How to Tell if Your Computer is Hit with Malware

Once your company is hit with a malware attack, it can take weeks to recover.  Not only that, but sometimes computers are hit with malware without even knowing! The longer the malware sits on your system undetected, the more damage it can do.

Since early detection is critical so the malware doesn’t do extra damage, keep these warning signs in mind:

• Abnormal Popups on Desktop: Since hackers try to impersonate what would be a legitimate program, such as an antivirus app or warranty notice, if you receive anything like this out of the ordinary it could mean your computer is infected.
• Extra Slow Behavior: Computers can get slow at times but if you experience freezing at times that you normally wouldn’t, it could be the malware eating up system resources and causing your computer to slow down.
• Crashing of Applications: Applications should not just crash for no reason. If you begin experiencing this, and a need to restart your computer, this usually means a virus or other malicious code is present.
• Corrupted Files: If you see a file is corrupted, a malware scan would usually be the next step.
• Less Hard Drive Space: If you used to have open hard drive space and now don’t, it could be a malware infection that is taking up the space.
• Reboots Without Warning: If you are forced to reboot without warning, not only can you lose anything you are working on but this could also be the malware corrupting files which is forcing your system to reboot.
• Home Browser is Redirected: If you open your browser and it directs you to a different home page than you normally would have, there’s a good chance you have bene infected with malware. This is a common ploy of certain types of malware and you need to act fast to get the malware removed.

If you suspect your computer has been hit with malware, or have any other questions, reach out to a CATS Technology Technician for further information (732-204-7100).

Tags: cyber security, malware

Categorised in: Top 10