News

New Malware Notice

Lately we’ve been seeing a lot of people being infected by rogue (fake) antivirus and anti-spyware programs. The virus is stored on a website, perhaps even a trusted website, that’s been hacked. A window that looks like an authentic Windows warning message appears saying that the computer is infected. The purpose of the fake warning message is to scare the user into clicking “Yes” to every window that pops up claiming to fix the “virus problem.” Clicking “Yes” actually downloads the virus. Do not download the file. If you already have, delete it immediately.

Above: Picture of a Rogue Virus acting as an Antivirus Warning Message.

If you see a similar warning message to the one above, close the browser completely. If you have a Monthly Maintenance Plan with E-Geniuses, you should call to have a technician scan your computer for infections. We will then examine the suspect website and have it reported if necessary.

The are many variants of the same malware. Some common names are Power Antivirus 2009, Antivir64, Internet Antivirus, PowerAntiSpy, AntivirusDoc, XP or Vista Antivirus 2008, and Antispyware XP 2008.

If you’ve been infected, we have found a few programs that work well. One of the programs is called Malwarebytes. It’s free to download. For more security, we recommend that you purchase the full version for around $25. The full version of Malwarebytes can monitor and prevent rogue programs from being installed. Installation and configuration is available at no cost to Monthly Maintenance and Personal Technician clients.

We will keep you posted in our newsletter, The E-Geniuses Insider, and our blog so you’ll know which programs work best for the most current infections. As you know, the people programming these viruses change them to circumvent preventive measures. Just make sure that you have an E-Genius on your side to stay a step ahead of them. If you have anymore questions about Virus and Spyware Removal, visit www.E-Geniuses.com.

If you’ve ever wanted to stream your music collection and online radio stations through your home stereo system or have had the urge to find some new music but didn’t know where to start, E-Geniuses has some suggestions.

Pandora radio is the personalized internet radio service that helps you find new music based on your old and current favorites. Easily create custom web radio stations, and listen to full songs for free and without commercial interruptions.

For starters, just visit www.pandora.com and fill in an artist and/or song that you enjoy listening to. Pandora will analyze aspects of the song (up to 400 attributes!) and play songs that consist of similar musical qualities. To customize your radio station further, Pandora allows you to assign a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" which it will take into account for future music selections, thus creating a truly custom radio station for you.

Now imagine streaming your custom radio stations in addition to the music library you already have all throughout your home. E-Geniuses can configure your home stereo and wireless network with Logitech’s Squeezebox player to stream the music through your speakers. With the Squeezebox, internet music streaming services are even available when your computer is turned off.

Our service areas generally cover the cities in the Los Angeles County Area, LA Metro Cities and surrounding areas. If you are unsure, please call (877) My-Genius or (877) 694-3648 to verify that our technicians can service your area.