You all have heard of viruses.  Like viruses that infect living beings, computer viruses infect your computer. They are software, and are often attached to other software or documents you might receive. When you run the virus’s software or the file the virus has infected, the virus can infect your computer’s software.

Viruses can gather email addresses from your computer and send itself to everyone you know.  Sometimes this is just an annoyance—spreading spam and other useless messages.  But sometimes it can carry what we call a “payload” that installs itself on your computer and really messes you up.  We can save the discussion of the various kinds of viruses for another time.  This time we’ll talk about something else.

I’ve had many calls from people who say their computer is infected because there is a big message on the screen that says it is infected.  Then the message starts a “scan” that scares you to death.  This is called a “Rogue Anti-Virus.”  It’s actually a program that sneaked into your computer and is generating the message.  The problem is, you can’t work, ‘cause the messages won’t go away.  They keep popping up and trying to get you to give money to someone to clear it up.  Don’t do that!

Don’t despair—get a trusted computer tech to help out.  It takes just a little effort by someone who knows what they are doing to get rid of this pest.  I’ll be posting some easy fixes on our website as soon as I get time.