Do it Yourself Malware Removal!

You do not have to always call me to attempt to remove malware from your computer.  You can try yourself.  For those of you brave enough to try, check out the link under What's New for "Do it yourself Malware Removal"  Good luck! 

What is Malware and what are the signs you have some on your computer?

I often examine a computer and people ask me, "what is malware?"  Traditionally, most people are used to hearing the word Virus and do not understand anything other than that.  Well, your issues are not isolated to just a virus, per se, so many other dangers are out there that mimic a virus.  Here's your quick lesson:

Malware, short for malicious (or malevolent) software, is software used or programmed by attackers to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems. It can appear in the form of code, scripts, active content, and other software. ‘Malware’ is a general term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software.

Malware includes computer viruses, ransomware, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, keyloggers, dialers, spyware, adware, malicious BHOs, rogue security software and other malicious programs; the majority of active malware threats are usually worms or trojans rather than viruses.

It’s not always easy to tell if your computer was compromised or not,because these days cybercriminals are going to great lengths to hide their code and conceal what their programs are doing on an infected computer.
It’s very difficult to provide a list of characteristic symptoms of a infected computer because the same symptoms can also be caused by hardware incompatibilities or system instability,however here are just a few examples that may suggest that your PC has been compromised :

• You may receive the error “Internet Explorer could not display the page” when attempting to access certain websites
• Your web browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome) freezes, hangs or is unresponsive
• Your web browser’s default homepage is changed
• Access to security related websites is blocked
• You get redirected to web pages other than the one you intended to go to
• You receive numerous web-browser popup messages
• Strange or unexpected toolbars appear at the top of your web browser
• Your computer runs slower than usual
• Your computer freezes, hangs or is unresponsive
• There are new icons on your desktop that you do not recognize
• Your computer restarts by itself (but not a restart caused by Windows Updates)
• You see unusual error messages (e.g., messages saying there are missing or corrupt files folders)
• You are unable to access the Control Panel, Task Manager, Registry Editor or Command Prompt.

How to keep your neighbors from hijacking your Wi-Fi

So your Internet service intermittently slows to a crawl. You want to make sure that your neighbors haven’t hacked your Wi-Fi for free connectivity.

A number of issues can produce intermittently slow Internet access, and most of them don’t involve foul play. You could have bad cables, a bad modem or router, or simply outdated firmware on either of these devices. The problem may be with your ISP, and therefore completely out of your hands. For more on these possibilities, see my past column on obscenely slow Internet connections. Also, check out Nick Mediati’s primer on how to test your home Internet connection speed.

But as much as we’d like to think otherwise, your problem could be with a dishonest neighbor. And in these days of data caps, such neighbors could be running up your bill as they’re slowing down your connection.

I’m assuming you’ve password-protected your Wi-Fi network. If you haven’t, check your router’s documentation and do so immediately.

But nothing is ever completely secure, and Wi-Fi networks can be cracked. You need to take extra precautions.

Every technique I’ve seen for cracking Wi-Fi networks involves either a dictionary or a brute-force attack. There’s a very simple tool for protecting yourself against these attacks: a strong password. Use a long, random string of numbers, upper- and lower-case letters, and punctuation, and avoid anything found in the dictionary. Read more here on how to  use strong passwords.

Since you and other people will likely be typing this password manually from time to time, avoid lower-case L, upper-case I and O, and the digits 1 and 0. This will avoid confusion when people read the password and recreate it on a keyboard.

Test the password’s strength with How Secure is My Password, which estimates how long it would take a standard PC to crack your password. If it would take more than a million years to crack, consider the password safe.

The usual complaint against strong passwords—they’re too hard to remember and type—doesn’t apply here. You only have to type this password when setting up a new Wi-Fi-capable device, or when helping a guest who brought their own device to your home. You can just keep the password on a scrap of paper—or in your password manager.

Of course, if you’re worried that a neighbor has already cracked your Wi-Fi, changing the password will get them off of it immediately.

In addition to your password, make sure your Wi-Fi security is properly set up. Go into your router’s setting screen and check the options. Ideally, you should be using WPA2 encryption. If your modem doesn’t support WPA2, use WPA-Personal--or better yet, buy a new router. For more on these issues, see 5 Wi-Fi security myths you must abandon now.

Security Essentials for XP gets a second life after April

Earlier this month, it was reported that Microsoft would stop providing updates for Microsoft Security Essentials on Windows XP on April 8, the same day that it will cease providing security fixes for Windows XP. The company has now altered its stance and will produce signature updates for Security Essentials until July 14, 2015.

This change, it says, is to help organizations complete their migrations. Of course, using that rationale, the company should extend Windows XP's support until the heat death of the universe.

While it will provide updated signature definitions, the company warns that its research "shows that the effectiveness of anti-malware solutions on out-of-support operating systems is limited." In other words, it's hard to provide a robust anti-malware system when hostile code can penetrate processes and the kernel willy-nilly just through attacking the browser.

A fix for my Firefox woes....No Script!

After coming oh so close to abandoning Firefox, I installed the add-on No Script and surprisingly, the browser is actually acting like a browser again.  Facebook hates it, but too bad.  If you are experiencing terrible hangups and freezes in Firefox, try No script, it will more than likely clear up most of the problems.  Good luck!

Is it time to retire Firefox?

It pains me to think about it, I was one of the first to jump on firefox when it came out oh so many years ago.  It was great, it made Microsoft fix Internet Explorer and provided a true alternative to that crappy browser.  Years later, it seems that Firefox is that crappy browser.  I only suggest this because for some insane reason, this browser seems to crash for some reason every day.  I mean every single day there is some problem I encounter that makes me open Google Chrome.  It is sad because this was truly a beautiful browser that has turned into a buggy mess.  Check out this editorial on Firefox for more, I found comfort that I was not alone in this frustration!