I got a call the other day to come and straighten out a computer - the sound card hasn’t worked since some self proclaimed “expert” reinstalled Windows on it back in January, and now it is acting funny besides.
OK. No sweat.
I show up, dig the drivers out of the CD that came with the computer, install and reboot. Ten minutes we’re happy.
Now for the “acting funny” part. Word sometimes starts, sometimes doesn’t, sometimes every thing runs slow. Could be a whole lot of stuff, but considering she’s got no anti-virus software and no firewall it’s probably a virus.
First comes Zone-Alarm. Gotta keep the shit out as far as possible.
I keep a copy of a free (for home use) anti virus program at hand at all times (just in case a customer needs one) - in this case it was a damned good thing I had it along.
Install the software and let run. The pre-install scan finds two virus programs in RAM and removes them. Reboot and run a full scan. At first I had the scanner set to ask permission before deleting an infected file. After 35, I got tired of clicking on “Yes, delete” and “Yes, really delete,” so I stopped the scan and set it to full automatic.
After an eternity, the scan stops. There before me stands the most incredible number I have ever seen:
157 Infected files deleted.
This thing has been running since January with a clean install - reboot and install from what I was told. 157 Virus infected programs since January.
Holy fuck! That’s almost forty a month!
Christ. It feels so good to sit down in front of my well behaved virus and worm free Linux system and vent my frustrations here on the SDMB.
You probably answered your own question. Teenage girl means 1) pictures sent through email (DSL for the pics, and for this next one), 2) DLing music and other such things off programs that need no mention, and 3) probably no firewall or other security device. Doesn’t scan attachments, most likely. 157 in a year isn’t all that much. A friend of mine got a Trojan some years ago and had 43 in a day. He bought Mcafee or somesuch and kept finding files (so we found out later). It kept finding an infected file every tenth of a second and each one required action. We figured the virus scan was broken.
Nope. It found a lot of infected files in a very small area.
I blame the schools. Or the parents. Hasn’t anyone taught this girl about engaging in “safe computing?” No firewall - no surfing. This rule above all. Unprotected Internet is just asking for trouble, as she has now found out…too late. Another young life ruined because of peer pressure to engage in dangerous acts without protection.
She may have pissed off my psychopathic brother, the techno geek from hell (that’s his real job title). He’s been collecting virusesesssess for maybe 10 years now. For posterity, he says. I have all kinds of reasons to get the creeps when he sends me an e-mail.
