Deviantart...why you hate me so?

[Steelclaw]

With Avast, there's a pre-boot scan. If you get infected, they'll usually get a signature within a few days, particularly if it's a widespread infection and someone uploads a sample to one of the many virus sandboxes. At that point, update the database, schedule a pre-boot scan and Avast runs before the malware does.

Of course, not all malware can be removed and not all malware is designed to be inobtrusive or merely annoying. Theres a (thankfully) small class of malware, sometimes called "ransomware" that actually encrypts your files using strong encryption (the kind used to secure online transactions, healthcare data, and credit card merchant transactions) and asks you to pay up before you get access to your files again. There are other types of malware that are designed to cause data destruction. In these cases, even the best AV won't help you return your computer to normal.

So what then?

Insurance! (backups and archives)

Start with archiving all the stuff that you want to keep "forever" (note that optical media degrades and requires periodic re-copying every few years). These would be your pictures, documents, artwork, *cough* mp3 collection, drm keys, anything that would be difficult or impossible to get again.

Then make an investment: two external hard drives, about 1-1.5TB in size (this should run you about $250-300 USD).

There are a few legally free Linux live-cds that will allow you to boot off of the cd and make an image of your internal hard disk to a /file/ on the external one using ntfsclone or partimage. This is your backup. Alternate between external drives each time you backup, and dump the entire hard disk to a new file on the drive. When you run out of space, delete the oldest file. Most imaging utilities will create a file that is only as big as the used capacity of the source disk (so if you have a 500GB disk with 50GB used, the image file will be 50GB).

When you get all f'd up from an infection, you can take the latest non-infected image and restore it to your internal hard disk, usually in a few minutes to a couple hours of unattended activity (any non-archived data that isn't in the image will be lost). You have two external drives and alternate between them so you're not completely screwed if one should fail after being dropped on the floor.

Of course, if you don't care about reinstalling drivers and patches, you can just do the archiving and reinstall. Taking images as described above will get you back on your feet much faster, although, the learning curve is a little steep.

[Akrion]

Obviously the benefit of free anti-virus programs like Avast is that...well they are free.

I personally prefer Avast over Norton, I've never had many good things to say about Norton, it's always felt clunky and invasive to me and really did nothing but annoy me. Avast is very resource friendly and receives software updates completely in the background, simply notifying you when it's ready for install. It also frequently checks the database for new virus entry updates (that works with all the other avast users in the world to help further expand said database).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avast It's worth a read in any case.

Now the computer is infected. What now? Once the computer is infected, how you go about removing it assuming you aren't a computer expert with all the tools at hand?

It all depends on what it's doing, sometimes viruses can be notoriously difficult to get rid of even for experts. Typically it consists of learning about the virus and what it does, then figuring out where it's located on your hard drive (typically many different locations) and in your registry. Hardest thing about removing a virus without reformatting tends to be the fact that they do anything they can to stay on your computer, installing its self to another location when one part of it gets deleted.

I had this problem with Quick Time, even. The stupid program kept a few files installed throughout your computer to re-download and install Quick Time even if you specifically uninstall it. Needless to say, Quick Time never touches my computer anymore (or any other apple product these days, for that matter.)

If you know you've got a virus on your computer, do whatever you can to keep that computer from shutting off until you can find a way to (hopefully) remove it (Viruses love to do things when your computer is booting). There still remain cases where even the most skilled will be unable to remove a virus, even with tools. Obviously the best way to get viruses off your computer is to prevent them from getting on it in the first place.

As I said a few posts back, another good security measure is to get a good router. Correctly configured the firewall on it can stop some things before it even gets to your computer (it can also be used to completely block an IP before it reaches your computer). I, for one, would never want to just hook my computer up to the wall of a College dorm network, or apartment network even, without pushing the connection through a personal router first. (Read: Outside -> Dorm/Apartment building routing network -> My room -> My own router -> My computer.)


Edit: As well as everything Steelclaw just said. Great advice. <3

[Frith-Rae]

Aye, QFT for Akrion and Steelclaw..

Sometimes no matter how great your AV is, even if it detects it nothing short of a format and reinstall will get rid of it. I had this happen tome several years ago when my stupid hubby was visiting gambling sites (not to gamble, actually, he was just reading up on how to play certain cards games having no idea how HORRIBLE these sites are).

I was infected with this gawdawful malaware that gave me dozens of popups everywhere on earth no matter what I did. I found out what it was - and did numerous various things that were suppose to remove it - it never did.

Luckily I've always had backup harddrives where I store things in zip file and such. SO when I finally gave up trying to fix it and formatted it, I didn't lose much.

This is the best advice - because no matter how good you are or what you do (or at least for most of us on this level of computers..lol) sometimes disaster strikes. Backup things - either on a 2nd internal drive that has no OS on it (i.e. its just storage zip files etc), an external drive, whatever. If something is important to you - KEEP IT BACKED UP there. For me its save games, documents, pictures, and music I don't want to have to go back and collect or replay.

Backup..backup..backup.

[Akrion]

This is the best advice - because no matter how good you are or what you do (or at least for most of us on this level of computers..lol) sometimes disaster strikes. Backup things - either on a 2nd internal drive that has no OS on it (i.e. its just storage zip files etc), an external drive, whatever. If something is important to you - KEEP IT BACKED UP there. For me its save games, documents, pictures, and music I don't want to have to go back and collect or replay.

Backup..backup..backup.

I've currently got 4 hard drives on my computer, using 2 for backup and 1 for extra game install space. My dad used to run a Raid 10 configuration, which split the data 50/50 between 2 hard drives and then copied the data across to 2 other hard drives ([1]/[2]-->[3]/[4]). That was for hard drive failure backup, as you could have up to 2 hard drives go bad in some cases (Could lose 1&2, 3&4, 1&4 or 2&3, every other case you can only lose 1) and still retain your data, and he also had an external for important file backup.

But that's a more expensive configuration and (for some reason) harder to find motherboards to support these days.

[Ahael]

My security setup is pretty heavy. The main defense is:
- Hardware firewall
- F-Secure Internet Security
- Firefox with AdBlock and noscript
- Foxit reader instead of Adobe
- Proxomitron, a proxy server that filters all browser traffic in and out
- Windows 7 user account control is enabled

I've never ever been hit by a virus or trojan. Needless to say, I also keep my Windows and other software updated.