Damn it all. I got hit for the first time by that stupid MSN Messenger photo album virus. My friend's window popped up, with a link for a zip file download, and I happily clicked it, then unzipped it.
"Hmm that's strange - image files usually don't come with .scr as a file extension. Oh well never mind. Nothing harmful."
boom.
In the next few minutes ensued complete pandemonium. IMMEDIATELY around 50 message windows to different contacts started popping up, all consisting of me sending that file to them - with my hands off from the keyboard. It was like some kind of horror movie, watching windows automatically pop up and the poor souls on the other end having no clue that they were in fact receiving a piece of malicious software. I promptly used AVG Free to scan, which turned up nothing. Disgusted, I turned to downloads.com where I found this antivirus program called avast! Anybody heard of it before? It's got a really good rating on the site from editors and users alike, but it's subjective, so if any of you have alternate views, I'll be pleased to hear them.
Anyway, I realized that although AVG is widely recommended, it's not exactly stellar quality, judging by the number of 1-out-of-5-stars rating it was given. I'm not too sure why it is so, but I think it has to do with the ability to detect potentially harmful software on your computer. So I'm using avast! now and hoping to see how it'll turn out. Avast! has really good ratings: 4/5 from user and ditto from the editors. So far so good. Strangely enough, the virus hasn't come back. I've deleted the zip file and whatever I had unzipped and it's looking up so far.
Cross fingers really
"Hmm that's strange - image files usually don't come with .scr as a file extension. Oh well never mind. Nothing harmful."
boom.
In the next few minutes ensued complete pandemonium. IMMEDIATELY around 50 message windows to different contacts started popping up, all consisting of me sending that file to them - with my hands off from the keyboard. It was like some kind of horror movie, watching windows automatically pop up and the poor souls on the other end having no clue that they were in fact receiving a piece of malicious software. I promptly used AVG Free to scan, which turned up nothing. Disgusted, I turned to downloads.com where I found this antivirus program called avast! Anybody heard of it before? It's got a really good rating on the site from editors and users alike, but it's subjective, so if any of you have alternate views, I'll be pleased to hear them.
Anyway, I realized that although AVG is widely recommended, it's not exactly stellar quality, judging by the number of 1-out-of-5-stars rating it was given. I'm not too sure why it is so, but I think it has to do with the ability to detect potentially harmful software on your computer. So I'm using avast! now and hoping to see how it'll turn out. Avast! has really good ratings: 4/5 from user and ditto from the editors. So far so good. Strangely enough, the virus hasn't come back. I've deleted the zip file and whatever I had unzipped and it's looking up so far.
Cross fingers really
3 comments:
OMG! I got it too! Luckily I have not unzipped the folder to take a look at wht's inside yet. I right clicked to "scan with Norton Anti Virus" and it gave an all-clear. So when I tried to load it, my Norton asks me if I allow this program to "access the internet (I forgot actual msg)". I didn't allow and nothing happen. I was still thinking what was it about and before I could ask, my friend went offline... Thank goodness for your post... Now I can delete it! hehe...
alrightttt kai yi... doing the cyberworld a favor by sounding the whistle.
pays to be abit overattentive to your friends' behavioral patterns some times. ;P
paced: wow you're one plucky one. not many people would think of scanning their received files. they'd be like me, i.e. dumbly opening it and exposing the horror within. keep up the good habit :P
fari: you're right actually. my friend hardly sends pictures to me and no offense, she doesn't know how to zip them either. darn my bad luck
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