How to Identify and Remove a Virus? Total Security

Notice that your computer or mobile phone is “slow” or has been crashing for a few days, unrelated to a change in its use? Or that advertising windows are displayed on your screen without any action on your part? Whether your device shuts down or restarts for no reason? You may be the victim of a computer virus.

Here are some recommendations to help you identify and remove a virus.

What is a virus?

A virus is a computer program that spreads between different computers, mobile phones or tablets. Its purpose is to alter the normal functioning of your device for profit or destruction. Like a biological virus, this type of software spreads by replicating itself and inserting itself into other software.

A machine is often infected by e-mail messages, by file sharing, via a fault in the system or by an external element such as a USB key.

The effects of a virus on a device can be very different: some will exploit your data, others like ransomware will make it inaccessible in order to make you pay a ransom. There are also viruses that can allow a cybercriminal to take over your computer, tablet, or mobile phone to steal your data.

To make it easier to identify the presence of a virus on your device, here is a list of the effects that malware can have on your device:

Slowing down of the device,

Blocking,

Windows that appear for no reason,

Modification of software or programs, such as your Internet browser, word processing software, etc.

Unknown dialogue box or messages,

Internet sites that appear automatically,

Etc.

In this article, we offer some tips for trying to identify and remove a virus from your device. If necessary, we remind you that you can be accompanied by one of our referenced service providers. Start now, if necessary, our connecting journey.

6 tips for identifying and removing a virus

1. Make sure you have a working antivirus

If you have an antivirus installed on your device, start by launching it and verify that it is working well:

If it indicates that the “virus databases” or “virus definitions” are not up to date, it means that it has not performed its updates automatically and that your device is no longer protected against new threats. Connect to the Internet, and update quickly.

If it is no longer able to protect your computer, we recommend that you follow its instructions to reactivate it. You can also change your antiviral solution. For that, read our following tip.

2. Optionally change your antivirus

Be aware that a computer or a mobile phone cannot contain two antivirus programs at the same time: the duplicate presence of such software can be detrimental to your protection.

So, if you feel that it is necessary to change your antivirus, first uninstall the old antivirus before downloading and installing a new one.

There are free and paid antiviruses. Which one to choose? It will depend on your general knowledge of IT and security:

If you know the methods used by cyber attackers and you are vigilant in your daily use, you can opt for a free antivirus. This is because free antiviruses have the same levels of protection as paid antiviruses. The differences between these two types of antivirus lie in the additional features that are provided by paid antiviruses. These antiviruses generally offer options (paid version) that you can do without because you follow our recommendations and are particularly attentive in your uses.

If you do not know anything about these issues, we recommend that you use a paid antivirus. Their additional options improve the detection of attacks related to less controlled Internet use and these risks.

3. Scan your computer or mobile phone

Once your antivirus is up to date or your new antivirus is installed, it may help you detect or even remove the virus in question. Launch the antivirus, and look for the computer's “full scan” option, which will automatically inspect all files, and identify suspicious ones. The procedure may take several minutes.

At the end of the scan if your antivirus has spotted a malicious file, it will offer you several options:

Delete the virus, or even the file, to make it disappear from your machine

Quarantine it, to prevent it from acting on your machine

Choose, if possible, the option “delete”. Otherwise, go for quarantine and restart your machine. The symptoms related to the presence of malware should be gone. Otherwise, your antivirus is not efficient enough to remove the virus. In this case, refer to the previous step, and install a new antivirus or call on a service provider referenced by Cybermalveillance.

4. Know how to identify a virus manually

The constant evolution of malicious programs does not guarantee perfect reliability in their identification by antivirus.

However, you can learn to identify some viruses by manual research. The purpose of this article is not to list all advanced identification techniques. Nevertheless, we offer you one allowing informed users to identify abnormal behaviour of their device.

Start by going to your system configuration tool and observe the name of the programs that are launched when your machine starts up. If an unknown program is there, search the Internet to determine whether it is a legitimate program or not. If necessary deactivate it and delete it.

5. What if the virus persists?

Despite the scans you have carried out with your antivirus, the symptoms may persist. We advise you, in this case, to “restore” your system. On Windows, System Restore is a feature that allows you to restore your computer's files to an earlier date, which will undo changes that have been made to your device without affecting your personal files. Refer to your device's documentation for more information or search the Internet.

As a last resort and if, after all these recommendations, the symptoms persist, it would be useful to think about reinstalling your device or putting it back to factory settings. As with system restore, refer to your device's documentation for more information or do a search engine search.

If symptoms persist, it may also mean that your device may not be infected with a virus. Indeed, over time, computers or mobile phones may slow down due to the installation of any software or applications on the device which are very resource-intensive.

Likewise, with the use of the Internet and other new software which is constantly increasing, the resources required to operate them are more and more important, which can slow down an “old” device which will need more time to run. complete the task that will be asked of him.

6. Pay attention to alerts from your security tools

Regardless of the method used, adopt the right daily reflexes now to avoid viral infection. Now that you have an up-to-date antivirus installed on your machine,  pay attention to what it tells you  :

When it asks you to update the virus databases, do it immediately, without waiting,

When it alerts you to a suspicious file and offers to delete it or quarantine it, complete the operation as soon as possible.

Remember that you are the main actor in your safety in life, as on the Internet with total security. Be vigilant in your uses and use the right tools to limit the risk of infection!