Strap on your safety belts. There is more malicious software than ever before circulating on the Internet: Trojan horses, spyware, and more, collectively known as “malware.” Want a healthy, fast computer? Here is a list of best practices to help you use the Internet safely.
Spyware and Trojan horses are tricky. In much the same way the Greeks used the original Trojan horse to capture the city of Troy, a modern Trojan horse program is designed to trick you into thinking the software is legitimate or necessary for your computer to run. Since clicking on it will technically approve the program to run or be installed, many types of Trojan horses can circumvent antivirus or antispyware protection on your computer.
How does this software get on my computer?
Most malware – including Trojan Horses – cannot install itself on your computer automatically. It needs user input in order to circumvent typical automated protection. To do this, malware often tries to trick you with a seemingly important message telling you that action needs to be taken on your computer.
If you get a pop up that says your computer is not protected from viruses, it is most likely malware attempting to install itself on your computer.
A few pop-up examples: - “No antivirus is installed on your computer… click here to download free antivirus.”
- “Your computer is not protected…”
- “Your computer is infected with a virus… urgent action needed!”
- “Your computer has been scanned and we have found xxxx numbers of spyware on your computer… click here to install the internet’s #1 free scanner.”
In almost every instance, these messages are false and not generated by your antivirus software.
What should I do if I get a pop-up like this?
Often, these pop-ups do not allow you to click “no” or “cancel”, or they will act as if you have clicked “yes” if you do click on “no” or “cancel.” The safest thing to do if you get a pop-up like this is to close your web browser following these instructions:
- Press CTL+ALT+DEL.
- Click on “Task Manager” or “Start Task Manager” in the window that comes up.
- On the “applications” tab, find each instance of your web browser. It will likely be “Internet Explorer” or “Firefox” or “Google Chrome.”
- Click the “end task” button.
- If the popup is still open on your computer even after you have ended all Web Browser windows, call your IT provider for support.
What can you do to prevent your computer from being infected from malicious content?
Managed antivirus is quite effective at stopping viruses and worms. Free antivirus software and antivirus software that is installed but not routinely updated is not as effective due to the number of new threats that are created daily. In addition, businesses should routinely update their computers with the latest operating system patches to prevent vulnerabilities and keep the version of Internet Explorer on computers updated for safer web browsing. Anti-spam and firewall protection services from an IT provider is also key. Unfortunately however, malicious content like spyware and Trojan horses can often circumvent this protection by having you interact with them and unintentionally “approve” their installation.
How can I avoid spyware in the first place? - Make sure your Internet browser is updated to the latest version.
Newer versions of Internet Explorer or Firefox do a better job blocking spyware. - Have good spam filtering.
If you are getting spam in your inbox it may have spyware attached to it. If you get a lot of spam, consider using a service that that filters all of your incoming mail for spam before it even reaches your computer. - Avoid clicking on banner ads!
Advertisers might not like to hear us say this, but infected banner ads have been one of the biggest sources of spyware recently. A completely legitimate banner ad on a website such as cnn.com can have spyware attached to it. By clicking on the ad you may launch the spyware. If you want to look at the content of an ad, it is safer to find the advertiser’s website using Google or another search engine and going there directly.
Why doesn’t my antivirus stop this spyware?
Anti-viruses across the board have struggled to keep up with the creativity of spyware authors. Most of the time, spyware gets installed through user action. By clicking on a window you “approve” the spyware to be installed, even if you think it is something else.
What’s all this I hear about Adobe Flash being infected?
Adobe Flash is very popular and can be a carrier for spyware. While Adobe Flash may not be flawed or full of bugs, it is possible to attach content to an Adobe Flash file, such as a banner ad.
What can these do to my computer?
Some infections can completely disable your computer, others may delete or corrupt your files and render them unrecoverable. However, many virus, worms and Trojans are designed to take control of your computer for some purpose, or to gather information off of your computer. These may run silently, with little indication they are present on your computer.
Are there solutions on the horizon to this problem?
Many antivirus vendors have recently developed technology called link scanners. Until recently, link scanners tended to cause more problems than they solved – they tend to use very large amounts of bandwidth to perform their scanning action, and were unstable. However, they are becoming more reliable and less intrusive. They attempt to proactively scan links on all web pages and Internet searches you do for malicious content, and block the sites or put an alert on your web page to let you know the content is dangerous. Link scanners have been available for some months, and clients that have link scanners installed as part of their antivirus software generally see a decrease in the number of malware infections.
Even with these systems in place, there is no substitute to being educated about the threats lurking on the Internet and taking an active role to prevent your computer from becoming infected. In general, you can prevent many infections from ever getting on your computer by being vigilant. Having a good combination of automated systems to protect your computer, and being educated about the threats on the Internet will save you hours of time, frustration, and lost data.
Russ Levanway is the CEO of TekTegrity, Inc. TekTegrity is an IT Strategies and Management firm that provides premium IT services to businesses, government, education and nonprofit organization in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Monterey and Kern counties. TekTegrity’s goal is to become your organization's long-term strategic partner by supporting your IT infrastructure with your bottom line in mind. Some of TekTegrity’s services include System and Workstation Installation, Virtual Hosted Servers, Priority Backup, Off-Site Data Replication,, and Total Systems Management™ (TSM). TSM is an industry-leading managed services model that emphasizes proactive and preventative IT support at a predictable fixed monthly fee. For more information about TekTegrity, you can reach them by email at
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, on the Web at www.tektegrity.com, or by telephone at 805-596-0135.
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