With summer colds and allergies running rampant this time of year, computers are also taking a toll from virus infections.

Luckily, a new website scheduled to unveil on Wednesday evening by the Computer Doctor in Clanton will provide helpful tools for computers suffering from hackers.

“Knowledge is everything with a virus,” general manager at the Computer Doctor Roger Moore said. “When it comes to a virus, the best way to try to avoid them is to know about them.”

Moore said several viruses are circulating and infecting computers in the Chilton County area including the “FBI virus” and a fake Adobe Flash update.

The new website will provide links to different websites for specific symptoms the computer is suffering from and users can click on the links to see if the virus is an infection.

Moore said the site will also have information about certain viruses circulating and tips for how to deal with those particular viruses.

“We have so much phone traffic from people calling our store asking us about certain things dealing with their computers,” Moore said. “The majority of the calls are questions about certain viruses so we thought we would address some of the questions we are fielding over the telephone and put it up on our website.”

Moore said the common virus he is treating on multiple computers each week is the FBI virus that locks down the computer until the user pays a “ransom.”

According to Moore, when a user is on the Internet, a fake FBI website could pop up on screen and if users have a camera attached to their screen, it will take a picture of the users face and put it up on the computer screen.

The virus will put the computer on lockdown and the penalty to have the computer freed up is to pay $200-$300 with a Walmart money order. Users have to pay the money back to the identification number that pops up on screen with the hope the computer will be freed from lockdown.

Moore said the virus is difficult to remove for the average computer user and he has been treating several computers infected with the FBI virus a week for the past six weeks.

With more and more hackers coming up with ways to infect personal computers, Moore said it is extremely important for users to be aware of ways to avoid certain viruses.

“Hackers are smart,” Moore said. “They aren’t going to hack into your computer and steal thousands of dollars because they know they will get caught. They will however hack into your personal accounts and steal a dollar or two because they know you more than likely won’t notice that.”

Moore said after hackers detect personal information from computers including passwords to financial accounts, the next step is often to scan personal contacts and infect those people as well.

“If you get an e-mail from someone you know and open the subject of that e-mail and find it is strange or offensive in nature, chances are you have been hacked by a virus,” Moore said. “If you don’t have the proper anti-virus software then you are going to have a lifelong headache of dealing with viruses.”

Moore said he often finds the free anti-virus software provided with most personal computers is not equipped to deal with current viruses circulating.

“I often encourage people to invest in a good anti-virus software because it is important to be able to protect your computer from getting infected,” Moore said.

For more information about current viruses circulating, visit www.computerdoctoralabama.com or call (205) 755-4511.