Lately I’ve received a lot of computers at the shop; all of them with the same virus. Normally I don’t question where customers visit; however, this week I asked several customers because the viruses were so difficult to remove. I know I’ve written several times about Facebook and some of the dangers lurking on that site. Within the last two weeks or so there seems to be a pandemic of really nasty viruses lurking there.
Without making it sound like I’m badmouthing Facebook I am going to give you the long and short of how this new series of Facebook viruses is spreading. Basically, someone who you don’t necessarily know may send you a movie or some other message with an attachment. When you click the attachment nothing happens. But, at the time you click it, a virus is placed on your computer without you knowing. When the computer is restarted the virus takes over and instantly limits it from doing anything.
Most of the time Facebook mail and messages are checked and initially read through e-mail – not Facebook. I haven’t seen too much come through with people who use Gmail and Yahoo to read their e-mail. I believe because those two websites utilize exceptional virus scanning before you get the mail. An easy way to protect yourself is to limit opening attachments from people who you don’t know. As I’ve written many times in the past, use your head.
I just cancelled my Facebook account for other reasons. I have instructed everyone I know who has a Facebook account to be careful of this type of e-mail. Most people I talk to still believe viruses are simple pesky nuisances. The latest virus threats target personal information like credit card and social security numbers. For obvious reasons this can be very dangerous.
Jeanine has a serious problem with her e-mail. She asks, “Someone attacked my e-mail and sent [a men’s health product] advertisement to everyone on my contact list. What can I do?” Well Jeanine, the best thing you can do is change your e-mail password immediately. I suggest a combination of letters, numbers and characters using both upper and lower case.
Most likely your password was something fairly easy to decipher. This is not the first time I’ve heard of this type of problem. Basically, the hacker was using your e-mail address and contacts to send advertisements and/or viruses to potential readers. The attachments probably contained a key logger so the hacker could monitor the receiver’s computer and use their e-mail account too.
A good scan with a product like Malwarebytes or Spybot may detect any remnants of this type of monitoring software. As I stated earlier, changing your password to something harder to decipher is always a good idea. Obviously, you should never share your password with anyone.
Though it may be slightly embarrassing, I bet most people will be sympathetic once they realize it wasn’t you who sent the e-mail. I think you should send an apology to everyone on the receiving end of the mailing list. Almost every time I hear about this type of scam, the hacker left the e-mails in the sent items folder. This makes it very easy to see where the e-mails were sent.
As I always preach, you should make sure your security software is up-to-date and you should have already installed and updated two or three malware utilities. Create new passwords monthly and make sure they’re at least a combination of letters and numbers. An example of a good password is “h@Mb8rg3R” versus the bad version “hamburger” which is much easier to guess.
Tip of the week: Clean your computer fans so your PC can breathe too. Dust and lint can cause a computer fan to stop working altogether.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can e-mail him at remoquin@gmail.com or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)