The Treacherous Malware Times: Evolving Threats, Evolving Tactics

Malware is not what it used to be ten years ago. The new strains are much more violent and much more permanent in their result.

In the past, I would usually encounter malware that ran as a process that you could kill and then remove. In more serious circumstances, you may have been required to do a reboot before the problem software was completely removed. Not so with the new strains of malware…they intend to leave a permanent reminder that they were there.

Trojans such as Trojan FakeAlert are almost like child’s play compared to some of the more vicious malware monsters out there today. Just this evening I went out on a call to repair a computer that the owner stated, “the computer has been progressively getting slower and slower and after clicking around it control panel the computer will not boot.” What happened is much more sophisticated than the quoted explanation above. 

In reality, the computer boots to the point that the mouse arrows shows but the desktop screen is black. Even though the problem above may be do to malware using a spyware doctor download or other malware removal tool may not fix the problem as in this case. The problem is that the malware has completed its damage and now the explorer.exe or one or more of its support files has been corrupted. 

The best action to take is a preventive action. Fortify your system with software like PC Tools Internet Security, Norton Internet Security or another reputable security software package so that you are protected from the bulk of these attacks.

Product Reviews

I’ve Learned Some Things About Antivirus and File Management Software

I’m finding that it is possible to download some great software tools to help improve my efficiency at work and at home. Some are free and some aren’t. In particular I am thinking about the importance of antivirus software for my computer.

I’ve had the occasional virus over the years, and it can totally ruin hundreds of files and cause very significant losses. Even the more benign viruses can slow you down. So I’ve determined to make sure I always have updated antivirus protection on all my computers.

The thing is, there are a number of good free programs you can download to obtain solid virus protection. I’ve come to learn that the free software does the trick, but I need to also install additional software to protect against trojan horses and adware.

Although usually not as dangerous as a true virus attack, your computer can get really slow if there are thousands of cookies and other gremlins interfering with its operation. The free antivirus software will likely not protect as well against all the internet marauders; so it might be best (and fastest) to buy a modestly priced package like Avast! or Norton.

Finally, as the business world leans towards a paperless environment, there is the need to be able to consolidate and organize all types of files from hundreds of software applications. We’ll likely find more and more the need to convert spreadsheets, text files and photographs to pdf format.

Of course, Adobe is the Big Dog in this field, with a number of other players as well. Adobe Acrobat is probably the best-known software package and there are a few choices of exactly which product in that family you choose. If your needs are very basic, you might be able to get away with the free Adobe Reader. That is pretty limiting though, and I’ve found that I need something that will let me work with the files rather than just read, save, send and print them.

Whichever file management software you select, you’ll find that there are significant time savings in being able to quickly work with pdf files. I suspect this is only going to become more prevalent in the future.