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I. What s the Worst-Case Scenario?

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I. What's the Worst-Case Scenario?

Put quite simply, the worst-case scenario when you're dealing with a spyware infection is that you just plain can't fix it. No matter how many times you run a spyware removal tool, the pop-up ads keep coming back, and the removal tool keeps finding new infections on your computer. Maybe you've even taken it to a local computer shop or to a knowledgeable friend, and they're stumped as well. Once you've reached this point, you're unfortunately left with two choices:

Live with the way your computer is behaving, as-is, or
Reinstall your computer's operating system.

Even though that second option sounds extreme, there are some very important reasons why you should consider it, if you've run out of luck removing spyware any other way. For one thing, if there's a keystroke logger installed on your computer, every day that you leave it on your computer is another day that a hacker might be intercepting your credit card numbers or other personal data. Or a hacker could still have a "back door" into your computer without you even realizing it. Think of it this way: if somebody stole your house key, you'd change your locks, right? Well, what if your front door had three million locks on it, each of which opens with a different key, and you weren't sure which key got stolen? Reinstalling your computer's operating system is often the only way to be sure that you've "changed all the locks" so that hackers can't access your computer or your private information anymore.

On most computers, it's actually pretty simple to re-install the operating system: most major manufacturers like Dell and HP will provide a "Quick Restore" utility that will reformat your computer and bring it back to its original "out-of-the-box" configuration. That's the easy part, of course. The hard part is making sure that your data is protected in case you need to go that route. We'll spend the remainder of the book discussing ways that you can do just that.

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The Need for Data Protection

I imagine that I don't need to sell you too hard on the need to protect the information that you keep on your home computer; most people are aware that they should be doing something about it but just don't know where to start. It's also easy to procrastinate about it since you might figure nothing's going to go wrong...until it does. If you need convincing, think about what you would lose if someone broke into your house right now and stole your computer. Family photos, personal email, letters you've written, financial information, just gone . And much of this is difficult or impossible to replace - you can probably re-create most of your address book from memory or by sending out a "Please send me your current mailing address" email to all of your friends . But those family photos from your last vacation are pretty much irreplaceable. This has even happened to me: I lost most of the pictures from my college graduation, not from a virus but just by clicking on the wrong button while I was working on my computer and not realizing what had happened until it was too late. So, you should put a plan in place that will back up the files you care about so that you can restore them when you need to.