What is malware?
Malware is a bit of a catch-all term that encompasses
adware and spyware, as well as certain types of viruses,
most notably trojans.
Antivirus software has virtually eliminated infections from
old-school, traditional viruses - the kind that spread from
PC to PC. But antivirus vendors are still playing catch-up
trying to stop malware, most of which are "blended threats"
that combine techniques used by traditional viruses and
newer adware and spyware.
These malware programs are different because they infect
your computer through your web browser. Once the infection
is established, they don't try to spread themselves to other
computers on your network. Instead, they disrupt your work,
often with pop-ups telling you that your computer is
infected and offering to clean the infection if you purchase
their antivirus software. Of course, their "antivirus
software" is just more of their virus, and paying them will
not accomplish anything except give them your credit card
number, which they will then use fraudulently.
Why do people create this malware, and what are they
getting out of it?
The motive for creating malware is simple - people can make a
great deal of money from it.
Once the malware has infected a PC, it becomes a zombie,
or "bot" and the creators of the software can control it for
any of several nefarious purposes. The people who control
the swarms of bots, called "bot herders," lease out time on
their networks of bots. The people leasing time can use the bot networks to send spam, launch denial-of-service attacks,
launch hacking attacks, and to host websites which will
generate more bots.
How does malware infect computers?
Almost all malware infects computers through web browsers,
specifically, Internet Explorer. Contrary to popular belief,
you do not have to visit porn sites, or other dark and dingy
corners of the Internet to pick up such infections. Some
infections can be caused by "drive-by downloads" which can
infect your computer simply because Internet Explorer is up
and running. Other infections can come through various
websites that may have been hacked, or by poisoned ads on
completely innocent websites.
What can you do to stop it?
1. Make sure that your antivirus software is installed,
running properly, and up-to-date.
2. Make sure that all available Windows updates have been
installed. Just run Windows Update from your start menu.
3. Use Firefox as your web browser, rather than Internet
Explorer.
During the install process, be sure to set Firefox as you
default browser.
Once you have Firefox installed, there are two ad-ons you
should install. The first, called
IE Tab, allows you to specify that certain tabs in
Firefox should use the Internet Explorer engine, rather than
Firefox. This enables you to continue to use websites that
do not work properly with Firefox - without having to switch
back to IE. You might also want to chastise whoever owns and
operates those backwards websites, and tell them to get with
the program! The second, called
AdBlock Plus, blocks in-page ads. It is not required,
but it makes browsing the web a much more pleasant
experience.
If your PC is already infected, what should you do?
If you can still connect to the Internet, you can download,
install, update and run
MalwareBytes AntiMalware. That is currently (as of July,
2010) the most effective program we know of for cleaning
malware from PCs. You can use the free version, which is
perfectly effective.
If you can no longer connect to the
Internet, call us. We may be able to clean it from the PC by
using some advanced tools and techniques. If all else fails,
we remove the hard drive from the computer, connect it to
another computer, and run antivirus and antimalware scans
from that second PC. |
