Skype users, beware! Fake message will draw you to download a virus

Skype users are finding messages come through their systems. It is a message like this…(this is the one my client found anyway). This is a FAKE…and do not click on it or add to your contacts. This is not from Skype.

URGENT SYSTEM SCAN NOTIFICATION ! PLEASE READ CAREFULLY !!
http://www.xxxx.org (I took out the real address)
For the link to become active, please click on ‘Add to contacts’ skype button or type it in manually into your web browser !
FULL DETAILS OF SCAN RESULT BELOW

If you did add to contacts or click on the link and want your system inspected, we do computer system checks, virus detection and offer a computer cleaning. Email info@callthatgirl.biz to book an appointment.

WOW, your computer is hot!

…and I don’t mean “good looking” 🙂

Desktop computers!

They can get hot because they have no air to breathe and most people, don’t turn off their computers at night. Many folks put  their computers in “computer caves” What is a computer cave? It is those computer desks that have slots for computers with doors that give no room for a computer to breathe.

See picture below.

So with a computer in a closed up space, with no good ventilation and never being shut off, the computer get hot and will start to shut down on it’s own.

My recommendations: Feel free to give your computer a break and shut’er down every so often. How would you feel if you couldn’t get a bit of shut eye? Probably very exhausted, over worked and wouldn’t want to play well. 🙂

The picture below  is a better choice (if and when you buy a new computer)… that lets your computer breath with no doors.

Now on to Laptops!

Laptops, usually as they age, tend to get hot from the internal components working hard inside. Remember…laptops are way smaller than regular desktops, they have shorter lives too. They also need air to breathe!

Lift up your laptop and feel the bottom, if it’s really hot to the touch, consider buying a laptop cooling stand. Like this one…

There are many types of these available out there, or you can buy a cooling pad. Here is on for your “lap” versus sitting on a desk.

 

These are usually very inexpensive, so consider buying one if your legs are on fire. hah!

Call That Girl also recommends turning off your laptop at night too if it’s very hot.

Trojans, worms, viruses and spyware…what it all means!

Hey everyone, this is Adam with Call That Girl.  I decided to do my first blog about virus’s, worms, Trojans, and all those other nasty programs that slow down your computer.  To a lot of people all those words mean the same thing, but there are actually distinct differences between them, and that’s what I’m here to clear up.

 

 Virus:

 Most people call anything that ‘infects’ your computer a virus.  Although that is true to an extent, there are some minor details that are overlooked.  Firstly a virus wont go out of its way to infect a computer.  You must download and run a virus manually.  That’s not to say that Virus makers aren’t getting sneaky, and finding clever ways to make you run their virus.  Many virus’s are hidden in ‘free’ online downloads of games (poker), music (Limewire), pictures (Facebook) or other such ‘freebies’ (screensavers).  Best way to avoid them is to understand that nothing online comes ‘free’.  If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.  The other big distinction with virus’s is once you are infected, they will start to infect other files or drives on your computer.  For example if you get a virus, it could start to infect your word files (or any other type of file) making it so anytime you send someone a word file and they open it on their computer, they will get infected as well.

 

 Worm:

Worms are similar to virus’s, but with one minor difference..  A worm will spread itself with absolutely no human interaction.  Once you get a worm it will attempt to spread to other computers by whatever means possible.  This is why you often hear about the worm that will e-mail itself to your entire contact list in your e-mail.  E-mail isn’t the only way they spread however.  Many will simply infect your computer, than look for other computers near by and infect them as well.

 

Trojans:

 

Computer Trojans are similar to the Trojan Horse that the Greeks used to defeat the Trojans.  A Trojan is a malicious program that hides itself as a legitimate program.  One very common program they like to disguise themselves as is anti-virus programs.  Many people will go Google ‘Free Anti-virus’ then just download the first thing they find.  This is a very bad habit, and actually often times ends up with you installing a Trojan on your computer.  These fake anti-virus programs will say they are scanning your computer, but they actually just report a bunch of fake infections, then ask you to ‘purchase’ the program.  This is their attempt to get you to enter banking information.  Trojans are also commonly used by hackers to collect ‘zombie computers’ for their botnets (More on that in a future blog).

Adware/Spyware:

Adware and Spyware are becoming very common on computers now days.  Adware and Spyware are very similar to each other, and often times one program will perform the options of both.  Adware is a program that opens, plays, or otherwise displays advertisements.  Not to be confused with internet pop-ups which are simply ad’s placed on websites your browsing.  Adware ad’s will also open when your offline, even when your not using the computer at all!  Spyware is a program that will monitor what you look at online, and will report it back to whoever made the Spyware.  They will then turn around and sell that information to marketing companies.  You can see how these programs often go hand and hand.  These programs are often bundled in with other programs that you download.  Many search bars that you can get online have some form of Adware/Spyware built in.  My recommendation is to never download/use any search bar you find online, no matter who made it.

These are just some basic guidelines to the differences between all these malicious files.  The people who make these files are starting to get more clever, and are now starting to blur the lines between them.  I have seen Virus’s that spread like worms, and Trojans with Adware/Spyware inside, making it difficult to classify many of today’s Malicious files into concrete categories.

That’s it for today, check back later for more blog posts from your friendly Tech Intern.

Big box anti-virus programs, no good in my book

Let me tell you how many computers come in the shop that have Norton, McAfee, Trend and WebRoot Spy Sweeper on them, and they are FULL OF SPYWARE!

I need to say that loudly because it doesn’t really matter what anti-virus program you use, spyware seems to get through them all.

So Lisa, please tell us…what are those programs good for? Well..they are good for a couple of things.

1. Regular virus protection (today’s viruses are spyware)  
2.  Slowing down your computer.

Period.

Spyware viruses and regular old viruses are not the same these days. Norton (I know this for a fact), will not support certain viruses and you will have to pay “extra” to get those removed. When you’re paying $80+ for the 360 package, you should get everything included. One of my clients had to pay extra for a certain virus removal. Kinda sad.

If you have purchased those products, have had a virus or 20 sneak past them or are finding them to slow down your computer…please Call That Girl for a phone consult and let us help you figure out a better system for protection.

If you are considering buying them, I would not. I remove many of those big box programs because they don’t work and are slower than bisquits drying in a hot sun.

My 2 cents! Enjoy your Wed!

Rebuild, reformat, reinstall, repair…what does it all mean?

Many folks today are hearing these 4 words and don’t really understand what they all mean. To us technicians, we know…but you don’t. It’s terms we use everyday probably so I thought you all might like a review of what they mean.

Rebuild…to physically rebuild a computers hardware

Reformat… erase all the data/programs/settings, pretty much everything. It puts the computer in an original state, just like how you got it when you brought it home from the store. Many folks have to have this done when a computer crashes very badly or if it’s very infected with a virus. You will lose all of your data/music/pictures.

TIP: even though you reformat a computers hard drive, the data is still available! Please keep this in mind when donating a computer.

If you have not backed up your data, you should because a reformat does lose everything. Call That Girl does have tools to get that data back, but it comes in a “raw” form and you lose all the names of your documents and folders.

Reinstall …the operating system, this does not reformat the drive and usually your programs are still on the computer. But your data is not.

Repair… the computer means to install the original operating system disk and fix the glitches that are causing you problems. This usually does not change your programs or data. I would always back up though prior to doing this, just in case.

That is the quick and dirty version, I  am sure there are more technical versions out there, but this is for the average reader to understand.

Call That Girl with any questions!