I know this is a bit late. It’s been one of those days. I do computer work for some local clients ( I think I’ve talk some about making sure you have multiple streams of income – well that is one of my streams), who had a laptop that was infested and yep that is the correct word. Infested with Trojan viruses. Not just the run of the mill kind, but the kind that is able to take your credit card information, log ins, passwords etc. and send them to someone that is not going to do nice stuff with that information. So we spent most of yesterday, last night and today working on fixing the problem.
The point I want to make to you is this problem could have all been prevented by doing a few things… that don’t really cost a whole lot of money.
1. Make sure you have a virus checker and keep it up to date. We use AVG and have for years. Set it so that it updates and scans automatically (that way you don’t have to think about it). You can find AVG free here – http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage
2. Get some type of Malware software. We use MalwareBytes Anti-Malware
Which again is free. Â http://www.malwarebytes.org/
3. Don’t visit sites that you think may be problematic. If you think you have a trojan, or you start getting warning messages – a) Unplug the internet, b) X out of the site you visited, c) run a scan immediately.
If teaching people how to properly use their computers seems like a path you’d like, consider an instructional technology masters degree.
We should have the video I promised for you on Tuesday of next week.
[…] One of the things that happened this week was about 24 hours spent working with a client trying to get a Trojan horse out of this computer. It was a wicked one and it was really hard to get rid of. Here are some details about how to protect your computer – http://www.cleverapple.com/blog/tips-for-keeping-your-computer-safe/ […]