Protecting your computer from ‘malware’

It seems like only yesterday when viruses and spyware were at the top of the list of PC annoyances. Today, the evolution takes us to its next kin…Malware. With malware, all you need to do is make one wrong click and *BAM*, you’re infected and there is little left to do with your PC other than call your computer tech and wait until it’s remedied.

There are no tools available right now that can proactively protect you from certain infections because they are “click induced”. This means that the spreading of infection requires that you CLICK on something to trigger the install of this malicious software. You may remember when “Yes”, “No”, and the red “X” actually meant something. Today, all of them equal a single keystroke…”Yes”.

There is, however, a very effective way of avoiding this headache. With these simple steps, you may be able to walk away from that infected website unscathed.

1- At the first sign of infection, it is very important to close out of the window BEFORE it has the chance to spread to your machine. The way to do this is by closing the window WITHOUT actually clicking in the pop-up window. The time it takes to do this is not important because (again) the malware is waiting for your click to advance.

2- To exit a window before infection, press Ctrl+Alt+Del before clicking anywhere else. Once you do this, a list of actions will come up. Click on the Task Manager. Once the Task Manager appears, click on the tab labeled “Processes”. Under the category “Image Name”, you’ll notice a long list of running applications. Look for the following processes:

• iexplore.exe – Internet Explorer
• firefox.exe – Mozilla Firefox
• chrome.exe – Google Chrome

 3- Click on the above process once and then click the “End Process” button. Make sure you get them all, as there are normally more than one instance.

If you manage to do this without first clicking in the annoying pop-up threat, you may have just saved yourself a meeting with your tech.