus or spyware scanner software, especially when using Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer, will greatly increase the chances of being infected. It is highly recommended that some form of anti-virus and spyware protection is installed and running on the computer to help clean it from infections already on the computer and to help prevent future infections. The software should scan the computer in real-time and be scheduled to do full scans weekly.
If you suspect the computer is already infected, disconnect it from the Internet and scan the computer using anti-virus software, and spyware and malware removers, to remove the malicious software. There are many scanning products available. It is common for people to use more than one product since no single one will catch or remove all varieties of infections.
Modern-day viruses are sophisticated and removing them can become complicated very quickly. Depending on a person’s skill level, it may be best to take the computer to a professional for disinfecting.
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