My a/v s/w is Avast Business Cloudcare which my local computer shop uses for its customers and it's channeled through them. I had noticed a week ago by chance thet the log.txt file was repeating an error message every 45 seconds (the s/w itself was working though). I contacted my local shop, installed an updated version which started producing a different error message. That went of its own accord but I found out that it had started again today,
So I contacted my computer shop. They rang back saying that they had been in touch with Avast and that someone from them would ring me direct. A few minutes they rang. I needed to give them access to my computer for this (Logmein which is a normal site for this). They did some digging around and identified many security issues with the network side of things. Apparently the a/v s/w deals with the computer but not the network so didn't pick these up. They would sort things out at a price. They started running a windows malicious remober tool which was going to take quite some time. I needed to let the computer run and it would take some 90 minutes after which they would ring me again.
During this I decided to ring the computer shop again to update them
TURN THE COMPUTER OFF IMMEDIATELY - THERE SHOULD BE NO CHARGES - SEEMS TO BE A SCAM
So I turned the computer off, unplugged everyrhing to take to the computer shop for them to check this out. Just before I left the house the people who had contacted me rang and I told them what I'd done and made it clear that I would not pay anything to them.
Took it to the computer shop. Nothing too bad seems to have happened so it looks as if I was in time. I showed them the details of the compnay who had rung me - nothing to do with Avast. The computer shop man had done a Google search on the phone number and had been tricked into thinking this was the genuine number.
I'm getting them to replace the small c solid state drive with a larger one as it's too restrictive. At the same time I'll get them to switch from Windows 7 to Windows 10 as Microsoft support for Windows 7 end next January.
I've also been in touch with Virgin as the other possibility was that it's the Super Hub which has been compromised. They were able to check and said that it hasn't (I use it wired, not wireless where there's a greater risk). As it's a Super Hub 2 they are sending me a Super Hub 3.
So it's been a rather messy day.