I had protection - so why o why!

I feel dirty and violated. I can't do anything normal anymore. And now im paranoid that things will get worse, much worse.

I hate computer viruses!!

Note: I apologise if you thought that this post is about something else! :P

When I got my computer a year ago I told myself - never shall my baby be infected with the wrongs that are viruses, adwares and spywares. I’ve had so much trouble with them in the past, I told myself never again! NEVER again! So abstinence from internet was my solution for my PC. Without internet, she should be fine (the older PCs I’ll use for internet). So I didn’t bother with virus protection. She was virus free until about six months later. It was a dark stormy night.

A friend called me up and asked if I wanted to try multiplayer DoTA. Curious if my machine could handle such a task, I opted to try it. "But you have to connect to the internet.." Oh do I? Oh ok… I was reluctant. I knew I had no protection, but surely If I was smart about this I shouldn’t get virused.

So for the first time ever, I listened to the computer’s modem sing to a 56k connection. Connected. Ok. As long as I stay away from dodgy sites, I should be fine. Hmm I haven’t checked my email yet. Let me try hotmail. Www dot hotmail dot com. A message box pops up. What’s this?

"An applications is trying to change your registry. We recommend you visit our website for the latest anti virus protection tools…. "

The hotmail log-on page hadn’t even finished loading and I was already hacked! I quickly searched the Symantec Website to figure out what was going on. But I was just digging a hole for myself. In a matter of minutes my homepage was kidnapped, five new processes have mushroomed in Task Manager and a few trojans have nestled their way into my Windows registry. A few short cuts have even popped up on my desktop.

I desperately installed my antivirus programs to maybe clean up the mess. They found some worms, but the connection to update the definition files probably downloaded more baddies. I was still being redirected and ads still popped up. I tried other softwares but it was too late, she was gone. Even scans during safe mode always discovered something new.

It happened so quickly! And just like that, my baby was gone.
She was reformatted the next day. May her bits and bytes rest in peace.

It’s been about seven months since that dreaded incident. Since then my computer has been upgraded with a plethora of internet security tools. It has three firewalls (one hardware and two software), virus scanners, spyware, malware, adware and tupperware protection. Updates are downloaded regularly. And even though I sometimes download overnight, I feel secure. Life is good.

Was good.

Last night my mom asked me "Will, can I borrow your PC, I want to write an email.." My mom has recently figured out how to use Hotmail and wanted to email my cousin. My PC was running on my administrator user account.

"Sure, whatever…"
I was sleepy and I wasn’t thinking right.

"Will, I was going through my email, but how come this message keeps popping up?"

Again, just like that.