I got a Virus!
395 words eaten alive on September 25, 2008 - Filed Under computer repair, computers, Software -
I was at home. I saw a file. It was supposed to contain something I wanted, but I knew better. I really did. I knew something bad would happen if I clicked it.
I clicked it.
Half of these weren’t there a few seconds earlier.
Within 30 seconds I had a half dozen pop-ups on my screen claiming I had infections and I should click her to purchase the full versions of Vista Antivirus, XP Antivirus, MicroAV and a few other “anti virus” programs. That’s funny. Until I clicked that file I had no viruses on my computer. See, these programs ARE viruses, malware at the very least. When I tried to access my AVG, the new scanner popped up and said a dangerous process was trying to take over my computer, do I want it stopped?
I unplugged my internet connection and scanned the computer with both AVG and SUPERAntiSpyware, there were over 70 infections found and removed. In less than 30 seconds there were over 70 infections.
Looks real, doesn’t it?
The biggest bitch of it was that AVG Free didn’t protect me. It helped clean up the mess after it was made, but it didn’t stop it from happening. Honestly, isn’t that what an anti-virus program is supposed to do? I downloaded that evil file again, didn’t click it this time, and scanned it with AVG. It does in fact report that there are 2 infections detected within the file, so if I had just taken the time to scan the file first I would have saved myself a lot of work.
I’m using the paid version here in the store, but I’m not about to infect my main work computer just to see if it works or not. When I have time I’ll set up a test system and use the free trial to see if it offers better protection from these threats. I’m thinking that the AVG Internet Security package would be the best bet though.
It was a good learning experience though, getting infected with the same programs that our customers are having problems with. I always wondered how they managed to get their computers so cluttered up, but now I know that it was probably just one mis-click and a few seconds of time that resulted in a big problem.
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