Computer Spot

The viruses and malware are practically everywhere these days. A recent virus outbreak on Facebook came in the form of an app.

It was an astoundingly clever one too. The app, disturbingly called If I Die, worked in a rather curious way. You were supposed to take a video for after your death.

The video was supposed to be played by someone you loved after you died. The app’s advertising slogan – “Death can catch you anywhere, anytime. Leave your If I Die message before it’s too late”. Well, how overwhelmingly silly.

But if you did find it oddly sweet somehow and you downloaded it, that’s when it hit you. It really did – it was a virus and not really an app that all.

It went and stole passwords and tried to steal from you. It did other things too – stole your photos, took pictures with your WebCam and spied on you.

It was one nasty piece of work. So what kind of method you use for Facebook virus removal? Usually, Facebook virus removal doesn’t need anything other than your traditional antivirus.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the only Facebook virus out there. Far from it, it’s only one of the latest ones to actually get any publicity. A while ago, Koobface was the Facebook virus that everyone wanted to talk about (yes, it’s Facebook spelled backwards).

In some instances as with KoobFace, Facebook virus removal can be done without actually turning to an antivirus software package.

While it can be done, it shouldn’t be the way you choose unless you don’t have antivirus (why you don’t have antivirus is anyone’s guess as there are plenty of great free choices out there).

Actually, KoobFace has been designed to thwart any attempts at manual removal. Manual removal requires that you be familiar with editing the registry. You’ll be able to find detailed instructions to do with deleting various registry entries all over the web.

With less nefarious Facebook viruses, removal tends to be slightly easier. For instance, with some Facebook viruses, all you need to do is to deny access to it and delete it from your account.

Doing that is pretty easy. You just need to go to the Account tab on your Facebook account, click on Privacy Settings, and then choose Edit your Setting for Apps, Games and Websites. At that point, it’s easy to remove the virus and deny access.

Prevention would be far better than attempting desperate cures like this, of course. Make sure that you don’t use Facebook apps and quizzes for no reason, and you should go a long way towards securing your account.

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If they opened a James Bond movie the way spring of 2011 opened, it would seem like quite a plot – cyber terrorists around the world attack Western computer systems.

First, they try a soft target – the Sony PlayStation data center; and then they get more ambitious and take Citibank data center security down.

US Airways is grounded because of a computer glitch; and so is United Continental just a week later. It’s the end of Western civilization – if James Bond doesn’t join hands and do something.

There’s one little way in which the whole story doesn’t ring true. This Citibank data center security breach and the one with the PlayStation were the only ones we learned about.

There are breaches occur almost every week that never get reported. People who trust that the banks know how to take care of their financial information and who give their credit card numbers to dozens of merchant establishments trusting that they will do everything in their power to keep them safe live in serious self-delusion. Read the rest of this entry →

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A new malware attack for computers connected to the Internet isn’t really news. There is one every minute. But only when it’s for Windows computers is it not news – Windows computers have famously had nearly half a million pieces of malware designed for them.

When someone designs malware especially for Apple computers, it certainly is news. The Mac has tried to push as its selling point it’s low profile to malware designers.

Apple has always said that the company, with its 12% market share, just doesn’t present as interesting a target to malware designers.

Apparently, someone just thought that designing stuff to take the Mac down could win him a bit of attention. The malware in question is especially remarkable for the fact that it masquerades as a version of the MacDefender Macintosh antivirus software. Read the rest of this entry →

How often do you use your personal computer? More than likely you make use of this handy resource on a daily basis. Moreover, you probably have more than one PC or Mac in your home that gets used every day.

At this point, most people simply cannot function on a day-today basis without their trust computers at their side. Since these advanced little machines are so extremely important for routine rituals and chores, it is naturally important to keep your PC healthy and running properly.

After all, it is not worth much if it can’t perform how you want it to. This means that you may require free computer virus protection to stay on the safe side.

Think about all of the sites and email addresses you come in contact on a daily basis. Whether you realize it or not, all of these can have an impact on your computer’s safety. Read the rest of this entry →

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Of course, if you think of free antivirus protection, you think of AVG if you want to go outside the family; or you think Microsoft’s Security Essentials if you want to think local.

If you want to cut down on the cost of your computer build by $50 or so a year, doing it with your choice of antivirus, is a great way to go.

But there is so much choice out there, some would say even more choice than you would if you were looking to pay money for your antivirus needs.

The best free antivirus protection out there can be basically indistinguishable from the paid ones in most areas that count. So what do you think could be missing?

The first thing to go in a free program is support. If you have trouble installing it, or with determining what to do if it says that it is unable to remove something, who do you call?

With free software, you call your geek friend, if you are lucky enough to have one. But there are a few enterprises out there that do give you limited e-mail or forum support.

Avast and Microsoft Security Essentials for example give you free e-mail support; AVG  does give you the option to use their toll number to call support.

Just one small catch there though, it costs $50 a call – which is more than you would pay for the program itself. But maybe limited or no support is no real deterrent; usually, for the reasonably educated user, very little goes wrong that they would actually need help with. And if they do, they can always go to an online forum and ask.

The other thing with free antivirus protection is the question whether it updates itself as regularly as the paid version. As a general rule, the free ones don’t check with the update server as often as the paid ones.

If you do happen to have the bad luck to come upon one of the newest viruses out there in between updates, you would be in trouble.

But no one actually has that kind of spectacular bad luck, that the newest virus out there should get to you in the one day it takes your antivirus to update itself.

But here too, the free ones are all caught up; Microsoft Security Essentials, if it is not up-to-date, and still comes across something it finds suspicious, will get online to check it out.

Panda antivirus will do the same. Paid ones will give you some extra computer scanning features, and will look out for you on your chat client too; and of course there is always the benefit that you don’t get the annoying “Do you want to install the Ask Toolbar” option,  when you install.

But really, this is just quibbling and splitting hairs. You get to save about $50 every year, using free antivirus protection, and that is not a bad deal. If you choose Microsoft Security Essentials, it might be even a better deal.

What do I think is the best free antivirus protection out there? The word to the street today is that Avira Antivir Personal is the real winner.

Its malware protection is second to none, it is fast in its scanning, and it doesn’t seem to slow down the computer as much. But it can be a bit tedious the way its user interface is designed.

And the same goes for Avast. These days AVG is particularly popular, but the protection does seem a little off. Microsoft Security Essentials is really good too.

The Panda Cloud antivirus does need a closer look; it uses a new approach entirely, going online every single time to search for virus definitions on its servers.

But this is kind of a new approach, and one needs a little more time to understand it properly. Free antivirus protection has really come of age now; if you ask me, you really can put your money away now.

Viruses and malicious code have been a major problem since the rise in popularity of the internet. A more recent, and growing problem are botnets, and the effect that they are having on cyber crime. Just what are botnets and who should be responsible for cleaning them up?

Botnets are a group of computers that have been compromised and that link themselves together to form a network.

The computers are compromised by malware, and are termed zombie computers. They do the work for the virus without any input from the owner of the computer.

These networks serve many purposes. They are normally used to generate money from the person who created the botnet, or they may be used to attack a website or a server.

Attacks such as these are called denial of service attacks, or DOS. They are intended to simply create havoc by stopping anyone else from using the server or website.

Spam is another function of these networks. Each computer in the botnet (and there may be thousands-even a million or more) sends just a small number of the spam emails in order to escape detection by the usual spam detection protocols. However, when a million computers send out a few spam emails-that’s a lot of spam that is sent out. Read the rest of this entry →

There is a virus that is aimed at the social networks-Facebook in particular, that is sweeping through the computers of the people who use the social networks. This very dangerous virus can be hard to remove and can cause a great deal of damage to your computer.

Koobface is a worm, and is not actually a new problem. It has been around for some time, but is becoming increasingly prevalent because of the number of people who now use the social networking sites.

Infection is via a link on the profile of one of your friends-or it might be sent to you via private message or be posted on your profile. Because the link is from a friend, and this encourages trust, and leads to many people clicking the link. A video then plays which contains the Koobface worm hidden within, which silently installs itself onto your computer without telling you.

It then searches your cookies on your computer. These are small files that contain your login information and other visit information to many sites. Read the rest of this entry →

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We all hate finding out that our computer has a virus and, until recently, there was not a lot that you could do about it except either pay a tech specialist to fix it up or just try to keep it blocked in the first place.

The problem is, there are only so many ways to be able to stop a virus and that means the more we know, the better we can fight them.

If you have not yet heard, the Google redirect virus is one troublesome computer pest that is a real pain to deal with.

This particular strain of computer virus will take over your computer’s web browser in such a way that it ends up sending you to annoying places on the web that you probably do not want to go.

With the Google redirect virus, it is one of those types of viruses that are a hassle more than they are purely destructive, but it appears that it was designed to make money for the design team.

A redirect virus is a big pain because it means you can not go to where you want on the web since it takes over and sends you to some other place. This is a big pain and definitely not something any of us want to deal with so knowing that you can get rid of it once and for all is going to feel good.

Most people imagine that they can do very little about this type of virus, but that is not true. There are plenty of ways to be able to stop it and you can find them a lot more of a hassle than anything else.

There is plenty of great information out there which is going to help you get that Google redirect virus off your computer if you simply take the time to look around for it which is definitely what you want to be able to do.

It is worth discovering the smart ways to eliminate this hassle from your computer because you will be very glad that you took the time to do so once all is said and done.

The best part of this process is that it is really not so hard to conquer such a virus if you know what to do. The Google redirect virus is easier to handle than most because it is a fairly quick fix, compared to many more serious infections.

With Google redirect virus removal software and services, it is much easier to get rid of that virus once and for all sot hat you do not have to deal with it in the future. Make the choice to be virus free and you will be glad you did.

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There are many dangers to using a shared computer, but unfortunately it is not always possible to avoid them. When you are forced to use a shared computer or else go without, how can you be sure that you are not putting your identity or personal information at risk, and enjoy safe computing?

There are two kinds of shared computer to be considered: the public computer, such as at a library, or the family computer.

The auto-fill and password memorization facilities on modern computers can be wonderful features for people who struggle to remember things, and are great on a personal home computer.

Yet on a shared computer they are a huge threat. If given the option to save or remember the password that you enter you should always say no, because the risk is that the user who follows you onto the computer can access your account by simply allowing the computer to fill in your details. Read the rest of this entry →

For a long time, the writers of viruses and other malware programs have been working on ever new ways to trick people into installing their virus, or allowing it to access their computer.

One of the newer ways is proving incredibly effective, and is something that everyone should be aware of.

You may know the situation. You are sitting at your computer, looking working online. Suddenly, a pop up window opens that tells you that you have a large number of viruses, and that you need to clean your computer. What do you do?

The first thing that you should do is look at the name of the pop up. If it is the antivirus software that you are sure that you have on your machine, then there is no risk in going ahead and using it to remove the virus.

But the trouble is that many of the rogues are named similarly, with just minor differences in their name compared to the real deal. Read the rest of this entry →