Beware of the Malware
☆Malware:
This pretty much covers it all. Software that you do not want and probably got on your computer without you knowing about it and without your permission. This can be, of course a virus, worm, trojan, adware, spyware, toolbars, and others.
A Virus is generally a program ment to be a joke or even destructive.
A Trojan can be used for many things from installing back doors to your computer to snagging passwords or bank information.
Adware wants to sell you something. You'll usually see pop-ups that you cannot get rid of with this kind of scripting.
Spyware keeps track of internet activties and can also steal passwords.
Scareware should be called scamware because it tries to fool you into thinking you need to purchase useless software to get rid of unwanted software on your machine. Does not work and the scammers get your money.
Worms are self-replicating and can take up storage and memory on your machine.
☆How did I get this on my machine:
There are about a million ways to get bugs on your computer. We'll just list a few so you can take some precautions:
You don't go to websites - they come to you and while they are loading website files on your machine they could be loading other things, too.
Any program you install on your computer could have bugs. Scan everything.
Not updateing your java on your computer. A newer version can knock out an older, bug riddled version.
Installing so called free toolbars on your browser. They could have bugs, take over your browser, and for sure slow your browser down.
If you get a pop-up do not click inside the window to close it. ALWAYS click out of it by using the X in the upper right hand corner (Mac - upper left). If you click on their button - they got you.
Not keeping your anti-virus software up to date. This is very important because people who write malware (toads) produce over 200 new ones daily and your virus protection can stop only the bugs it knows about so update now.
☆Prevention can save you money:
Keep your anti virus updated. We recommend AVG Free - it's free and updates automatically. Careful how you install it or you will get the trial version. Microsoft Security Essentials is also good.
Beware of shady websites - usually the "free stuff" will get you.
Keep ALL software on your machine updated.
Don't trust anything you download from the web. SCAN IT!
We highly recommend the free version of Malwarebytes. Its free but you have to update and run yourself but it is worth it. The "paid for" version is about $25 bucks but be careful because it can slow down older machines as it runs in realtime
☆Never trust emails you're not sure of especially attachments. Just delete.
Remember, there is not a 100% method to prevent malware from penetrating your machine. That's why we are here.
