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| How do I keep getting infected? |
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What most people don't understand about their Windows machine, is how easily it can be compromised. Most machines we see are infected to a point of crashing with the most innocent of intentions.
User Error
The inability for the average person to determine whether the above decisions are bad or good is ultimately what keeps viruses alive and well. Doing any of the above will almost always result in an instant infection of some sort on the user's Windows box. How is it so easy to get infected? Well, when the user downloads things from an unknown location, it is obviously not a good idea to execute them (double click, hit enter, open, run, etc). Windows makes things TOO simple (regardless of how complicated the user thinks Windows is, it's really not) for the average user, and the average user doesn't have the background to make certain decisions that they simply have to make every day. Windows does not compensate by helping the user, or making it harder to harm the user's system. Combine this with poor configuration out of the box, with no focus on security in general, and a user can tear up a Windows installation very quickly.
Downloading 'Free" Stuff is BAAAAD....usually.
Screen savers are notorious for containing viruses. Most sites that give away ANYTHING do so with an agenda. They have planted something to spy on the user in that product they are giving away. Usually, it's some form of ad-support software. What is that? It is additional software bundled with the product being given away that installs silently (or not so, in more legitimate cases) along with the screen saver, and is configured to run all the time in the background. This software monitors where the user goes and what the user does, and displays advertisement specialized just for the user. Most consider this an invasion of privacy, not to mention the drag on system resources (slows everything down). Most of these programs don't uninstall without a fight, either, so good luck in getting them out. The more malicious ones are trojans (over-simplified definition: a type of virus). Trojans log users' keystrokes and steal credit card information, along with all the user's contacts' email addresses and their passwords for their email and other things, and sends them to the hackers that control the trojan software. These types of problems usually plague "free" software of any type.
Instant Messenging Programs...Use with Caution
If the user uses an instant messenger, they are at risk for infection. What is an instant messenger (IMs as they are called)? AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ (Play on the phrase: I seek you) and a host of compatible alternatives that share those networks. Older versions of all this software can be infected by worms (over simplified, viruses that spread by themselves through zombie computers). Zombie computers are infected and remote controlled by hackers. If a Windows box is infected, it is a zombie computer. Yes, most times a user can still send email, chat, surf, and write papers, and yes, it's not uncommon for the antivirus to say that the computer is clean. But that doesn't mean the system is clean. Viruses are clever. They can hide from antivirus products, and some products aren't very good at detecting infections (despite their name, or popularity). Robots send the equivilent of spam to users in the form of errant messages through "instant messeging programs", so the user might get strange messages from weird names who they have never seen before. The user should NEVER click on any links in any of these messages. Those webpages on the other side of those links will try to infect the Windows box through flaws in Internet Explorer and AOL (both 9.0 and AOL Explorer).
Update Windows and the Installed Antivirus
To finish up, that gold/yellow shield in the bottom right corner of the screen is Windows trying to tell the user that there are updates for the computer. The user should double click on that shield and install those updates. These updates help Windows and the user. The updates patch flaws in Windows to make it harder to get infected. When the user ignores these things, it makes it easier to get Windows infected. It wouldn't hurt to update that antivirus product as well. They update daily, and if they aren't up to date, paperweights become more useful. An antivirus program 3 weeks out of date is useless against anything that has come out in three weeks. That doesn't sound so bad? Over 200 viruses, trojans, and worms come out every month. It only takes one to destroy a Windows system.
So, in review....do NOT do these things:
Also, just in case it wasn't already obvious, the following types of websites are sites that should be avoided because of the high risk of infection and malicious downloads:
These sites will always find something on a computer just so people will install their software, then they will charge to clean what it found off, and the kicker is that most software like this actually infects the system rather than clean it. |
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