WARNING! WARNING!

Imagine my surprise one evening, while surfing away, a program suddenly announced that I had 61 Trojans and they were causing great damage to my computer. Did I want to fix them now? Well, duh. (You thought I was going to talk about cap and trade, didn’t you?) There were two buttons to choose: “Remove Virus” or “Cancel.” The notification looked like the one I typically get from my virus protection software. In the background an active scan was being conducted and the problems inside my computer were doubling indicated by red numbers. Instinctively I moved my mouse to “Remove Virus”. I hesitated only long enough to ask myself “Why didn’t my virus program advise me when the first Trojan hit instead of waiting till I had 61?”

I consider myself to be a very savvy computer user. In fact, co-workers and friends often consult me on computer stuff or I’m asked to “fix” a computer problem. I’m online frequently whether at work or at home. Most computer users do not do the suggested maintenance on their computers; but I do. Not backing up computer files or keeping definition files updated for virus protection is a very common problem. Something wasn’t right here.

I chose “Cancel” instead and decided to run a manual scan of my computer. Instead of shutting down, the program popped up with another dialogue box that said “Are you sure? You will be putting your computer at serious risk by not removing viruses NOW.” This wasn’t my program’s typical response.

A deeper look at the screen showed the URL from some website I’d never heard of yet it strongly resembled my virus protection program. Had I not hesitated, I may have opened up my computer to a REAL problem. Whether this was a virus in disguise, or a software company using horrible measures to sell their product, something was not right. I tried to use the X in the upper left hand corner and the program wouldn’t close down. Every time I clicked “Cancel” it had another doom-and-gloom forecast for my files.

I can see how easy it would be to react to this type of announcement. No one wants a virus invasion so the most natural thing would be to select “Remove Virus.” I almost did, my husband would have, and so might you. If you know you have updated virus protection, don’t REACT….just close down the program and do a manual scan. If the program refuses to close, dump your temporary internet files, and then shut your computer completely down. You can boot it back up and should be free and clear of the invading malware. Don't be fooled!

Happy Computing!

Gwen Kautz, Customer Service Manager
Dawson Public Power District