<p>So annoying! S and his GF were playing some FB game last night when they got one of those annoying “your computer is infected! Click “ok” to do a scan of your computer” type messages. </p>
<p>Of course, the pop up “looked” legit upon first glance, so S must have clicked ok. My AVG did not pick it up and it wouldn’t let me run MalBytes. S will be hauling it to our computer “fix it” guy this morning for a clean up.</p>
<p>Why don’t virus programs pick some of this stuff up?! I sometimes feel like I need to get a degree in Computer Science just so I can manage some of this type of stuff on my own. :(</p>
<p>The inconvenience, the cost. SO annoying!!!</p>
<p>Any tips for what we should have/could have done at home to take care of it? It had it’s own little “icon” on the lower right part of my running programs.</p>
<p>abasket - my MIL had the same thing happen. I spent DAYS figuring out how to get it off her computer. It was not easy, but after some internet research, it was possible. If I hadn’t had my (uninfected) laptop available, I couldn’t have done it. It seemed that the virus blocked access to all the info about fixing it. If it was the same thing (it sounds like it, but the name of the malware escapes me), you did the right thing by bringing it to a professional.</p>
<p>Couldn’t help thinking - WHO HAS TIME TO MAKE THIS STUFF UP? Couldn’t they spend their time doing something constructive, like, say, curing cancer?</p>
<p>My S really did feel bad. You would have thought I had caught him on some porno site or something. In his mind, if it was Facebook related, it was “safe”. Ha ha.</p>
<p>Facebook applications are notorious for carrying viruses, malware or otherwise doing things other than what users think they’re doing. </p>
<p>If you want to use the “applications” on the site one needs to be extremely careful. </p>
<p>In addition to applications be very wary of random posts and links that appear on your profile. These too also often lead to malicious code… especially if link is followed by a screen asking for permission to have access to your profile. </p>
<p>I certainly see how people see a site like Facebook as a clean bubble on the net free of the nasty infectious bits of code floating around on the “normal” internet… it’s not and one needs to still be just as, if not even more, careful.</p>
<p>There are a number of these malicious programs out there that are actually Trojan Horses. This particular genre is referred to as “ransomware” because it tries to get you to pay for the cure. I got one version called HDD TOOLS by clicking a link on the Huffington Post site. They are everywhere. </p>
<p>You can research how to get rid of it manually which involves deleting specific files in the programs folder and registry. Which is something that the average computer user should not attempt. In my case I did a Systems Restore which solved the prob. </p>
<p>PS I have the full paid version of McAfee which did not stop the bug nor even identify it even after running a full scan. I really think Microsoft should address this in their frequent system updates.</p>
<p>I thought about doing a system restore, but at that point last night (or actually this morning about 12:30am!) I felt too uncertain to do anything but shut it down and let a professional handle it. </p>
<p>A good excuse to get our annual “spring cleaning” on the computer anyway!</p>
<p>I have used system restore with success. I has a weird virus that would not let me get to my anti virus programs because it said they were viruses. I just restored my computer to an earlier date and that took care of the problem.</p>
<p>Antivirus programs look for virus signatures. When a new virus is created, they have to see it and then add the virus signature. If they haven’t seen it before, then they cannot catch it. I think that this model is eventually doomed. Signature databases just keep getting bigger and bigger.</p>
<p>One safer approach, if you must use Windows, is to run virtual machines. A virtual machine is a machine inside your machine. You need VM software like Parallels, VMWare, or VirtualBox and an additional Windows license. You create a virtual machine with Windows and then create a copy of it. Then you run the copy. If it gets infected, you just delete it and then make another copy of the original VM and then run that. You basically have a disposable operating system - when you don’t want it anymore, you just toss it.</p>
<p>System restore has been great for my younger son’s desktop. He plays Runescape and sometimes picks up viruses while bopping around the internet looking for tips/cheat codes… I have successfully salvaged his machine with System restore 2-3 times now.</p>
<p>Computer store called a bit ago - my computer is already fixed and ready for pick up!</p>
<p>I asked the tech on the phone what I could have done at home to solve the problem myself - he said that since it was a virus, if the AVG didn’t pick it up there wasn’t much I could do - he said a system resource probably would not help because viruses “hide”.</p>
<p>Computers - can’t live with them, can’t live without them!!!</p>