Computer Repair Experts in Phoenix, Arizona. my PC Techs Presents:

Phoenix, Arizona has it all: Warm weather, strong population growth, and a business-friendly economy making it one of the best places in America to own and operate a business. If you own a business in the Phoenix area you most likely depend on your computers for most of your day to day operations. It is important to protect your computers and important business data from viruses by hiring an experienced computer technician. Your Phoenix area business can count on my PC Techs, a local IT and computer repair company, to keep your computers and important data safe.

Most computer owners think all that is necessary to prevent viruses is a good antivirus program. While an antivirus program is a good start, hackers have elaborate methods for bypassing these safeguards. This means that spyware, malware, ransomware, rootkits, adware, Trojan viruses, and more might wind up infecting even the most cautious of computer users. To protect sensitive data, avoid infections from crafty viruses, and thwart ransomware viruses like Cryptolocker, seek a professional. Effective virus prevention usually involves user training, special software configurations, and routine monitoring from a professional computer technician.

Beyond prevention, virus removal is another area where you’ll want to enlist the help of a professional to be safe. In some extreme cases, a single virus infection that is not properly cared for can result in all of your computer data being lost forever. Even if everything seems fine at the moment, a computer can have a virus on it that is well-hidden. Rootkits, spyware, malware, adware, and trojans can slip by many virus software filters, wind up on a hard drive unnoticed, and endanger computer data.

Even seemingly “simple” to remove viruses like pop-ups from a fake virus infection require a professional to clean. If a computer is already infected, removing and cleaning the known virus or malware infection may involve a deeper look at the computer to find and remove associated viruses hidden from plain sight.

Our professional computer repair technicians are here to help protect your Phoenix, Arizona business computers and data. Our virus removal and prevention methods will help eliminate those pesky pop-ups and keep you safe from potentially costly ransomware infections such as Cryptolocker. After all, a well-protected computer is a happy computer.

Whether you need immediate computer help or regular computer services, contact us. The computer experts at my PC Techs provide expert computer maintenance and computer repair for your computers, networks, and servers. Servicing Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert and surrounding areas, call (602) 456-0150.

Don’t unplug, we come to you! The award winning technology team at my PC Techs makes it easy for your Phoenix or Scottsdale area business to save money and increase productivity by delivering superior technology solutions. Call now to schedule a visit from your own dedicated computer expert: (602) 456-0150 or click here to email us.

The my PC Techs team wants to make you aware of a new and very serious virus that’s going around. The name of this disturbing new virus is CryptoLocker.

The reason for this urgent warning is due to the extreme nature of the threat. CryptoLocker encrypts and “locks” all of your personal computer files in a way that makes it impossible to recover them via normal methods. The virus also reaches out over a network to attack other nearby computers, and can easily take down an entire office of computers if left to run free.

You will only regain access to the locked files after paying a $300 ransom per computer to the criminals who wrote the virus.

We encourage you to immediately perform the following steps to help protect your family and business computers:

1. Call a meeting with everyone in your company and speak with all family members in your home. Remind them to never open an email attachment unless they are expecting the attachment in advance.
2. Even if they are expecting an attachment, double check the attachment very carefully before clicking on it. The virus is usually disguised as a file inside of a .zip file sent via email. The virus will come with a normal looking icon such as a Word Doc or a PDF file, but the file extension of the attachment will be an .exe file or something else that you don’t recognize instead.
3. Make sure you have anti-virus software that is up to date and functioning properly.
4. You should also be running the Professional (purchased) version of MalwareBytes.
5. Use Chrome or Firefox (not Internet Explorer) to browse the internet and, if possible, enable script blocking in your browser.
6. Double check that you have a good backup plan for all of your important data. You should have multiple copies of recent backups for all files on all computers. At least one copy of your backups should be stored away in a safe place (not connected to your computer).

As always, the instant you suspect that your computer has been infected by a virus you should immediately turn off your computer and contact a technology professional for assistance. DO NOT turn your computer back on until the threat has been evaluated! If you leave your computer turned on after a virus infection, you are giving the virus more time to damage your data.

If you have any questions at all about this new threat or would like some additional help securing your data, please don’t hesitate to give us a call. We’re here to help.

PS: Please share this warning with anyone you know who may be vulnerable to this virus. The frequency of the attacks appears to be accelerating.