Signs

The aim of a hacker attack is to smuggle in malware without the user noticing. Unfortunately, modern malware often runs quietly in the background. Nevertheless, there are typical technical and organizational signs that may indicate a virus or Trojan:

• Unusual system behavior, computer suddenly becomes very slow or takes an unusually long time to boot up
• Programs start sluggishly or hang
• High CPU, RAM or hard disk usage without programs running
• Fan runs permanently at high speed
• Passwords no longer work
• Login warnings from foreign countries
• Unexplained crashes or restarts
• High data traffic even though nothing is actively being used
• Security software reports blocked connections
• New programs or services appear that you have not installed