Removing Viruses and "Malware" is
one of our specialties. Our flat
includes repairing your OS.
Rootkits...
Rootkits are deep kernal level virus-like programs that hide themselves from your computers monitoring ability. Several modern viruses have taken to using "rootkits" in their malicious software, including the notorious "Storm Worm" varients.
Viruses
Computer viruses have been around for just about as long as computers. In fact the first "bug" was so named because a moth landed on one of the vacuum tubes and caused a system crash. Back then, computers were the size of whole buildings. Some viruses steal passwords and data while others use your computer as an attack weapon against other computers. Viruses and their authors rely on fear, ignorance and superstition to spread their code. Education is the cure.
Malware
Malware, also called Spyware & Adware originated shortly after the Dot.com crash. Essentially, thousands of white collar programmers lost their jobs & in their desperation, some were picked up by unscrupulous corporations. These "contractors" were hired to develop ways to advertise to consumers via computers - hence the term Adware. Later, by spying (Spyware) on users these organizations were able to better target their sales efforts.
Hackers
The term "Hacker" traditionally ment an individual who had enough programming skills to fix, repair or recreate software. It seems to have been something along the lines of "oh great, systems down. Now I'll have to hack it." Hence the term "can't hack it?" Since then the term has become ripe with negitive baggage. A Hacker is very undesirable by modern standards. Hackers find ways into systems and networks, usually by exploiting a flaw/weakness in software. For more information on the subject of Hackers, Viruses, Antivirus Software, Security and the like check out our white papers.