Posts Tagged ‘adware’
How Did I Get Infected?
About a year ago, we posted an article about virus infection, “How to Help Prevent Getting Re-infected by viruses (Or Get Infected in the First Place.)” .
Todays blog post is a follow up to that. Here at Geek Easy we frequently get asked “How did I get infected?”. It’s never a simple answer so we thought we give you some general ideas of how it could possibly happen.
Home User Maintenance
Like any other substantial investment such as a vehicle or a home, owning a computer comes with responsibility to maintain it in order for it to perform as it was designed to do. Unfortunately most computer owners are either uninformed of this, think its relatively unimportant, or just don’t have the knowledge to provide this maintenance.
Malware… the true story!
According to Wikipedia, “Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming (code, scripts, active content, and other software) designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, gain unauthorized access to system resources, and other abusive behavior.[1] The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.”
Basically what all that means is this: Malware is a piece of software written by someone with the intent of causing mischief to others. The level of “mischief” varies from harmless, but annoying pranks; to data destruction and/or denial of services. Most people are familiar with viruses. Almost everyone knows someone that has had to deal with one. What most people arent familiar with can be the worst to deal with. I’m talking about spyware, adware, and the like. These can be very hard to detect and to get rid of. They sneakily insert themselves into your system in many areas so if you find and delete one, theres always a “seed” ready to sprout up again somewhere else!
The best defense is a proactive offense. Get good anti-virus software (we recommend Norton Anti-Virus), and keep it updated! It wont do you much good with an outdated database. Scan your system at least weekly for infections. Make sure your anti-virus software specifically checks for spyware, etc. Not all of them do.
If somehow you end up with a virus, the best thing to do is to bring it to Geek Easy. We have experienced technicians that specialize in tackling tenacious viruses and saving your data! We can also install anti-virus software for you and do an overall system “cleaning” to ensure your system is running at its best.
For more information, click here –> https://geek-easy.com/contact-us/
420 N. Church St. STE 1
Kalamazoo, MI 49007
(269)548-TECH (8324)
info@geek-easy.com