Viruses and Spyware
These are variously described as viruses,
Trojans, Spyware and Malware. What they all have in common is that they
are malicious software which has deliberately been written to cause
inconvenience and damage. This may take several forms:
Prevention
You should take the following steps to try to prevent infection by
Malware:
Disinfection
If you should have any form of Malware infection, obviously please
try to remove it using whatever tools you already have installed on
your computer. If you are unable to remove the infection, we would
strongly recommend that you stop using e-mail and the Internet until
the infection has been fully removed to prevent it spreading further.
We have a variety of tools available which will assist in speedy
resolution of this type of problem.
- Physical damage of files on the PC, which may lead to either lost data or Windows or other software not being able to start.
- Theft of confidential data.
- Theft of user IDs and passwords for Internet banking, etc.
- Severe slowdown of the PC.
Prevention
You should take the following steps to try to prevent infection by
Malware:- Ensure that Windows and all critical software is kept up to date on a regular basis.
- Install reliable on-access anti-virus software, ensure it is kept up to date and that regular full scans of the PC are scheduled. Our recommendations are:
- For most home users the free versions of AVG and Avira are a good option - see the Free Software link.
- For business users Sophos is widely recognised as being the top anti-virus product
- Ensure that a reliable firewall is in place.
- Do not visit websites with questionable content.
- Do not open e-mail attachments unless they are from a reliable source and you expected the attachment.