I have spent 3 days of the past week figuring out how to disinfect my PC that’s been infested with several viruses from who-knows-where. I admit that I have been remiss since my last reinstall of OS when I didn’t bother to make time to reinstall an anti-virus program. Before I knew it, all sorts of things were happening to my PC - the task manager and registry have been disabled, my yahoo messenger was sending weird messages to friends on my list, and new folders kept popping up right after I’d delete them. That I sometimes use flash drives and rewritable CDs from other people’s PCs must be partly to blame.

So how do dummies like me go about battling these pests? It took nearly all of my patience - to find out exactly what’s wrong with my PC and to search for information on the Internet. If you’re familiar with the normal functioning of your PC, you’d know at once when something is wrong. When I noticed that my “task manager has been disabled by your administrator” but I never did, I simply googled the problem and I was amazed at how much help I could get from complete strangers on the Web. I found all sorts of advice about how to solve the problem, or where to get the necessary tools (e.g., virus scanner, virus cleaner). The thing was, my PC was showing several symptoms at once and it took me some time to do research on the Internet. So I found out about the Brontok virus as well as the Nhatquanghlan worm. Once I had identified the pests, I had to muster enough guts to tinker with my PC, not being able to tell the difference between a file containing a virus and system files that make my PC run smoothly. Again, help came from various sites on the Internet. All I had to do was google the file name (e.g. svchost.exe) and I got more than enough information telling me that this is a clean file, and that it’s scvhosts.exe that’s wreaking havoc on my computer. Ah, what would I do without Google and the Internet?

HijackThis helped immensely. I also learned about spyware, which, according to Wikipedia is not communicable but acquired from software we download from the Internet, and may interfere with the normal functioning of a computer, and that these bugs steal personal information from our PCs, including credit card details. A brief scan using the trial version of Trend Micro Anti-Spyware showed close to twenty spyware lurking in my computer, which made me feel vulnerable since I often access my bank account online.

This experience taught me that we could all become complacent at some point about viruses attacking our PCs that before we know it, they’re all over the place. Learning about spybots, Trojans and worms is not just for the tech geek. If we all, at one time or another, will be hit by one of these, might as well get to know them to prepare for battle. Well, it’s either that or simply reformat your PC and reinstall an OS, which could mean loss of important files.

The best way to be on our guard is to fully arm our PCs - with antivirus, antispyware, and antispam software. Many are available for free on the web, like Grisoft’s Anti-Virus program and its limited anti-spyware program. Howstuffworks warns that some of these may actually be devils in disguise, “masquerading as anti-spyware” when in fact, they install more spyware as they pretend to clean your PC. So if you’re a cheapskate like me who loves to shop for freeware, be cautious; examine the sites from where you’re downloading the files to make sure they’re trustworthy. In the end, boosting our computers’ arsenal and regularly using the tools to keep our PCs clean and sterile is the way to fight computer pests.

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