Well, one thing is for sure. If you use the internet everyday, you are going to encounter viruses. There is no way around it. The best way to deal with viruses is to block them from entering your computer altogether. This is done with firewalls and with adequate and updated anti-virus software.

But what if it's too late, and what if a virus has already entered your system? Well, it isn't always too late. But it is always critical when an actual virus as opposed to malware or adware has entered your system. This is because oftentimes viruses are destructive as well as prolific. In other words they will either destroy your data, destroy your operating system, infect every computer on your local network or send 10,000 spam emails an hour pretending to be from every friend in your email address book. Or, do all of this at the same time.

What is worse, viruses can cause your Internet provider to shut your Internet off until the problem is corrected. Sometimes, viruses result in the loss of privacy and or the loss or private information stored on your computer including passwords to your email and other login information.

This is why, as soon as you think something is wrong and that you have a virus you need to disconnect that computer from the Internet as well as the local network. It is usually better to turn the computer off until it can be diagnosed and the virus removed.

Why is this true? Why not update the antivirus and scan it? If you have a real virus, then chances are it already got past your antivirus once and you may not be able to update the computer at this point. Further, on rebooting the virus may do more damage. What do professionals do? Sometimes, we boot the pc in a special safe mode, sometimes we boot the pc with a standalone uninfected operating system from a cd-rom that isn't infected and that can run specialized tools to deactivate the virus and or salvage your data. Sometimes, if severe the hard drive from the infected pc needs to be removed and inserted into another pc with more specialized software to be either cleaned, or the data repaired and recovered. These are the worst cases that involve data recovery.

As you might have noticed, we have been there and done that for each of these scenarios hundreds of times over the years. Trust that when you call on us, your data is in experienced hands. We aren't computer store clerks turned geeks, we have worked in Internet programming, corporate network security and even as the CIO of a financial institution with secure data requirements. If the situation can be helped, then we can help. Call us at 813-748-3055.