Cyber Attacks on Governments

I would say one of the first things to do is determine whether your defensive (i.e., security) software has up-to-date signatures and whether your operating system has appropriate patches. If so (or if you don't have any such software), you might want to consider running a complete security scan of your system, since something may have gotten in that wasn't initially detected. If that doesn't help, you might also want to try running a couple of alternate scans with a different security program (since not every program necessarily catches every piece of malware). Lastly, you might need to resort to a professional service to clean things up. Several of these exist, with perhaps the Geek Squad (available at Best Buy stores) being one of the best known.

As far as contacting the authorities, there is very little that they would be able to do with individual reports of malware being installed on your computer. It is helpful, however, to report information so the government can watch for trends. You can visit the FTC Web site to report concerns about U.S. companies or the eConsumer Web site to report international concerns. If, however, you find that someone has gained unauthorized access to your computer and has caused damage, you may want to consider contacting law enforcement. For computer crime, you should go to the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) of the Department of Justice, which has a "How to Report Cyber and IP Crime" link.

Pop-up messages regarding malware attacks -- particularly those suggesting new software to defend their computers are typically fraudulent attempts to get users to click the link to a Web site which will infect their computer with malware and steal their credit card info when they try to purchase the new software. Avoid clicking those pop-ups or any other links which appear in pop-ups or unsolicited e-mail messages. Contacting authorities regarding this type of incident will be unlikely to result in any direct law enforcement action.