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 Post subject: Are you prepared?
 Post Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:01 pm 
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Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:31 am
Posts: 72
Last weekend my main desktop computer got infected with a virus. I don’t know how, but I wasn’t too worried I had managed to get rid of a virus before.
My first steps were to change all my important passwords using another virus free computer, then with support from my Antivirus provider (Bullguard) I scanned and try to eliminate this virus using “Antimalwarebytes” and “Hijackthis” anti malware software. After many iterations round the loop, the virus still persisted. The symptons being Mozilla browser was being Hijack continuously so that clicking on the results of a google search(for London Stock Exchange) took on to a total different page than I expected. By Thursday the situation was still unchanged so I thought I had better give up trying to eliminate the virus, lets go back to a previous clean state. I tried Windows Restore to a check point a couple of weeks ago which should have been a clean point.. The windows restore facility has the advantage that any personal data files are left intact so if it works one doesn’t lose any recent data. Anyway it didn’t work, I guess this is because if you are going to design a virus it is probably worth trying design it such that it nobbles one of the easiest ways of getting rid of it. Anyway all the time that this was going on I was not in any panic because although this was my main machine, I have two machines I use all the time, I have a netbook which I copy all the important data across to on almost a daily basis. Thus I was able to keep up to date with all my downloads of data from the internet and carry on monitoring all the positions I had open using the netbook. It all worked fine. The other thing which I do on a regular basis (e.g. once a month) I do a full backup of my main computer to a external usb drive using a package of software called Acronic True Image. The advantage of this particular backup system is that it creates a “True Image” of the disk. So when I finally decided that the only way to remove the virus completely was to restore my system from the last total save I had done, the precedure itself was very simple: I use the Acronis boot disk to boot the system into Linux, then select to restore the entire system from the backup and then just wait for about 3.5 hours while it does. The results are magic the system is exactly as it was when the backup was made, so I am now virus free. Also because I have been copying files to my netbook I haven’t lost any important data. ( Before doing the restore I did a search of the whole disk to see what files had changed since the backup date and checked that there was nothing important in there). I thought I would tell you all what my experience has been because it is worth thinking what you are going to do when either you get a virus, or your disk crashes or your mother board fails. I have had all of these , all of which highlight the importance of having a good backup system for everything.
Ask yourself these questions
What do you do if your internet connection fails?
What do you do if you get a virus?
What do you do if your computer disk crashes?


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 Post subject: Re: Are you prepared?
 Post Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:48 pm 
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Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2010 9:10 pm
Posts: 147
Good post off the lip. It highlights some very real issues that every trader should consider. I personally need to back up my machine more often. If my disk was to crash I have some stuff backed up but not all of it. Something for me to work on I guess.

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Harry,
The Spread betting beginner


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