I am going to paraphrase a really good article from the Kentucky Commonwealth Office of Technology’s monthly newsletter.
Getting pop ups telling you your pc is infected! If you click here and pay $29.99 or $39.99 and we will clean your system. Watch out this is some fake antivirus or antimalware scam.
How do you get this infection? You clicked on a bogus link in a webpage or maybe you clicked on a pop-up. It all looks real and legitimate. This link or pop-up convinces you to click and the bogus software will disinfect and/or protect your system. Some website can infect you just by visiting the site. Hacker and Porn sites are famous for this.
Bad news is your antivirus and antimalware usually don’t offer much protection because they are reactive. This means the newest malware isn’t detectable because the security vendor hasn’t had time to place a signature put in to the malware definitions.
What’s going to happen?
Hard to say. Maybe you won’t notice any issue for days or weeks. All of sudden the computer is slow as sin and your internet connection is “talking” like crazy. You could be giving your keystrokes to a Russian gang. Your browser no longer takes you to google.com when you click on the homepage button. Maybe a trojan horse is installing some hackers program to take control of your system. If you operate the pc in an administrative account (as most users do!) the malware has rights to do just about anything to your system. All manner of changes to your system will now make it down right impossible to remove the rogue program(s).
What can I do for protection?
1 Patch your OS, browser, and various software to keep it updated.
2 Keep your current security software updated and active.
3 Don’t click on any pop-ups for security software.
4 Limit active X and scripting in your browser preferrences. Seek professional help with this from a computer repair shop or a consultant.
5 Back up. Sometimes a bad infection will require a complete reformat and reinstallation of your hard drive and OS.
6 Run your updated antivirus and antispyware at least weekly.
If you are concerned that any of your network pcs may be compromised give us a call. We do small business IT support so you don’t have to!