New Virus Problems

The most frequent (and most vicious) virus problem we are seeing at The Nerd Guy is the "yellow shield" virus. That is the very sneaky virus that pops up on your screen telling you "you have a virus infection" and saying "click here" to fix. Don't click it! Anything you click on that window is an invitation to a virus that NO virus software can prevent because YOU are clicking "okay" unintentionally. Just right click on the tabs at the bottom of the screen and close them or open Task Manager by holding down the control-alt-delete keys on the keyboard and close the window from there. THAT is the only way to keep this one out.

Much debate has happened (at least at my house) about what is safe and what isn't as it relates to getting a virus. I'm going to be updating this post for the next few days as I collect opinions, but I want to let you know the WAYS people are getting viruses while they surf.

FaceBook is one way viruses are getting into people's computers. Here is my best advice: don't use the little "apps" like farm stuff, mafia stuff, etc. Whenever you use one - even the FamilyLink (which I was really excited about) - you have to grant all these permissions for the application. Well, that makes those applications the ideal way to transmit a virus! The virus will come in on the application you've given permission for and just begin INFECTING away!

Last week (August) I received 2 facebook chats from my fb friends, each asking me to try to beat their IQ score on some quiz application. I knew for a FACT one of the friends wouldn't have sent that chat on that day because we'd been debating politics earlier and weren't feeling "warm and fuzzy" toward each other. I sent him a private message in the facebook message center and asked him if he'd sent that. I told him that if he didn't send it, he had been hacked and he needed to report it to facebook and change his password.

I've also seen messages in my inbox on facebook that don't really look like something my friend would send. My friends wouldn't send me something about winning a free iPod or playing facebook games for money, because they know the amount of time I spend preaching on here! If you see an odd message like that, do NOT open it. Delete it. Then compose a new email to let your friend know and ask them to report it to facebook.
More to come . . . .