Malware

[BonosSaint]

Can anybody give me a quick idiot's guide seminar on malware?

1. What is it exactly? Is it a virus and how damaging is it?
2. If you get a message that you have malware and your security system
can't clean it....is it dangerous or just annoying, how do you clean it,
are you more vulnerable to more infections from other malware?
3. If you take the computer to a computer repair shop, is there any
danger of losing your stuff on the computer while they try to fix it?
4. How do you defend yourself against future infections since new ones
seem to keep creeping up?

[Galeongirl]

Malware isn't a virus, it's worse than that. It's usually software that gets installed 'sneakily' and it can be a lot of stuff. It can register what you're doing, what sites you visit, so google's ads are more personal. It could also be a keylogger that registers everything you type so the person who owns it could hack your computer with your own passwords and such..

Get a malware/adware program and they will take care of it for you.

[Liesje]

Originally Posted by BonosSaint

Can anybody give me a quick idiot's guide seminar on malware?

1. What is it exactly? Is it a virus and how damaging is it?
2. If you get a message that you have malware and your security system
can't clean it....is it dangerous or just annoying, how do you clean it,
are you more vulnerable to more infections from other malware?
3. If you take the computer to a computer repair shop, is there any
danger of losing your stuff on the computer while they try to fix it?
4. How do you defend yourself against future infections since new ones
seem to keep creeping up?

1. It can do a lot of things and yes it can be very damaging, or not that bad.

2. Depends on what gave you the message. A lot of spyware/adware/malware will infect your computer, then tell you you have it and prompt you to download something to clean it, which just infects you more. Yes, when you have some you are vulnerable to a lot of things.

3. Yes, always

4. Keep your OS up to date with patches and service packs, do not open e-mail attachments that are unsolicited, run a good program with realtime protection enabled

[BonosSaint]

Thanks.

I don't seem to be getting the malware warning message anymore. It wasn't suggesting a download. It was noting that Trend could not clean it. After Trend's update a day or so later, the message was no longer coming up. I checked with the Geek Squad and the guy indicated that the update probably allowed Trend to clean it.

Do I really need an anti-malware program or should Trend be OK for the most part? I like protection, but I don't want to install programs I don't really need as occasionally
they seem to conflict with each other and mess up other things. What are the real advantages of an anti-malware program? Any disadvantages? What are the good ones?

If I need to take the computer in, should I ask that they back up on a flash drive first?
It would be hard to duplicate what I have.

How often do you update Microsoft so it is current? Trend prompts often enough. Microsoft rarely, if ever, except for the window updates you get sometimes when you are turning computer off.

As you can see computer savvy is not my strong point.

Thank you for your patience.

[Liesje]

I wouldn't get multiple programs. If one is not good enough or not catching it, get something better that does everything. Running more than one causes equally damaging problems.

If you bring a computer in for anything I would back it up yourself, I would back it up anyway. Where you back it up depends on how much stuff you have.

You can turn on automatic updates to keep the OS current.

[BonosSaint]

I really appreciate you taking the time to answer me. Thanks.