{"id":93,"date":"2009-02-03T10:20:39","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T17:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/?p=93"},"modified":"2009-02-03T10:38:46","modified_gmt":"2009-02-03T17:38:46","slug":"how-do-i-know-if-im-infected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/how-do-i-know-if-im-infected\/","title":{"rendered":"How do I Know if I’m Infected?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reading one of the SANS OUCH!<\/em> newsletters today (which I have discussed in this post<\/a>) and saw a nice little article with some telltale signs of a computer infection.\u00a0 Initially, I thought to myself “How could anyone not<\/em> know?”\u00a0 But after reading the article and thinking about it for a little bit, I realized that most people probably just assume it’s the computer’s fault.\u00a0 Whether it’s age, the slowness of Vista, running many programs at once, or a shortage of hard drive space, something else gets to be the scapegoat while the infection continues to worsen the machine’s condition.\u00a0 Included below is the article from the newsletter (which can be found here<\/a>).\u00a0 Click to read more…<\/p>\n

Consumer Awareness:\u00a0 Is my computer infected with a virus? What should I do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be alert! After you open and run an infected program or attachment on
\nyour computer, you might not realize that you’ve introduced a virus
\nuntil you notice something isn’t quite right. Here are some signs that
\nyour computer might be infected:<\/p>\n

* Your computer runs more slowly than normal
\n* Your computer stops responding or locks up often
\n* Your computer crashes and restarts every few minutes
\n* Your computer restarts on its own and then fails to run normally
\n* Applications on your computer don’t work correctly
\n* Disks or disk drives are inaccessible
\n* You can’t print normally
\n* You see unusual error messages
\n* You see distorted menus and dialog boxes<\/p>\n

These are common symptoms of infection-but they might also indicate
\nhardware or software problems that have nothing to do with a virus.<\/p>\n

Be smart!
\n* Do not ignore the symptoms. Write them down, especially the text of
\nany unusual error messages.
\n* Look for a pattern, and make a note of it.\u00a0 For example, are all of
\nyour applications affected?\u00a0 Is the problem only with printing?\u00a0 When
\ndoes your system crash?
\n* Contact your network administrator (computer help desk) or your
\nInternet Service Provider, or call the technical support number provided
\nby the manufacturer of your system.
\n* Answer the technician’s questions carefully, and describe the problem
\nin as much detail possible. The more useful information you can provide,
\nthe quicker the problem will be resolved.
\n* The technician may advise you to stop using your computer. If so,
\nfollow that advice. Short-term inconvenience is better than losing all
\nyour data or having your identity stolen.<\/p>\n

More information: http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/protect\/computer\/viruses\/indicators.mspx<\/a><\/p>\n

If you think you might be infected, you can also contact us<\/a> here at ComputerJourney.com and we will assist you in diagnosing your problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reading one of the SANS OUCH! newsletters today (which I have discussed in this post) and saw a nice little article with some telltale signs of a computer infection.\u00a0 Initially, I thought to myself “How could anyone not know?”\u00a0 But after reading the article and thinking about it for a little bit, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[24,92,25,93,20,54,94,55],"class_list":["post-93","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basic-computer-use","category-security","tag-computer","tag-infection","tag-malware","tag-ouch","tag-sans","tag-spyware","tag-symptoms","tag-virus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerjourney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}