What to Do When Your Computer Has a Virus

A Trojan or Trojan Horse Virus is a program that usually gets downloaded installed and executed on a computer system which then appears to be performing some useful function but is unknowingly allowing unauthorized access to the user's computer system at the same time.

Hackers use Trojans to gain access to a user's computer remotely and then perform any number of malicious activities. These nefarious activities can include but certainly are not limited to:

>Data Theft.

>Keystroke Logging.

>Downloading or Uploading Files.

>Viewing the Victims Screen.

>Crashing the Users System.

Symptoms of Infection:

>Very sluggish computer performance.

>Random system lockups or crashes.

>Browser redirection - you are taken to websites you were not searching for while browsing the Internet.

>Excessive number of popup windows appearing at random while surfing the Internet.

>You are informed that your system has 'hundreds' of active infections and you are redirected to a website that insists you pay for and download their specific software package to remove the infections.

Solution:

There are many good anti-virus / anti-spyware products on the market designed to detect and remove these types of infections. McAfee and Kapersky are good but AVG and Avast! have similar products and offer a free downloadable version. Be sure to complete a 'Full' system scan and quarantine and remove all active infections. Configure your anti-virus software to perform 'active' scanning or real-time system monitoring.

Prevention:

>Do not install software you have downloaded from the Internet unless it has come from a known, reliable source.

>Use caution if using file sharing platforms such as LimeWire or torrent sites to download files.

>Do not open any email attachments from unknown sources.

>Use a good anti-virus/anti-spyware application and scan your system at least weekly. Be sure your anti-virus software is totally up to date with the latest virus definitions.

>For Windows users: Be sure to visit the Microsoft update site and download all the latest Microsoft security patches.