How redundant can we be regarding safe Internet communicating and web browsing? As much as we preach maintenance, I’ve noticed that in the current year all of our clients have had at least one malware infected computer; granted, most of those infected machines have been laptops which are used out of the office but no one environment has been safe from infection. Quite often I’m asked what spammers, hackers, and other malcontents hope to gain. In the old days, the purpose was a tech arrogance and a sense of dominance and destruction, you know, striking out against Microsoft and the corporate world. At some level we seemed to put up with cyber vandals and their ilk but so much for computer bad boys and girls. That complacency has opened the doors for cyber criminals who seek to steal your personal information: i.e., social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account information, and passwords. This criminal assault has increased not only with spam and infected websites but also with instant message programs and social network sites, not to mention file sharing sites.

More specifically, recently I was discussing this matter with John Joynt, Manager of Data Network Services for NPower, a non-profit organization which provides technology support to non-profits in this area. He related a story of one of their long time clients, Evergreen Children’s Association, which had $30,000 removed from their checking account. Please read the full story in the NPower Blog, http://community.npowerseattle.org/npowering/cyber-theft-p1/. Better yet please review the NPower blog periodically about security and tech tips. In addition to the story, John turned me on to a couple of security sites that you might find helpful:

• Security Fix: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/09/online_bank_robbers_target_hea.html (Brian Krebs’ coverage in his blog)
• Krebs on Security: http://www.krebsonsecurity.com (new blog home since he left Washington Post in December)
• CNET.com, Seattle rated #1 for Cyber Crime: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10469979-83.html

On the other hand, you know that there is danger out there and you work at being careful. Yet you still get infected, so what do you do? At this point your existing antivirus didn’t catch the culprit in time and you need to run a removal tool. I’ve found the following utilities helpful most of the time:

Free removal utilities

• Malwarebytes, http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?part=dl-10804572&subj=dl&tag=button
  
• Ad-Aware, http://download.cnet.com/Ad-Aware-Free-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?tag=mncol;pop
  
• Spybot, http://download.cnet.com/Spybot-Search-amp-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html?tag=mncol;pop
  
• Microsoft Malicious software removal tool, http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.aspx
  

Free Antivirus Utilities

• Microsoft Security Essentials, http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
  
• AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?tag=mncol;pop
  
• RUBotted, http://free.antivirus.com/rubotted/ (Bot detection only)
  
• Bot Hunter,
  http://www.bothunter.net/ (Network Bot scanner)
  

Online Scanners

• Trend Micro HouseCall, http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
  
• Bit Defender Online Scanner, http://www.bitdefender.com/scanner/online/free.html
  
• ESET Online Scanner, http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

No system is immune to pirates and scalawags but I think these tools can help. Download a tool of your choice and run a scan on your system. If you are infected, restart your computer in “Safe Mode with Networking”, disable “system restore”, update the tool of your choice, and run a scan. If your system is clean, restart in normal mode and run a second scan or two; if you are still clean, enable “system restore”. If you can’t restart in “safe mode” or install or update the removal definitions on your removal utility, either find a tech who will spend the time to find a way to remove the infection or, best yet, reformat your hard drive and reinstall. Find your re-installation media now and backup or image your computer tonight.