How many here have had a virus?

Virus reason

  • Never had one

    Votes: 5 45.5%

  • I blame it on bad antivirus software

    Votes: 2 18.2%

  • I am stupid and take chances on piracy

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Stupid pron site I visited

    Votes: 4 36.4%

  • A friends thumb drive

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    11
Never really got one. Loaded a virtual machine of XP and purposely surfed for one to see if it was really that easy. It really isn't.
 
I'd have to choose "None of the above"

At least three or four times, Avira (which auto-updates twice a day) has gone nuts when launching Firefox, saying that my customized iGoogle home page had a Trojan. I disconnected from the 'net by switching off my router and ran a full system scan. Yup, found a Trojan in my Firefox or Java cache each time.
 
Have had several trojans from software piracy attempts, not going to say any more about that, and about two years ago I somehow got infected by the Conficker worm. Man that thing was a NIGHTMARE to remove, I think in the end I just gave in and reformatted all the computers in our house and I remember formatting about 10 pendrives and even throwing some out. Not good. I'm not sure how I got infected though.
 
The poll is badly written.

Yes, I have gotten hit before; sometimes it was imported from other people's systems (or used equipment I bought), other times, I opened a file to see what it was and it blew up in my face. Or my kids will click on a link...

One time I was hit by a legitimate website that had been compromised.
 
WRXGuy1 said:
I never got one in the past 6+ years, just use common sense.
Click to expand...

I agree but there is one issue. Something legit and on the hunt for info.
I also agree to be very careful. Problem is like on google and finding research etc. Click a site and you know to get out. Not what your looking for and wrong place and to late. Only a few times but did happen. Research can be a problem and looking. Same with email. Advertisements etc. Get email from friends and family and open. A few times they were infected. But too late.
Always fixed it though and detected mostly. Also posted here for a check and clean slate with JohnB.
 
tremmor said:
I agree but there is one issue. Something legit and on the hunt for info.
I also agree to be very careful. Problem is like on google and finding research etc. Click a site and you know to get out. Not what your looking for and wrong place and to late. Only a few times but did happen. Research can be a problem and looking. Same with email. Advertisements etc. Get email from friends and family and open. A few times they were infected. But too late.
Always fixed it though and detected mostly. Also posted here for a check and clean slate with JohnB.
Click to expand...
That still relates to common sense, many of the e-mails from friends and family link you to a site or include an attachment that tries to install an application on your computer. There's no reason a greeting card needs an .exe file :P
 
If i don't know it i don't open it and marked spam and never opened. Your right though. Just hard to do right 100% of the time. Don't forget. kids and grand kids. My kids are all over 40. Grand kids play and im a hawk and watch and clean. Have all girls though. and all grand kids are girls. There straight. they know better and have set rules. Using google and search is something they know not to do without permissions. I have friends, family and neighbors that get into trouble. Lack of knowledge like mentioned. Its another learning curve. For them.
 
Last April was trying to watch a local football (soccer) match online. Knew viruses were coming down the line but it was important (5 1 against Ipswich, sweet result!).

After 45 minutes I started cleaning. Got them all out in the end. AVG, Avast and Avira didnt pick them all up and knew something was still in there. Loaded MSE and it cleared them up a treat.

Also watched my kids bring one down one day. Once again, I knew it was going to happen but let them carry on. They werent impressed as I made them clean trojan, they saw it as just over an hour wasted but a very good lesson to them.
 
Haven't had one for the last 5 or so years. I use Microsoft Security Essentials (as basic as it gets and I don't use Malwarebytes or any Spyware / Firewall software.), I'm smart when it comes to downloading so I know exactly what I'm downloading and where its coming from.

Just like WRXguy1 said, "Just use common sense" It doesn't get simpler than that.
 
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