Elgin Poll Reality Check

[Ty]

This ESET you speak of, does it apply to personal computers as well? I can only find business apps.

I use AVAST... the free version and have for many, many years. I've yet to have a problem. Maybe I've been lucky but maybe it works. Who really knows? I DO know that on National Speak Like a Pirate day (Yes, that's a thing), Avast does all it's notifications in pirate speak.

 

[Frim]

I've seen that "scare" video before; what they don't tell you is that it was all prearranged, and they already had the special "key code password"
The reality of it happening is not realistic. They use that story and video as a "it could happen" not "it is happening".


Sir, you were hit with what they call Ransomware, and there are a lot of different forms of it hitting everywhere.
How did you get Support Buddy?
Let me take a wild guess, it was a link or an attachment in an email. Am I close?

If it was, that was my #1 rule in all of my offices: "don't open attachments or click on links in emails you're not sure about".
If you are unsure; stop; step away from the keyboard; contact IT support before doing anything else.
If you do infect your machine it was an automatic 3 days off without pay, all of your emails and documents and pictures will not be saved.

We'd pick up the machine; take it back to the office, wipe it clean; and do a fresh install from the ground up.

This rule came about because we got tired of end users not listening to instructions.
There were exceptions to the rule (I'm not going into those right now)

Malwarebytes is a good product as long as you have the full not the free version.
And I no longer use any Symantec/Norton products, I found far too many problems with it.
I've been running ESET Endpoint Security for the last 7 years and haven't found anything better for all that it does.

On the previous night, my wife was trying to buy a video online. The program refused the credit card. She tried a second card and then a third. All were refused. We thought something was wrong. It was late evening so we closed the computer. The following day, it opened with Support Buddy's telephone number and a spiel about out computer being infected but they could fix it. They implied that they were Microsoft techs, but later stated that they were a third party service. Today, the laptop is slower than ever. It is only 8 months old.

 

[jessemck]

The Microsoft Tech Support Pop-up Scam, That sucks

Personal Opinion only, if you have the know how restore your device from the restore partition, it will put you back like it was when you first purchased the computer. Get a good back up in place and never click on things like that again. Get a good Anti-virus and Malware program.

 

[Trusting]

I bought my first computer in 1984 and was the first person I know to go on the web. Over the years I've tried many anti-virus services. All the popular ones and some not so popular. One after another they were disappointments. For the last five years I used "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" and have not had a virus since. Take this for what it's worth....

 

[Coss]

I bought my first computer in 1984 and was the first person I know to go on the web. Over the years I've tried many anti-virus services. All the popular ones and some not so popular. One after another they were disappointments. For the last five years I used "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" and have not had a virus since. Take this for what it's worth....

Malwarebytes is a great software, but it's not designed to block a Virus.

Malware and viruses are two very different bad things.

The coding is similar, but they do different types of attacks; put in Ransomware now for a 3rd type.

 

[Frim]

Malwarebytes is a great software, but it's not designed to block a Virus.

Malware and viruses are two very different bad things.
I am doing the field trip on ransomware right now. It would be better to do the classroom first.