Malware creators SUCK!!!!

[danceswithgary]

I am scrupulous in keeping my antivirus definitions up-to-date, I have my NAV scans scheduled and run them diligently, I don't click on random sites and I STILL ended up with a vicious Trojan installed. I've now spent almost 16 hours trying to get the damn thing cleaned off my laptop. I'm currently on Gary's looking up everything I can. Guess it's a good thing he's still off riding around the country. I have my writing backed up to my flash drive - including what I was working on when I detected the problem but, needless to say, I'm not feeling terribly inspired.

Do you know how many different anti-spyware/malware programs are out there? A lot - and none of them work on everything. The gurus have you run three or four of them to try to catch anything that falls through the cracks. Appalling.

I'm just hoping I don't have to do a full restore because I will lose at least some of my screencaps because an 8GB flash drive isn't going to hold everything and if I go out to buy another one then I'll expose myself to a different kind of virus and MY hard drive isn't as easy to clean. *sigh*

Comments

[allzugern]

Oh man, that really, really sucks. I hope you can get rid of it without losing any data. Good luck!

[danceswithgary]

Thanks. The thousands of stories I've collected in SV and SGA get backed up to both the flash drive and my PDA every few weeks, the screencaps and my manips are the data files at hazard. I can't imagine the nightmare if I collected music. Actually, I can. Gary had to do a full restore on his system a couple of months ago and lost the hundred or so CD's he'd downloaded from our collection. He spent a week or so reloading them.

[ellie]

Have you thought of mail ordering the flash drive. That way you don't have to leave your house and risk getting sick. I love my mac. The vast majority of evil virus writers go after Microsoft.

Though I suppose that will change as Macs become more popular.

[danceswithgary]

I'll either end up ordering it or sending Gary to the store when he gets back this week. I'll hold his laptop ransom. :-D