By Trip Elix
Too often this is the case. Viruses and malware are everywhere.

Worse today encryption and ransomware threats are running rapidly on the internet. All of these infections either destroy or turn your most important pictures and tax files into things less useless than runny scrambled eggs.
Shut down the computer. Don’t answer questions or save what was open in the other program, find the power switch, or the yank the cord. Without power, the computer or the virus can’t infect anything else. Unpowered devices are unable to continue to infect or encrypt other nearby machines. Some of these things will infect network shares or other machines in your home or workplace. If your computer is infected then the antivirus you have, already has let you down.
It may not be the fault of the anti-virus program you have. Most likely it didn’t fail, there are thousands of new illicit programs written each and every day. There are so many new ones generated that the manufacturers of the programs started compartmentalizing the electronic vermin, by a truly insignificant trait of behavior.
Viruses and malware are simply programs that require human interaction to start. Both can be equally devastating to your data and information, whether it is stored locally or on the cloud are no exception. A virus has the capability of duplicating itself. A program that contains malware cannot copy itself. A worm, however, needs no human interaction to install or operate and like other rodents it can do anything it wants. The popular targets of stealing and deletion have transformed into profit by extortion, the encryption being the current new threat recognized by the FBI.
Viruses and malware come from practically every form of electronic communication. Major search engines have advertised program downloads that contain viruses. As a result, vicious criminals continue to rent advertisements, so malicious programs show up high in search results. Some of these steal credit card numbers. Some are designed to co-opt social media account and banking logins.
Some Antivirus companies are dappling in anti-malware efforts while this has been a pattern of behavior since the invention of the web browser. Most operating systems Windows, OSX, and mobile platforms only allow a single vendor of protection. Spreading different malware and antivirus vendors on your devices may be a method of saving from catastrophe. If one doesn’t detect it, another possibly might.

Restarting the machine in safe mode often disables programs that automatically start. Obviously, when attempting to detecting and identifying viruses, you should never do it on the same network as your workplace. If you are at home turn off all other computers on the same network. This includes phones and tablets on Wifi. There are viruses that can copy themselves from a pc to a phone or to a Mac. The old days of only a windows virus are basically over. If there is a saving grace with many of the encryption varieties, the process often encrypts the file then deletes the original. There are applications that can restore deleted files. Some of them are built into network servers and your computer. You can also hire recovery experts to look at your given situation.
The identification of rogue programs has depreciated to a Hollywood style tabloid approach. Only the most popular and reoccurring are noted. Media occasionally reports on the most grievous of actors. This process leaves thousands of undetected rouge and harmful actors on our shared stage of societal interaction.