It’s hard to believe that the now ubiquitous PC has been with us for over 30 years.

Over all those years, people have been complaining from time to time that their PC is running slowly for one reason or another. That has sometimes been accompanied by much pulling out of hair in frustration!

This can be almost as commonplace today as it was 30 years ago. So, what are the causes and more importantly perhaps, what exactly can you do about it if it happens to you?

Here is a discussion of some possible commonplace origins and remedies.

Your PC is getting on a bit

As software becomes ever more sophisticated and powerful, it tends to make increasing demands upon the hardware platform hosting it – in other words your PC.

Now you can’t really generalize about these things but if your PC is, say, three or four years old or more, there is a fair chance that the latest versions of software are asking it to do things it’s perhaps not really capable of. Even if it can actually do what’s required, it may struggle to do so quickly and efficiently.

You’re going outside of its performance envelope

A slight variation on the first theme arises when you have purchased a relatively low end PC and have placed on it some extremely complicated and resource-hungry software. It’s a bit like trying to take a very basic family saloon car and asking it to perform well in a Formula One race.

In both this and the first case, you may be forced to consider upgrading your equipment.

Your hard disk is fragmented

This doesn’t mean that it is physically broken just that, for very good reasons, lots of data that should be logically stored in the same location on the disk is, in fact, spread over lots of different locations on it instead.

That means every time you try and look something up, your hard disk is working far harder (and therefore more slowly) to find the various bits of data you need.

The answer to this is to run what’s called a disk de-fragmentation program.

Your PC has a virus or other malware on it

In the absence of any obvious other cause, the classic symptom of some types of virus infection can be a PC that is running very slowly.

You can use the Task Manager to get at least some idea of what is going on inside your PC. If something is running you don’t recognise or vast amounts of resource are being consumed when your PC appears to be doing nothing at all, then you may need to call a specialist in computer technical support to check if you have a virus (unless you’re sure you know how to do so yourself).

Your Security Software is grabbing too much resource

Sometimes individual programs, security and firewall systems are often culprits here, consume very significant amounts of your computer resource while they are trying to do something such as a full virus scan etc.

If you are trying to do things at the same time, your progress may be badly impacted.

Once again, this isn’t always easy to diagnose unless you know a little bit about how your PC works and you might need to contact a specialist provider of IT consulting.

Summary

Trying to diagnose why a PC is running slowly isn’t always easy.

Unless you are technically literate, you might struggle to do so and that’s why having a relationship with a good provider of IT support services is a smart idea.

Most folks seem to understand what a firewall is and why it is so very important. They intuitively understand that they need something between the “trusted” internal computer network and the wild west we call the Internet! The installation of a firewall is generally something all business do, from the wireless network at the local coffee shop, to the medium size law firm and the giant multinational distributed enterprise. The barbarians are at the door, but with a firewall we all feel protected! The largest percentage of cyber security risks, however, do not come through the front door and your firewall will never see them enter. The largest risk to the security of your network comes from the employees and guests allowed, either connected by wire or wireless, to attach to your corporate network.

As a CISCO Certified Security Professional, we do a great deal of work in the area of computer network security. When called on to do a “Security audit”, “voice readiness” or “network assessment”, the first question we ask executive management is where is your AUP? After all we can tell you what protocols are running around on your network and even which user is consuming the most bandwidth. We can not, however, tell you if they are allowed to use that bandwidth! The creation of an “acceptable use” policy (i.e. AUP) is an essential first step in network security. The AUP communicates to all network users what is supported and what applications are allowed on the network. It describes what is acceptable regarding personal email, blogging, file sharing, web hosting, instant messaging, music and video streaming. It defines what is activity is strictly prohibited on the network and clearly outlines what constitutes “excessive use”. The computer network is a valuable corporate asset and as such it needs to be valued, protected and secured.

Does your company have a network access and authentication policy? What is the “password” policy? Do you even need a “password” to use the company network? Can anyone just come in and plug whatever phone, pad or computer device they happen to have into the company network? What is the data storage and retention policy? Do you allow VPN tunnels that extend your company network to a home office or coffee shop? Do you allow your users to connect third party provided equipment to your network? Is it acceptable that Bob just added a hub to his office network connection so he can plug in his own printer? How do we feel if Bob plugs in his own wireless access point? Do we have a “guest” network and do we let those folks know what is acceptable on your network?

What are the legal ramifications and liabilities you are exposed to if you are providing a computer network as part of a lease agreement? Are you liable for damages if your computer network is unavailable or “down for any reason? If Home Land Security shows up because your company’s public IP address was traced as originating a terrorist treat, do you have the user agreements in place to mitigate the costs you are about to incur defending your good name and reputation?

Computer network security is more than a firewall. A computer with an Ebola virus, Adware or nefarious RAT (remote access terminal) will infect all computers on your network, threaten your corporate data and render your firewall as useless as a screen door on a submarine. If your company has taken the prudent step of providing a Human Resource or employee manual that spells out the company’s position on work force violence, sexual harassment, vacation day accrual and drugs in the workplace, why don’t you have a manual that defines the acceptable use of your most vital corporate assess, the computer network?

A new malware program is being used to do reconnaissance for targeted attacks against companies in the energy sector.

The program, dubbed Trojan.Laziok by researchers from antivirus vendor Symantec, was used in spear-phishing attacks earlier this year against companies from the petroleum, gas and helium industries.

The attacks targeted companies from many countries in the Middle East, but also from the U.S., India, the U.K., and others, according to malware researchers from Symantec.

The Trojan is spread via emails with malicious documents that exploit a Microsoft Office vulnerability for which a patch has existed since April 2012.

“If the user opens the email attachment, which is typically an Excel file, then the exploit code is executed,” the Symantec researchers said Monday in a blog post. “If the exploit succeeds, it drops Trojan.Laziok, kicking off the infection process.”

Trojan.Laziok is mainly used to determine if a compromised system is worth further attention from the attackers. It collects information like the computer’s name, RAM size, hard disk size, GPU and CPU type, as well as a list of installed software, including running antivirus programs.

The information is sent back to the attackers, who then decide if they want to deploy additional malware that can provide them with remote access to the infected system. For this second stage of attack they use customized versions of Backdoor.Cyberat and Trojan.Zbot, two well known malware threats.

“The group behind the attack does not seem to be particularly advanced, as they exploited an old vulnerability and used their attack to distribute well-known threats that are available in the underground market,” the Symantec researchers said. “However, many people still fail to apply patches for vulnerabilities that are several years old, leaving themselves open to attacks of this kind.”

In a report released earlier this month, the U.S. Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) said that almost 80 percent of the 245 cyber incidents it handled last year involved companies from the energy sector.

“Of the total number of incidents reported to ICS-CERT, roughly 55 percent involved advanced persistent threats (APT) or sophisticated actors,” the organization said. “Other actor types included hacktivists, insider threats, and criminals.”