WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE MALWARE ON YOUR COMPUTER

If you are experiencing any of the following, these are signs that your computer may be infected with malware.

  • Computer slows down, malfunctions, or displays repeated error messages
  • Computer won’t shut down or restart
  • Computer serves up a lot of pop-up ads, or displays them when you’re not surfing the web
  • Computer displays web pages or programs you didn’t intend to use, or sends emails you didn’t write

What, then do you do? Follow the following steps.

Drop everything!

Stop shopping, banking, and other online activities that involve user names, passwords, or other sensitive information.

As soon as possible, use an uninfected computer to change all of your online passwords.

Back Up Your Personal Files

Hopefully you have already been backing up your files. But even so, copy your personal files elsewhere just to be safe. Secondly, you don’t want to back up everything on your computer, as there’s a risk that you could save some infected files along with it.

Enter Safe Mode

Keep your PC disconnected from the Internet, and don’t use it until you’re ready to clean your PC. This can help prevent the malware from spreading and/or leaking your private data.

Delete Temporary Files

Now that you’re in Safe Mode, you’ll want to run a virus scan. But before you do that, delete your temporary files. Doing this may speed up the virus scanning, free up disk space, and even get rid of some malware.

Confirm that your security software is active and current

At the bare minimum, your computer should have anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and a firewall. Be aware that some scam artists distribute malware disguised as anti-spyware software. Resist buying software in response to unexpected pop-up messages or emails, especially ads that claim to have scanned your computer and detected malware. That’s a tactic scammers have used to spread malware.

Run spyware

Once you confirm that your security software is up-to-date, run it to scan your computer for viruses and spyware.

Delete everything the program identifies as a problem.

You may have to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.If you suspect that your computer still is infected, you may want to run a second anti-spyware or anti-virus program. Some computer security experts recommend installing one program for real-time protection, and another for periodic scans of your machine as a way to stop malware that might have slipped past the first program.

Finally, monitor your computer for unusual behaviour.