It was working yesterday - honest.
Mrs C was happily surfing, as she
normally does on her computer, when a warning flashed up saying she had got countless infections on her computer and she needed to "do a scan immediately" which fortunately she could do by clicking on the "OK" button below!
Now, everyone knows not to do that (or you do now anyway), but these things are very persuasive and so, yes you've guessed, Mrs C clicked on "OK".
To cut a long story short her computer was immediately infected with a whole range of viruses, trojans, diallers - the full range of everything. In fact they (the bad guys) did too good a job - Mrs C's computer instantly stopped working thanks to the infections all trying to work and access the Internet at the same time .
When Mrs C's computer reached the Bertha Net workshop and after considerable head scratching, and more than the odd prayer, it was found to be infected with a nasty little program called Antivirus 2009 which changes it's name with the year (so this year it'll be called Antivirus 2010). As such it is just one of many variants of a group of programs called Rogue Security Software.
These programs are very clever, persuasive and highly persistent once you come across them. The writers of such programs want your computer and are not afraid to scare you into clicking a button - any button. In fact, regardless of what Mrs C clicked on, at this point, she was going to get infected.
The best solution? If presented with a screen warning of multiple infections, threatening all sorts of terrors turn your computer off by unplugging from the mains or removing the battery. Once you've done that it will be safe to reconnect the power and start in the usual way.
If you do get caught out and click only to think "I shouldn't have done that" do the following (in this order).
- Disconnect the computer from the Internet by unplugging the router or modem from the telephone socket, depending which you use to connect to the Internet with.
- Try and scan for viruses on your computer if your normal anti virus program is still working (it might be disabled by the virus you've just been fooled into installing).
- If your normal anti virus program isn't working unplug your computer from the mains power and, in the case of a laptop/netbook, remove the battery.
- Get help immediately.
Luckily Mrs C turned the computer off immediately once it was apparent that something serious had happened, so she lost nothing and is now a lot wiser!
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