PC SECURITY - Lesson to be Learned

Just last weekend, I finally fixed a friend's desktop PC (actually his daughter's).

The primary cause of problems was being online, family using 3 different IM (Internet Messaging) services, WITHOUT an antivirus installed.

This result in massive malware infection. The most dangerous was a fake antivirus ruining silently.

In addition, someone installed LimeWire music sharing. ALL sharing programs make your system MORE susceptible to malware. Uninstalled this.

Note that IF they used iTunes (also installed) to sync an iPod, it is likely that music files on their iPod are infected.

One thing that was obviously put in by a virus, was an entry in the Registry that ran the Kernel Crash module each boot. This caused a false crash & reboot of the system.

Someone using the system had removed/uninstalled McAfee. Get the picture?

I had to install SpyBot Search & Destroy (sidebar) to remove the malware. Now all the owner has to do is install an antivirus, which we will do (download & install) when she picks up the PC.