What to Do in the Event of a Virus Alert
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What to do in the Event of a Virus Alert
Brittany Raymond-Upton
COMM/218
Carolyn Geiser
July 1, 2013
What to do in the Event of a Virus Alert
Nowadays, it is very easy to infect one’s computer with a virus or malware simply by opening an email from someone we are unfamiliar with or clicking on the wrong link while surfing the World Wide Web. The operating systems on most new computers already have some sort of virus protection loaded on them, or can easily be downloaded from various websites, or uploaded from a disk. In fact, I personally just purchased a new laptop last week and not only did my new laptop come with a trial version of McAfee anti-virus software, but Best Buy provided me with a six month trial version of Webroot anti-virus software.
Anti-virus software can be set to run scheduled scans on a regular basis. When these scans are performed and a virus is detected a warning message will appear. However, in between regular scans the user may not initially realize the computer is infected until all of a sudden the user notices the computer is not operating like normal. There are signs one can look for as a guide their computer is infected including but not limited to: the computer is performing at a slower level than normal, is frequently freezing or stops responding all together, or it crashes and restarts a lot; Another sign is the computer is displaying unfamiliar error messages, disk drives can’t be accessed, or applications are not running properly (Microsoft, 2013).
There are steps the user can take to remove the virus themselves once it is detected. If the anti-virus software detects the infection, most of the time the software can remove the virus itself by simply following the prompts on the screen; however, occasionally the user may have to remove the virus manually. To manually remove a virus, it is important to try and identify the name of the virus either through the anti-virus software or if the...
Brittany Raymond-Upton
COMM/218
Carolyn Geiser
July 1, 2013
What to do in the Event of a Virus Alert
Nowadays, it is very easy to infect one’s computer with a virus or malware simply by opening an email from someone we are unfamiliar with or clicking on the wrong link while surfing the World Wide Web. The operating systems on most new computers already have some sort of virus protection loaded on them, or can easily be downloaded from various websites, or uploaded from a disk. In fact, I personally just purchased a new laptop last week and not only did my new laptop come with a trial version of McAfee anti-virus software, but Best Buy provided me with a six month trial version of Webroot anti-virus software.
Anti-virus software can be set to run scheduled scans on a regular basis. When these scans are performed and a virus is detected a warning message will appear. However, in between regular scans the user may not initially realize the computer is infected until all of a sudden the user notices the computer is not operating like normal. There are signs one can look for as a guide their computer is infected including but not limited to: the computer is performing at a slower level than normal, is frequently freezing or stops responding all together, or it crashes and restarts a lot; Another sign is the computer is displaying unfamiliar error messages, disk drives can’t be accessed, or applications are not running properly (Microsoft, 2013).
There are steps the user can take to remove the virus themselves once it is detected. If the anti-virus software detects the infection, most of the time the software can remove the virus itself by simply following the prompts on the screen; however, occasionally the user may have to remove the virus manually. To manually remove a virus, it is important to try and identify the name of the virus either through the anti-virus software or if the...