Today’s malware is a different kind of beast.  The latest infections pose as anti-virus software or other legitimate applications to gain the user’s trust.  They may change permissions on files so users can’t find their data.  Often times you’ll find that anti-virus software is disabled and you can’t download other security programs or execute them.

The crux of the problem is that this phenomenon has become increasingly threatening, strengthening  from a relatively disorganized endeavor of lone wolves to a for profit criminal enterprise.  A large amount of resources are devoted to writing malicious code, finding security flaws in operating systems and anti-virus software as well as creating convincing graphics.

In addition, many modern malware infections are now leveraging each computer infected, adding them to what’s called a ‘bot net’, meaning that each computer becomes a node of a larger network of infected computers that can be used to harvest information, attack other computers and even launch large scale organized denial of service attacks.

The diversity and amount of malware is growing exponentially, with 45,000 new infections emerging on a daily basis with ever growing sophistication.  Infections are becoming more difficult to remove and are causing users more trouble with identify theft, information leakage and computer slowdowns.  In addition, anti-virus companies are having a difficult time keeping pace with the tsunami of malware that is emerging on a regular basis.

The reason that PCs are so actively targeted is because of the market share they represent.  Windows PCs still account for over 90% of the computers being used, and home users’ PCs tend to be less secure than those in well managed corporate environments.  To malware distributors, home users on a Windows PC seem like an easy target with near limitless resources.

For more information on how to stay safe, please see the links below for related articles.  If you’re suffering from a virus infection and need help, please contact 24/7 PC Services for help.

Avast! Free Antivirus requires annual registration. Even the free version must be registered because Avast wants to be able to determine how many active users they have. This allows them to maintain enough update servers for all the users they have. There are two scenarios where Avast Free needs to be registered:
1) You have just installed Avast Free.
2) After 1 year you receive a message from Avast Free to re-register.

On-line registration is very simple and it’s the preferred method for all users of avast Free Antivirus 6.x installed on a computer with standard Internet connectivity. To perform on-line registration follow these steps:
Right-click the avast! system tray icon and select ‘Registration information’ from the menu,

…or double-click the avast! Free Antivirus desktop icon to open the avast! user interface, then in the left pane click the ‘MAINTENANCE’ tab and from the unfolded submenu select ‘Registration’.

The YOUR REGISTRATION screen will appear, where you should click ‘Register now’ to open the registration form.

In the meantime, a dialog box offering an upgrade to avast! Internet Security may popup. To continue using avast! Free Antivirus and open the registration form, just click the ‘Register’ button under displayed product comparison table.

Once the registration form appears, enter all the required data (marked with an asterisk *) into the text fields, and when it’s finished, click ‘Register for free license’ to submit your registration.

After your registration is complete, an information dialog box will be displayed. Just click ‘OK’.

Then your registration status will change to REGISTERED and the expiration date will be updated on the YOUR REGISTRATION screen.

avast! Free Antivirus 6.x can now continue to be used for 12 months and you will continue to receive automatic updates to both the program and your virus definitions. At the end of that time, it will be necessary simply to register for a new free license.

Remember: Viruses and Spyware are not the same thing! For spyware use something like superantispyware!

Dan Stamo, owner of 24/7 PC Services can help you, give him a call 602.332.2116

The problem is, later may be too late. I am not trying to be overly dramatic, but backups are critical if your information is important.

There are 3 main things that people need to backup, Documents, Pictures and business information. There are a lot of other important things people need, but those are the most critical that are hard if not impossible to recreate.

Here is my reason for doing this Blog Entry

We had a computer come in the shop for serious virus infestation. We were scanning the hard drive, and it died in the middle of scanning. Every attempt was made to get the drive working, but it failed big time.

There was no way to recover the data because it was a hardware failure which is very common in hard drives. The person’s extensive business information was on there, and there was no backup at all.

If you do not have your information backed up and it is important to you, you have a pretty good chance of losing it all.

It’s a Hard Life!

Did you know that many hard drives only have a year or two warranty, does that tell you something?

Hard drives are little metal disks that typically spin around at 7,200 RPM. They do this continuously and they do have an expected service life. That is why the warranty is so short, and you pay more money for a hard drive that has a longer life.

I see hard drives in both laptops and towers die all the time. I probably have 2 or 3 a month that come into the shop. They can mechanically die and the electronics can also go out. One common factor I see in many bad hard drive cases is a very dirty computer inside.

Also laptops do get banged around and moved while they are on, and that little hard drive is spinning it’s little life away as you move it.

You absolutely cannot trust a single hard drive to store very important information, chances are it will fail at some point in time.

Here are the options along with advantages and disadvantages of each method

Floppy Disks (ok, that was a joke. You can not even fit a single 10 megapixel digital photo on a floppy disk)

1. External Hard Drive – This is quickly becoming the norm and most economical method of backing up data. The hard drives can store more and more data and they are getting cheaper. You hook it up with a USB connector and set up the schedule and that is about it.

There are a couple of negatives. First of all it is a hard drive, and it is sitting on the desk or wherever, and it can get dropped. So it can die on it’s own, and you or the kids can help it die by knocking it over, which can happen.

The other negative is that some of the software is really junk that comes with the hard drives. The good thing is that Windows 7 does have a really nice and easy backup built into Home Premium.

2. CDs & DVDs – This is probably one of the safest and best way to back up your information, especially archivally. CDs will hold around 700 megbytes of data and a DVD will hold about 4.2 Gigabytes.

The DVD will hold a lot more and is really the one to use to back up a lot of stuff. You can also get dual layer DVDs that hold even more, and Blue Ray can hold up to 25 GB of data.

The main disadvantage is it is a bit more manual, you do need to insert a disk each time, then put them somewhere. The advantage for seriously critical data is you can keep a copy of the information at another location in case of fire, flood or ????

Even if you choose another method of backup, creating a backup DVD once in a while is not a bad idea, just to be on the safe side.

3. Online Service – There are numerous online services out there to back your information such as Carbonite, Mozy, iDrive and many of the Anti-Virus companies are offering online backup services.

This is not a bad way to go. They back up your data when your computer is not being used and they have multiple data sites that store your information so if disaster hits they have your data.

The negative is that they have your data. They have privacy policies and they also encrypt your data so only you are supposed to be able to access it, but I still feel a bit weird about trusting a company with my personal or business information.

Also, when you back up at first, it can take up to a month to get all your data backed up, then after that it is much faster. Also if you have to recover the data it takes a long time. I am not a fan of online services, but for some they work ok.

4. Network Attached Storage – This option is a little more advanced and not quite as easy to setup, but in my opinion it is a very good option and much better than a single external hard drive. The other really cool thing is that you can backup other computers on your network.

This is a very good option for a small business with a couple of computers.

A NAS can also act as a media server, which will allow you to view computer media files (movies & Photos) on newer TVs & Blu Ray Players, but that is a bit more advanced and a whole other topic!

The NAS looks like a little toaster or mini computer. It has multiple hard drives, usually 2 or more. The drives are set up so information is put on both drives and if one fails, the other one has the info also. It is a redundancy that the external drive does not have.

You can just set the software to backup automatically and even have it back up a file right after you save and close it, so your backup is constantly monitoring your files. I have this for my business and I have to tell you, it is one of the best investments I have made.

The down side is that they start at around $300 and go up from there depending on how much storage and the quality of the unit. The other thing that is tough for many people is the software and installation is not always straight forward and can be hard to set up.

5. USB Memory Stick/Flash Drive – Many people want to use this to backup data, but I would not recommend it. These drives are made for temporary storage and you can erase them. I know people use them, but I would not recommend them for long term storage.

Final Thoughts
Every person and business have different needs and finances so there is not one answer to which method is best for each person.

Whatever method you choose, you need to make a decision, create a backup plan and stick to it. That way you won’t have to hear, “I hate to tell you this, but your hard drive is dead, and we cannot recover your information…”