- Don't panic! This golden rule may prevent the loss of important data stored in your computer and help you avoid unnecessary stress.
- Disconnect your computer from the Internet.
- If your computer is connected to a Local Area Network, disconnect it.
- If the symptom of an infection is that you cannot boot from your hard drive (your computer encounters an error at
startup), try to start the system in Safe Mode or from the Windows boot disk that you created during the installation of the operating system on your computer.
- Before taking any action, backup all critical data to an external drive (a floppy disk, CD, flash card, etc.)
- Download the latest updates for your anti-virus database. If possible, do not use the infected computer to download the updates, but
instead use a friend's computer, or a computer at your office or an Internet cafΘ, etc. This is important because if you are connected to the Internet, a virus can send
important information to the perpetrators or may try to send itself to the e-mail addresses contained in your address book. Therefore, if you suspect that your computer is infected, you should immediately disconnect it from the Internet. You also can obtain the anti-virus database on a CD-ROM or a floppy disk from Kaspersky Labs or its authorized dealers and update your databases from
this disk (for more details see section Downloading updates from a local folder).
