Today's malware authors aren't just looking to cause trouble; they're after your money and personal information, which these days are synonymous. Attacks are only going to increase in number and sophistication. If you thought you could avoid an infection by staying away from questionable sites, downloads, and e-mail links, you're mistaken.
The only way to play it safe is to assume the worst. That's why I spent several hours last week disinfecting a notebook computer that probably wasn't infected in the first place.
It all started when I decided to run a free online virus scan on my notebook. I use a top-rated security suite that's set to update its virus definitions and other settings automatically, so I was confident the scan would come up empty. (I'm not going to name either product because I don't want this post to be construed as a recommendation one way or the other.)
Unfortunately, after a complete system check, the online virus service told me it found two suspicious files on my notebook. The scanner's option to remove the files was grayed out, and the option to "skip" them was recommended.
News 3 years ago
