The problem of the presence of Trojans and virus programs in the system is relevant for all users of the Windows operating system. Timely detection of the infection of your computer will allow you to take measures to clean it from malicious programs and minimize the damage caused by them.
Instructions
Step 1
Even the presence of an anti-virus program on a computer with daily updated databases does not guarantee protection against malware. A virus or Trojan horse that gets on your machine may not be present in the anti-virus database, so the anti-virus simply cannot find it. That is why it is important to be able to independently determine the presence of destructive software in the system.
Step 2
The most harmless are programs that perform some actions that do not cause serious damage to the system. For example, the mouse cursor or the "Start" button may disappear, some messages will start to appear on the screen, the DVD drive may "spontaneously" begin to slide in and out. The presence of such surprises in itself indicates a computer infection.
Step 3
The most dangerous are two types of programs: those that destroy user data and those that steal confidential information. In the first case, files can be deleted, corrupted or encrypted; the presence of such programs on the computer is also very obvious. On the contrary, programs of the second type behave very stealthily; it can be quite difficult to identify a well-written Trojan.
Step 4
The presence of malware on the computer may be indicated by an incomprehensible activity on the hard disk. Your acquaintances may report receiving letters from you that you did not write. Programs that you did not start are launched. Any incomprehensible computer activity can indicate the presence of viruses and Trojans in the system.
Step 5
Disabling the display of file extensions may be one of the signs that a Trojan program is present on the computer. If you see that the extensions of the file names suddenly disappeared by themselves, try turning them on again - "Tools - Folder Options - View", the option "Hide extensions for registered file types" (uncheck). After enabling the display of extensions, you can see, for example, icons of folders with the extension ".exe" - which cannot be in a normal system. Any attempt to open such a folder will launch the malicious program.
Step 6
Sometimes an attempt to enable the display of extensions does not work, the corresponding menu bar is simply missing. In this case, the Trojan hides this line so that the user cannot restore the display of extensions. In this case, the antivirus usually stops working as well - for example, due to a shift in the system date. The antivirus key turns out to be inoperative and the antivirus program stops protecting the computer. Treatment method: restoring the correct date, updating the anti-virus databases and a full computer scan.
Step 7
If your computer persistently climbs into the network without your participation, this may also indicate its infection. In this case, type “netstat –aon” in the command line, you will see a list of all network connections. Pay attention to the open ports and addresses to which your computer connects. The presence of open ports with the LISTENING state indicates that some programs are listening on these ports, waiting for a connection. Some ports - for example, 135 and 445, are open by default in Windows XP, it is recommended to close them with the "wwdc.exe" utility. Other open ports may indicate the presence of a backdoor, a program that can be used by a third party to connect to your computer.
Step 8
Checking the system registry can be of some use; the list of the scanned sections - those into which Trojans write autorun keys - can be easily found on the Internet. But in practice, this rarely helps, since most modern Trojans register themselves in a more cunning way and it is almost impossible to find them by simply looking at the registry. It is more correct to analyze running processes and check suspicious ones. Note that these processes may not be visible in the Task Manager.
Step 9
Considering that it is very difficult to guarantee to protect your computer from spyware and other malware, try not to store confidential information in clear text. Alternatively, pack the folder with such information into an archive and set a password for it. Never save passwords to mail and other accounts in the browser, this is fraught with their loss. Keep your anti-virus databases up to date, do not work in a network without a firewall. Do not use simple passwords that are easy to brute-force. These simple rules will help you keep your confidential data safe.
