How Did My Computer Get Infected?

This is often very hard to answer . . . and not because we don't know, but rather because of the reluctance of our customers to accept it. We often find ourselves repeating that very question back to the customer to find out what they know of how their computer is being used on the internet.

Several times a day we see computers in the repair center that have been severely infected. There is no cause that we can suggest and no evidence that we can find other than what the user behind the keyboard has done. These users are usually tricked into clicking on something from a webpage on the internet that they shouldn't click, or are not reading and comprehending the message boxes and other information presented to them before clicking.

There are many different types of these infections, most of them malware, but one of the most common malwares we have been seeing which we will take as an example is Antivirus 2009.

I keep hearing that word "malware." What is malware?

Taken from the Wikipedia entry for malware:

Malware, [a blend] of the words malicious and software, is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. 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.

How did that get on there? I didn't install anything!

You may have noticed this page launched a dialog telling you that your system is infected. You do not need to be alerted as this was ONLY a proof of concept demonstration. You may notice with some of these popups there will be no "CANCEL" button, or no other way to tell it "NO." You can, in many cases, close the window with the little red "X" in the upper corner, but for some of the trickier popups (such as the one on this page) even the "X" could still be falsely programmed as a YES!

Some other malwares will actually emulate the appearance of other safe applications. "Antivirus 2009" and a few of its variants are intended to look like messages coming from your Windows operating system!

Well how do I stop my machine from getting infected if NO equals YES?

The correct answer is Close your browser window. Don't click the "X" to close the Window, rather "right-click" on the task bar button and click the "close" option in the popup menu that appears.

It that doesn't work, or the option is grayed-out, you can attempt to kill your web browser from the Task Manager, or take the easy way out, and don't click anything; just shut down your computer.

How do I know its not really a Windows message telling me I am infected?

Microsoft Windows DOES NOT give virus alert messages. If it claims to be from Windows it is FALSE.


Why doesn't my virus scanner protect me?

These types of infections do not just happen on their own. Because your computer can just sit idle with its virus protection, with all systems and the firewall enabled and probably never get infected. This is one of the reasons why we offer a CyberSmart! Norton Antivirus Guarantee for 1-year. But, it is very difficult for a virus scanner (our house-brand Norton product included) to protect a user from their own actions. If you are clicking these prompts (thus installing rogue software on your system,) you are inadvertently circumventing your antivirus protection and infecting your system.

What do I do if I am already infected?

First off, DO NOT PAY MONEY AT THE REQUEST OF THESE PROGRAMS that request it. Many of these infections attempt to extort money from you to *clean* your system from an *infection* that probably doesn't exist. I will repeat DO NOT PAY MONEY AT THE REQUEST OF THESE PROGRAMS.

Do not continue to operate your machine! Immediately unplug it from the internet, or turn it off entirely. These infections could be looking for your bank account information, or sifting through your personal files for anything else that could be used to steal your money, or your identity!

Bring your machine to CyberSmart! for a checkup. We will remove the hard disc drives from your machine and scan them for viruses, malware, Trojans, and other nasty crimeware that affected your system and get it running just like when it was new. We will further discuss with you what NOT to do when you are surfing the internet.

What do I do if my system is cleaned, and it becomes infected again?

It will have to be disinfected again!

Most of the computers with similar infections as above get returned to us within a few months of time only to require disinfection again. In many cases there is a secondary user of that computer that doesn't have the responsibility to pay for maintenance of that machine. This could be your children or their friends, your spouse, or some other unauthorized user! Password-protect your computer to keep people out of it. Make sure your authorized users are educated on proper computer usage, and internet surfing techniques, and if you need to restrict access to certain users, we can limit them very specifically to the list of websites that you approve.

Haha! I run a Mac, and I can't get infected!

FALSE! While a Mac system cannot get the same malware as a Windows system, malware that runs on Apple computers has been around for years. You are only SLIGHTLY safer than the Windows public because Macs have a smaller market share. This correlates directly to the number of malwares that exist for Windows to the number of malwares for Mac.

If you don't believe me, look at the 1,350,000 results for "mac malware" on Google at this link:

http://www.google.com/search?q=mac+malware

How do I stop my machine from ever getting these type of infections again?

1. Keep your firewalls enabled, and your antivirus up to date.
2. Keep unauthorized people off of your computer, lock it down with passwords.
3. Stay off adult websites of any sort.
4. Do not pirate copyrighted materials.
5. Exercise caution when exchanging data with your friends (their data could be carrying an infection).
6. Do not open email attachments that you aren't expecting, and that haven't been scanned for viri first.
7. Start using Mozilla Firefox as your web browser. The technologies behind it are very different from Internet Explorer on a Windows system and you are far less likely to run into a problem.
8. Do not download so-called "free software."
9. Avoid pages that aren't relevant to what you are searching for or looking at. (If you search for "new tires" and you find a interesting link for cooking recipes, something might be out of place, and it might be smart to avoid that link.)
10. If you do see a warning that looks familiar, do not click on it; rather launch the status window of your Firewall/Antivirus software first to confirm it is actually reporting a problem!
11. Educate yourself on proper clicking and closing of message prompts received from websites.

Knowing what simple clicks on the internet can do to your computer, you will have a MUCH LESS risk of getting infected again. You will greatly reduce the risk of having your money or identity stolen from you So be careful, please- don't turn your computer into another statistic.

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By Glenn C. Obert
Webfoot Enterprises.com