Do you have a computer that is infected with a virus or other malware?
A laptops innumerable malicious programs that can infect your computer. Here are a few different types:
- Virus: These are programs that replicate themselves between computers and attach themselves to existing programs. This is usually a catch-all term used for all malware.
- Trojan Horse: This type of malware masquerades as a harmless program but opens your computer up to other malware programs and can be used as a “back door” for accessing a computer remotely.
- Worm:These are self-contained programs and replicate themselves on computers. They are also known for consuming large amounts of bandwidth on networks.
- Rootkit: This is a program that takes administrative control of a computers operating system and denies access to users. These can be the hardest to remove since they are usually loaded before the Operating System even starts.
- Adware: These are programs that infect a computer with the sole purpose of displaying advertisements to users.
- Spyware: This is used to collect personal and passwords from users and can be used in identity theft.
- Scareware: These type of program scares the user into thinking they are virus infected or have a failing hard drive. Then then try to trick the user into paying them money to remove the non-existent virus.
|Typical Cost Breakdown:
|Basic Virus Removal: $95||Complete Virus Removal: $145|
|Updates Adobe Flash:||X|
|Updates All Browsers:||X|
|Updates Adobe Reader:||X|
The Basic Virus Removal does NOT protect you from future Malware infections.
Fake Antivirus Scareware: This is a very common type of malware today. Most people get this by clicking a bad link on a website or an email. I tries to scare people into thinking they are infected so they buy the software. If you ever see something that says you are infected or your hard drive is failing, just close out your browser by right-clicking it on the Start Bar and click Close Window, because if you click it anywhere else it will install it.