ItsGeekToMe.co

Q: I have a question and a request. Recently I was on my computer and the screen went blank – then a Halloween “Witch” came on and the screen said “Do you miss me?” I hit the RED X on the top right and it went away. About 2 hours later the screen gets this “official looking page” telling me I did this and that and for $300.00 they would fix it. I mentioned what they could do and got my nephew to get it almost back to normal, except I cannot get a couple things, the biggest, of which, is Sirius Radio. The computer says it cannot access that page. I’ve tried to set up a new account and it says the same thing. I’m guessing you work on computers for a living, or, you’re very knowledgeable. Is it possible you can take a look at it?  If not, is there somebody you would recommend?

– Ed S.
Niceville, Florida

A:  I’m going to start out by repeating something I’ve often said here: I do not, and simply cannot work on the computer of everybody who asks me.  I am a computer scientist, and software engineer by trade, and I happen to write a computers and technology Q&A column as a little side diversion.  But I am not set-up to take payments for working on computers, nor do I have the time or desire to be inundated with the tens of thousands of PCs that my readers own, which could perhaps benefit from a little time alone with “The Geek”.  Instead, I offer you, the owner/operator advice (for free) through this forum, whether you are reading it in a newspaper, or on my website at ItsGeekToMe.co (not .com).  If you need anything beyond that, there are a number of computer repair businesses in your local area, which you can find in just about every other shopping center or retail space, in your phone book, or by doing a web search.

If you’re still reading (and I hope you are) I can tell you that what you have is an infestation of a form of malware called ransomware.  That is a Trojan or virus that infects your computer, locks you out of your own files and/or blocks access to the Internet, then offers to “fix” the problem if you pay some ridiculous sum of money.  Some of these scams are pretty blatant, simply telling you that you’ve been hacked.  Others are more subtle, pretending that they’re finding errors, and offering the solution in the form of some scanner or removal tool.  In reality, all these do are unblock what the malware did in the first place.

The ways around such an infection are quite similar to any other virus. Start with scanners and malware removal tools, and if they don’t work, perform web searches on the symptoms you’re experiencing (including precise, exact error messages) and look for remedies that have already been developed to combat whatever the PC is infested with.  Worst case, a system recovery or reload of the operating system is in order, after you’ve saved copies of all your personal files that are on the machine.

Because your nephew was able to get so much of your system operational again, I suspect that your inability to access Sirius Radio is perhaps not directly attributable to this malware being active, but rather something it did to your Internet configuration before it got removed. Have him check the connection settings to see whether the malware installed a proxy (an Internet address through which all your network traffic is forced as it comes and goes from your computer) and whether it messed with the PC’s DNS settings.  If you can reach the Sirius website, but you can’t login, then there’s a problem with your account, and you’ll need to call SiriusXM’s Customer Service to get help with that.

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From the Shameless Plug Division of Geek Central: My annual Christmas outreach, the Geek Lights on the Corner is in full swing!  If you’re lucky enough to live in the Florida panhandle, you can come and see it live, now through January 4^th.  Unless you’re willing to travel, the rest of you will just have to content yourselves with keeping up with happenings at the show on its page at TinyURL.com/GeekLights.