My Computer turned into a Zombie

This is a copy of a blog that I posted for my town's website. May be interesting, may not be. I just wanted to do something recent in this blog so my mother won't yell at me anymore.... love you ma...  :)

Yes, believe it or not your computer can turn into a zombie. Not the flesh eating, decomposing kind of zombie but more of the mindless drone without the drool. If your computer gets one of the millions of viruses out on the internet, chances are you have a zombie on your hands. Let me see if I can explain this in plain English rather than geek-speak.

It kind of works like the flu. You get sick with the flu. You go to work because you're a glutton for punishment. You then sneeze or cough (did you know a cough has a 3 foot "spray"... gross*) around your co-workers and Bam, a couple days later, they’ve got the flu.

Your computer has caught the flu and turned into a zombie. In this case the flu is capable to spreading itself around without you even being on your computer. A virus that is programmed to spread spam or viruses can take over your computer and you may not even notice that it is now sending Spam all over the world. Sometimes even using your name and email address.

So, what can you do to protect your poor little computer from these nasty viruses?

• Be smart.
• Have up to date anti-virus software
• Be smart.

The biggest problem is the person sitting at the computer browsing the internet or reading email. You need to understand what it is that you are clicking on when you are on the web or opening attachments in emails. Pop-up windows are the worst. Instead of clicking on one of the buttons like OK or Cancel, click on the little red X that is in the upper right hand corner of the window. By clicking on the OK or the Cancel button, you are telling the potential virus that is behind the pop up, that it is OK to install, even If you click Cancel. Sneaky isn’t it?

Also, regarding emails, it’s very important to not open emails and especially attachments if you don’t know who it is from. This is where being smart comes into play. Trust me when I say that there is NOT $15,000,000 waiting for you in Nigeria. Can you say scam?

While on the internet if you see a pop up that is telling you that it found 235 kajillion viruses on your computer, do not click on it. Instead close all the internet windows (little red X in the upper right hand corner) and then run your own anti-virus software to check your machine. The big trend right now is Fake Anti-Virus software that will actually drop viruses on your computer so it can clean it for you…. for a fee of course. Then they have your credit card number you lucky devil.

Here are a couple of ways I try to protect my own computers:

• I have up to date Anti-Virus software (will talk more about this at a later blog)
• I have a separate Gmail email account for Internet Purchases (they're free, take two) This helps to prevent spam from coming down to my computer. It all stays on the web, in my gmail account. (http://www.gmail.com)
• I don’t usually open emails when I don’t recognize the sender. I will check the subject line to make sure. No subject line, not opening it.
• I never open attachments from people I don’t know or attachments from people that wouldn’t normally send me an attachment. For example why would my mother send me a picture from her trip to Italy when I know she didn’t go to Italy? Why would my grandmother send me a picture of the hot guy she met at the gym…eeewwwwwww…. never mind. Just don’t open it!

Think, be smart.