Internet Safety - You're Doing it Wrong...

Did you know your PC is equipped with a cup holder?

Your computer is cluttered with junk. Your internet homepage is not what it's suppose to be. Tool bars. Search bars. Fix My PC. If any of this sounds familiar, it's actually your own fault! That's right, I said it. You did it to yourself. But, I've done it too!

Coming up on March 10th, I will have been in my position as an IT Help Desk guy for a year. I see this so, so much, and it's so ridiculously easy to avoid. No one realizes they do this, so that is why I'm going to tell you some of the things your doing wrong to help have a healthier computer.

If anything in the introduction sounds like it applies to your computer, guess what, you more than likely have Malware.

"But Nat! I have anti-virus software that I paid lots of money to keep this stuff off my PC!"

Yeah, that's good. But, you installed it yourself! Allow me to present a story to serve as an illustration.

Your in your home and you decide you would really like a dog. You see a dog in the street that obviously appears to be a dog in need of a home. So, you jump at the first dog you see... after all, it's homeless, and it's really flippin cute! So you bring it into your house. But what you don't know when you bring in this stray dog is all the health issues it has. Viruses and stuff that you have to pay to return it to health. To go further, this dog isn't house broken. It chews up your belongings, it pees on your carpet, and guess what, being the sick stray puppy it is, it has frequent Hershey squirts.

Now who's to blame for this? This dog didn't just walk through your front door, take your money to pay for it's health, and soil your carpet. Is it the dog? Is it your door for not keeping it out? Nope. You let it in. So let's break it down technically.

The Dog
(Note: I have adopted stray animals and love them. This is for illustrative purposes only. I do not condone the adopting of stray pets.)
The dog can be any program your out looking for. It could be a program your updating, a program your trying to install, etc. You want a pet dog, but really is pulling the dog off the street the best choice? So here is one common example:

1) Oh hey! I need Firefox! What to click?

2) Highlighted is exactly where you screwed up!

I have many times have had people call me at work stating they suddenly have a bunch of weird programs show up. My first question? I always ask "have you tried downloading a new web browser?" The answer has always been yes. People haven't been entirely satisfied with Internet Explorer, or it doesn't suit there needs, so they go out and look for a different browser. The two common web browsers used on a Windows PC is Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. So they search for one of these browsers. Usually they will just type in what they are looking for in the URL bar, that is, the box that you type a web address into like "www.somethingoranother.com". So I went off and did just that and here is what I got [see image 1]. You get your search results back and naturally you click the first thing that contains words related to what your looking for. "Download Mozilla Firefox". Oh, ok! Yeah, you know you did. But take a closer look at this search result with me [see image 2]. I highlighted in this image where you screwed up. If you look closely to what you just searched for, chances are the first few results will have a feint "Ad related to..." above them, and the whole link will be a slight shade different. No wonder you clicked it. It looks exactly like a search result, not an advertisement! Whenever downloading, make sure to download directly from the publishers website. Many times if you click these ads, you won't even get installed what your looking for in the first place!

Your House
This is representing your computer and it's security. If you leave your front door wide open all the time, naturally you'll have all sorts of things coming in. Animals, bugs, the elements, people. So, you keep the door closed. What is more, you naturally lock your doors to keep your home that much more safer. Good for you! You have anti-virus software! Your blocking out all that stuff and junk that may come in if you just left it. But did you notice something? The dog? You go out for a new internet browser. New internet browsers just don't show up on your computer (don't argue with me... they just don't). So you have to unlock and open your door. You just gave permission by clicking "Yes" and "Install" for all this poop to soil your floor. Trust me, rubbing your computers nose in the malware proves ineffective. Same with squirting it with a water bottle when it misbehaves. Your home security is only as good as what you allow in and out. Same with your computer.

The Hershey Squirts
I would bring out the dogs viruses, but I'm sure you know a virus is a virus. It carries it in with it. But, I'm going to go a little off the path with the poop, since really, you have control over how much poop comes out of your proverbial dog. Except, I'm training YOU to be housebroken. Lets go through the installation process of something and see what we get.

Installing software can be a long, repetitive, drawn out process. Like, so annoying you just want to be done with it. So you just click "Next", "Next", "Next", "Next", "Yes", "Next", "Accept", "Next", "Next", "Install". Congratulations! You just accepted 6 malicious programs to be installed! Good luck getting them all off! (hehehehe) Here is just a very brief example of what your doing wrong... [see image 3]

3) You clicked "Next".... Didn't you!

I stopped mid installation of this program to show you this. This is downloaded from the publishers website, but look, your still getting crap installed on your computer. But, like I said, your impatient and it's boring so you click "Next", "Next", "Next", "Next", "Yes", "Next", "Accept", "Next", "Next", "Install" (Note: order may vary). But look closely at this shot. What do you see here? Go ahead, read the whole box and see everything you missed. They pretty well trick you into installing stuff! You just agreed to put in a lot of Yahoo (literally). You look for an option here to not install it, but all you have is quick and advance. Sometimes, this sort of stuff will give you an option to decline the services along with the installation options, but it's not there. But there is something different about this box that is tricky. Trust me on this one... Your brain is programmed to see that grey box as the "back" option. Your brain thinks that because that is habit. 98% of every other installation you have ever done, that has been the case. So when they swap out the back button with decline, you don't even see the decline! You may honestly be sitting there thinking "well, I guess I have to." and install it all anyways. I do tip my hat at the people who thought this trick up, using our neurological habits against us. Bravo jerks!

To sum it all up, I'm sure you now realized it is entirely your fault. You done goofed. Can't really report that to the cyber police when you kinda, ya know, give it to them. What did we learn? If your going to do something, PAY ATTENTION. I have no problem letting you pay me to clean your crap up, but if you keep doing this over and over..... Yeah..... Don't waste your money thinking your anti-virus is faulty and all that.

What else can you do to help? I'll give you a handy little tool I use all the time when I encounter those fun people that like to click "Next", "Next", "Next", "Next", "Yes", "Next", "Accept", "Next", "Next", "Install". Run it along side your anti-virus software to help keep a clean PC. Malwarebytes is a free program that does a pretty good job of cleaning things up. You can upgrade to premium, but I don't. Remember, look at all the boxes when your installing. Uncheck things like free trials and additional software. If your program actually needs this additional stuff to operate, it will let you know when you try to open it. You can find a free download at https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/ (note: the button for the free is just grey... not deactivate... More neuro-trickery!) So...... stop it.