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  Jacki Bilsborrow November 17, 2015 at 10:12pm

  Sometime this past summer I noticed a Norton antivirus was all of a sudden on my computer.  I did not put it there.  I use Malware bytes.  I kind of thought well, that can't hurt.  But it was doing something.  It had been on for a while.  Then, I realized things were not working like I was used to.  I went to the hard drive and looked at the programs and apps on my computer.  I took off the Norton and Java and things were so much better.  So, every so often I go in there and see what was recently put on my hard drive.  If it isn't something I put on it is uninstalled.   
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  Barry Bernstein November 14, 2015 at 1:52pm

  I left something out, that you should be aware of. One popular way that you get malware is from an ad on a legitimate web site. The ad gets hijacked and the link underneath the graphic gets changed to the scammers. You can test this, here. If you hover your cursor over the, lets say, Berman Art Photography ad on the right, down at the bottom on the left it will say bermangraphics.com. If it says anything else like scammersareus.cn, cn being a web site in China, chances are you are being diverted to a site that will cause you a lot of trouble.
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  Barry Bernstein November 14, 2015 at 1:45pm

  The current version of Flash is 19.00.245. I prefer a PC to a Mac. This has led me to understand security issues and what I have to do to protect myself. With Flash, the best thing is to set it to automatic upgrade so that you get the file directly from Adobe. Or, dump it. There are things you can't see that are written in Flash code, but, at least you eliminate a potential problem.

  There are a few things you can do to protect yourself. Keep in mind it is easier to prevent a problem than it is to clean it up, afterwards.

  1) Backup your files regularly. For us, once a month is enough. That way, if you have a hard drive failure, which happens more than you think, you only lose up to a months worth of data. Internet Security suites, like Bit Defender and Norton, have it built in. There are plenty of free ones that are easy to use. My favorite is called Reflect by Macrium.

  2) Never click on a link in an email. You are just asking for it if you do. It is too easy to get scammed by the bad guys who mask the link and bring you to their malware site. If you feel you can't resist, at least hover you mouse over the link which will show the real web site at the bottom of your browser. It it looks different or suspicious, it probably is.

  3) Anti-Virus programs and security suites are not 100% protective. They are always chasing the latest malware. Someone gets a virus, and then they fix it. Because of this, you need more than one form of protection, and I don't mean another AV program. My favorite, and the favorite of all my geek friends, is Malwarbytes Anti-Malware, and it's secondary program Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit. Both of these are free. There is a paid version, which I recommend. You shouldn't buy it at full price. Newegg offers them at a deep discount, maybe once a month. Check often and wait for the deal.

  4) It's a mistake to think that you don't need protection because you have a Mac. Apple does a good job of hiding their vulnerabilities because of their reputation. You still need to back up and you still need security.

  5) The free security AV and malware apps are almost as good as the paid versions. I'd use Bit Defender. The best paid versions of the security suites change all the time. If you do a google search for security suite reviews, you will find out which one is the current favorite. Currently, the best one is Bit Defender 2016. Norton and Webroot gets great scores, also. Buy the version that gives you a number of licenses. That way you can put the suite on your different devices or share it with your friends. For $60, we bought a version of Norton that has 10 licenses. Splitting that between 4 people costs only $15 each. And, look for a deal. They are on sale all the time.

  6) If you get a seriously wicked virus or malware, there are a number of deep cleaning options. All the security companies have one. The one I would use, is called Vipre Rescue. It updates every day and you need to use the freshest version if you need to clean a computer. Follow the directions.

  7) I can't stress this enough: Never click on a link from an email, especially one that tells you, you have viruses and malware on your computer. The only thing that alerts you to a legitimate problem is your security software. More than likely, Malwarebytes will alert you before your security suite.
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  Cindy Welch November 14, 2015 at 11:46am

  We have Norton on our computer and a couple portable back up drives though I don't think we've backed up recently.  This is making me think we need to back up this week.  dh is very big on having a good virus program that has updates to it.  At our brick and mortar business we have at least 5 computers and at home we have at least 3 so it's important to have excellent virus protection.

  Sometimes when we are out of town I take my laptop.  I really don't like using it except at home even though I know I can operate in private mode.  Only because I am not "convinced" it's really as protected as at home.  Let's say I am just really suspicious.  <vbg>

  I agree with looking at the headers of emails.  Probably 99% of those things are spam/malicious somehow.  That is what the delete button is for.
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  Alison Thomas November 14, 2015 at 11:16am

  I take backups very seriously.  I have two of those little portable drives.  This morning I went to the bank and put one in the safe deposit box and retrieved the other one.  Today or tomorrow I will back up everything on that one and then unplug.  Once a week I will plug it in and backup the most recent files and then next month I will switch them back.  My Quicken and Quickbooks backups go directly to an external drive.  My outlook is set up that the personal files are on that same external drive.  Several years ago I lost a computer to a virus and the only thing I lost were the emails in my inbox.  Since I'm using gmail now I wouldn't even lose those.  When I replaced my computer earlier this year I was amazed at how simple it was.  For almost all software I was able to go to the website and they had a record of me and I just downloaded.  I only ended up having to replace one software program that needed an update anyway because my version wouldn't work with the latest Photoshop.
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  don crozier November 13, 2015 at 8:08pm

  That's a shame when so much work is lost....

  All hard drives will fail, the question is, when?

  Everyone should have a Gmail account, it's free and easy. Even if you don't use it as your primary email account, you can use it to back up files by simply emailing them to yourself. The files are there on Google's servers no matter what happens to your computer.
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  Susan Spohn November 13, 2015 at 11:19am

  Also, if you have a PC it is good to use Carbonite to back up all your files/images. I can access all my files from any computer using Carbonite... so what is stored on this present computer doesn't matter so much, if it dies, it dies. I still have all my information. I also use Norton Antivirus, so most of these computer viruses and malware do not get into my computer. Carbonite and Norton Antivirus = peace of mind.
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  Steiph Zargon November 13, 2015 at 10:09am

  Hey Larry,  You didn't say was it a PC (Windoze) or Mac???  The windows pc will be much more likely to be vulnerable to malware attacks.  Macs can be affected... but a lot less likely.  Like Reid said,  if you can shut it down and start up in SAFE mode (with a Mac you hold the Shift Key until you see the "starting in safe mode" dialog) and then go from there.  A good tech might connect 2 machines and then start the suspect machine in [TARGET] mode.  Then scan for viruses and run disk repair and optimization software, to try and put thing is optimal order.

    I suspect by now many things have been tried-- I sure hope one or more of them was successful!  

     There is no worse feeling than having your computer ( LIFE ) violated by pathological strangers.  

  Good luck... and let us know how it turns out?
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  Reid Watts November 13, 2015 at 10:07am

  I agree with always checking an email header for who the real sender is for anything that could be a phishing message.  Real banks and large businesses do not use gmail, yahoo, mail.ru, etc.  Also do not use any links in an email message to log in to a site - go directly to the site by typing in the URL yourself.  Also, if there are any certificate problems are reported, do not log in.

  One other recommendation: if you router has a "parental controls" option, turn it on even if you do not have children.  Then set it to block all categories that you have no interest in accessing or could have dangerous content.  That can keep a lot of nasty stuff from ever getting to your computers.
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  Michael Ries November 13, 2015 at 9:52am

  I own a small computer repair shop and we are seeing these kinds of "attacks" and scams more and more. These bad people are trying to scare people into paying them, most of the time, not all, the threats are a bluff. There have been a few times when clients computer files have been locked by hackers and all files have been lost, most of the time that is not the case. In most cases the files can be recovered and the malware removed.
  Just remember DON'T pay these jerks, they are criminals plain and simple.