Often I find that a person’s computer was infected because they fell for the LIE that was told to them by a bad guy.  The most common one is the pop-up window that LOOKS like it comes from their anti-virus software or Windows telling them that they ARE infected.  The trick is that at the moment, they are NOT infected – the pop-up window is just a cleverly designed paged that gives the impression that it is scanning your hard drive and finding all kinds of problems.  In the window will be a “call to action” to click on a button to download a “fix” or program to get rid of your problems, and often is another button saying “No Thanks” or “Ask me Later”.  Clicking on either button (or anywhere within the window) is fatal because THAT is when the real virus gets downloaded onto your computer.  It asks for your permission, you say yes and that’s it, you’re infected.  If you should ever encounter one of these windows, the best thing to do is DON’T touch, close any other programs you may be running and reboot your computer.  If you’re lucky it was just a malicious html (web) page and is gone – if it comes back then they got in another way, probably through an unpatched vulnerability in Adobe Reader, Flash or Java.  I wrote about how NOT to get infected in my monthly article exactly one year ago, if you need a refresher or missed it the first time you can read it here: http://goo.gl/afEha

You’ll notice I titled this article “Don’t Compound One Lie With Another.”  What’s the other lie?  It’s when a tech person tell you over the phone without seeing your computer that they can get rid of any virus, period.  There are so many viruses out there, so many ways to infect your computer and so many places to put the virus on your computer that anyone who tells you that is either delusional or lying.  I’m not saying that you CAN’T get rid of a particular infestation, professionals have tools at their disposal that you may not know about and a knowledge of where viruses like to hide to make sure that they are in fact gone – but some viruses just don’t want to go.  For example, there are infections that “wrap” themselves around you operating systems’ files, making it impossible to remove without actually breaking your computer.  Another type is known as a “root kit” – these guys hide where your hard drive first looks when it starts Windows, and Windows just thinks it’s “part of the family” and keeps it safe from things like your anti-virus software.  Sometimes, the only way to ensure that the infestation is gone is to completely wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows from a disc you trust (after having backed up your data of course.) 

So if you find yourself infected (and if you’ve followed my advice it’s unlikely you will) and you call someone for help, make sure they give you a best and worst case scenario of your situation.  Getting rid of the symptoms of a virus usually isn’t too hard, but that doesn’t mean other stuff isn’t still going on silently in the background.  Being free of symptoms and being free of the virus can often be two different things.

I had someone call me with a virus and was hoping to get a “deal” on getting rid of it.  I briefly explained what it would probably cost and what it could possible cost and they explained the last time they got a virus they took it to someone who got rid of it for less.  If that someone had done them the service of telling them how NOT get a virus, I wouldn’t have even been having the conversation with them.  They said “Thank you” and would get back to me.  They might have saved a few dollars, but it gets expensive to keep re-infecting a computer.

Get an honest opinion, and if they tell you how to avoid getting re-infected (and they should) please pay attention.  Let viruses be other people’s problem, not yours.