Computer Virus

Passwords are one of several methods by which virus infection can be reduced. A survey in 2012 showed that the four commonest passwords were - password, 123456, 12345678 and abc123.

One of the simplest and most secure passwords can be generated by using the initial letters of a favourite song or phrase. Thus In an English country garden becomes iaecg and, if you need something longer, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" is nitfohcwsmobsmtsf. To make such a password even more secure you could change certain letters to numbers such as "s" to "2", "b" to "6" and "z" to "3". Even GCHQ would take a few weeks to decipher some of these.

I also installed Norton a few months ago and so far, I'm pleased with it (although my son said he doesn't rate Norton and prefers AVG - AVG caused some problems for me though so I removed it). Any attachments in emails, Norton scans them first and let's you know if they're okay to open. Same with downloading updates from flashplayer, Adobe and such like - I had one with Adobe that Norton wouldn't allow to download as it was 'known to be a security risk'! Who would have thought that. It did allow the update a few weeks later though.

'anti-virus programme' meant to type!

I've got Norton and it gives me monthly update on whatever threats and viruses it's detected and cleared. As Elegran says, you have to trust whatever anti-virus you have installed, unless you're really IT-savvy.

You have to trust McAfee, thecatsmum, but have you had all the updates that were going? As each new virus is invented and sneaked in, the virus chekhers have to add it to their list of nasties to look out for, so each update has the latest that have been found. If you have not got the latest update, your virus checker will not know to look out for it and isolate it.

Depends who your service provider is. BT has very good anti virus and updates automatically. If your computer is set to automatic updates for windows it will just download and tell you to install. I run a full scan one night a week, overnight. It has never found a virus in the last three years.

Its all very well being told of this virus and that we need to take safety measures, but what does that mean exactly! When I got my laptop it was chosen for me, McAfee was installed, I was shown how to turn it on and off, and the rest Ive had to pick up myself as Ive gone along with no one to help. Obviously my computing knowledge is very basic, as is my understanding of the jargon, so what hope is there that I can ensure my laptop is safe?

Well done yogagran. DH snuck off and bought an android tablet when my back was turned. As he relies on me to be the IT help desk, I was not impressed as I have my head around Apple stuff and Windows but Android is a closed book to me. I did try but in the end it went back in part ex for an IPad . That said DS 2 is a devotee of Android, possibly a bit of sibling stuff going on there, it takes all sorts of operating systems to make the world go round?

I get so tired of these thieving robdogs - why don't they just put their time to better use.

It said on Yahoo that they have netted millions of pounds with this virus and if the powers that be can stall it for two weeks, why don't they just stall it permanently? Is it a way to sell more AV programmes?

I've just scanned my laptop and it's supposed to update automatically.

Swines ...

Brenda Exactly the same for me. I hadn't turned on my laptop for a couple of weeks and there were 10 Windows updates. Plus I decided to back up everything on an external drive. Then Norton started a full scan. It must have taken about 2 hours before I was able to use. BUT hopefully this means I'm secure. I also have an iPhone, iPad and iPad Mini which of course need updating from time to time.

My SIL bought me a new Windows 8 laptop a couple of months ago. If he hadn't done this, I may have been tempted to a MAC.

purpledaffodil - I'm an Android user and all my stuff syncronises between machines too. Photos, calendar, emails, apps - everything that is done on one tablet or phone gets onto the others, very useful isn't it

I am not up to your computer literacy standards Brenda but since reading the article online I am busy transferring files onto Cloud back up.

Thought I would virus check my laptop. Firstly the b**** thing would not accept routers password. Checked google and found solution. Reset pouter and password accepted. Ran virus check all ok. Then all apple stuff wanted to sync with iTunes. iTunes decided it wanted to install software update. Syncs three devices. Two would not sync without a cable attachment one would not sync with cable attached only over wi fi. Laptop then decided that it needed a software update, currently in progress. Then as I turned router off previously the wifi printer will need to have password re entered. Still have to do external backup of hard drive.
All because of a newspaper article.
AND. they say over 60's are not computer literate.

J52 your family sounds familiar. I think Apple is beloved of geeks but I am a convert. If you have an iPhone, iMac and iPad , it is like magic the way they all synchronise, especially with photographs. Have just spoken to DS1 who lives abroad and is Chief Geek. He advises that Apple rarely affected, but it is good practice to change passwords frequently, make them unguessable and to make up the answers to the security questions, keeping a record of them obviously.

I have adapted well to my Samsung Chrome Book which uses Chrome OS and apparently is not subject to viruses and trojans. Time will tell. I do use virus protection on my Hudl and my phone.

Yes, realise it is a bit different and will take some getting used to, but between us we have been through quite a few operating systems in our time. (Even RiscOs in my case!). We don't do anything very demanding these days, but there are some things we can't do on ipad, like banking, because we live in France. We also have a pathetically slow and flaky half megabyte internet connection and the ipads and iphone cope much better with that so hope that the mini desktop would too.
As OH says the PC is basically still DOS and DOS was c**p!

Being a great Apple fan I have the phone, the iPad, the iPad mini and a MacBook Pro. 90% of the time the iPad does everything I want it to do and I only use the MacBook if I need a really stable platform, to synchronise to ITunes and to do complete back ups of my other devices.
You have to judge what you need going forward but also that the apple Maverick ( I think that's the current one) desktop is very different and needs to be understood to navigate it.
I have antivirus on my MacBook also.

We are a total Mac family, right from our first computer 25 yrs ago. They are particularly good at detecting spam, suspicious e mails.

Both my DH and DS1 use them for business purposes, DSI in the IT profession. I can honestly say we have never had so much as a 'blip' with any of our machines, past and present. I realise this will not be everyone's experience, just my personal opinion. X

Our PC spends half its life updating its malware and virus protection. After thirty years of putting up with PCs for work reasons we are seriously thinking of reverting to Mac which is where we started off with home computers in the eighties. We love our ipads and are thinking of buying the Mac Mini. Has anyone else done the same? Each version of Windows seems to be worse than the last.

Last night's BBC news suggested that it affected Windows systems. Apple always seem to be sending security upgrades to install. Better to be safe than sorry and upgrade security asp. X

BBC Breakfast have just said to make sure antivirus is up to date and to back up important files.

I do hope that scammers won't play on our fears...

Has anyone else seen the news about the virus, The experts think they have stalled it for about 2 weeks to give people time to ensure their security systems are up to date