Running Virus Checks

[Bushwhacker]

Hi all,

Some advice needed here :

I currently have Norton Internet Security, Adaware and Spybot installed on my PC.

I deep scan with these roughly about once a week.

What I really want to know is am I doing enough to check that my PC is virus free - or should I be running something else in addition to these ??

TIA

[Bushwhacker]

Thanks johnpol179. Yip - they are all updated versions that I am running.

Whilst browsing the other night I got this pop up telling me that I had a Trojan and several other viruses - but these could be rectified by downloading the anti-virus software that the pop up was offering.

I didn't download the offered anti-virus software - but I did deep scan my PC with Norton, Adaware & Spybot. These showed I had no viruses.

So am I to take it that if I had downloaded the offered anti-virus software - that this would have infected my PC with viruses ???

[VHG]

You need to understand the difference between VIRUSES and SPYWARE / MALWARE.

An anti virus product will usually ONLY search for VIRUSES and NOT spyware.

Products like ADAWARE and SPYBOT (and MALWAREBYTES) search for spyware / malware and NOT viruses.

Norton Internet Security probably has an anti virus component AND a spyware / malware component.

While you should NEVER run two anti virus products on your PC (they may conflict) it is OK to run 2 or 3 spyware products as one product will rarely find all the different types of spyware.

So you are well covered.

[VHG]

The specific pop up you got the other day was a piece of spyware / malware that PRETENDS you have a load of viruses or other nasties on your PC to encourage you to splash out �29.99 on their piece of rubbish software (even if it exists).

In all these cases you DONT have any viruses, and they are just trying to frighten people who dont know better, and think they had better pay up to fix their "problems".

NEVER believe any pop up or web site that tells you that your computer is full of viruses or such like.

They are all a scam to try to get you to part with your money.

[VHG]

Some of these spyware / malware programs can be VERY nasty.

My daughter had one (maybe two) on her laptop a few months ago called I think "AntiVirus 2009" and one other (I think her boyfriend downloaded them).

This really screwed up her laptop and it disabled our existing anti virus (AVG), changed settings in the Windows Security Centre, directed web traffic through their web site to stop us downloading any new other security software, stopped Google seach working, and when I managed to uninstall it, after reboot it just reinstalled itself again.

I know a lot about computers but just could not untangle it. In the end I had to completely reinstall Windows.

You can read a bit about it here to show you how nasty they are and what they can do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_2009

[Bushwhacker]

Thanks VHG.

Yeah - the pop up I got really looked the part (it had what looked like the official Microsoft shield etc). It had obviously been designed to look as if it was being system generated.

I was suspicious, when I saw that it was attempting to get me to download - that was why I denied it and then ran Norton, Adaware & Spybot.

What I was most concerned about was that I actually had downloaded a virus but it was not being picked up by Norton, Adaware or Spybot.

[simoneparks]

I say go to http://www.iyogi.co.uk/

IYOGI helped me out!

:-)

[simoneparks]

Did i mention http://www.iyogi.co.uk/

IYOGI helped me out!

:-)