Besides tracking cookies when was the last time your computer got infected?
Infected here about 8 years ago using Win 98 and Nortons Inet Security.
And what a way to find out I was infected.Nortons was disabled!LOL
Can't remember the name of the malware but it was a goodun which required a format - reinstall.
Now I probably get infected every day with Sandboxie and Powershadow but I hardly notice it as at next boot a new shadow of a clean C drive is created.
No infections are confirmed with online scans with Kav,Panda and others every now and then.
no infections really,just the usual spyware every once and a while.last main infection i got was the Sasser Worm back when it was going through everything
I'm not sure when the last time my computer was infected by something I did.
I remember a few years ago when a relative was over for the holidays and they not only opened a spam email but downloaded the attachment as well. I know etrust started going crazy and it didn't cause any damage.
In all honesty I don't even run an antivirus running full time on my own computers anymore because I know that they aren't going to catch anything. I still have AVG installed, but its disabled.
One of the CoolWebSearch variants, long time ago. No Idea how it got in, but it got past CA Antivirus and FW. Was before any of the modern removal tools existed, or I didn't know about them. Big battle. Lost. Had to reinstall the OS.
Yes , easy now, not then, don't remember the year that was, but the removers weren't available; I regedited, safemoded, batch filed, and everything I could think of. Then reinstalled. :-(
Interesting thing happened last year. I was travelling, motel advertised free high speed 'net, so OK. Immediately when I signed onto the wireless net, Norton caught a virus. Before even access to email or anything else. No harm done, but maybe safe at home does not equal safe on the road.
Public networks are deffinitely different from home ones.
I don't run anything really on my home pcs because I know what connects to that network and what doesn't.
My laptop is a different story. I always have some software firewall and AV software on there that I fireup before I connect.(my laptops wireless card is internal, but there is a swich on the front to disable it. I just disable it and then fire everything up before I enable it.)
Way back in 2000 I nievely installed lots of freeware and immediately noticed tons of pop ups, pop unders pop sideways and CONSTANT activity on my then dial-up modem
Shortly after that I discovered Ad-aware then SpyBot S&D that removed or disabled a lot of the infections
Now I'm on high-speed DSL and run WinPatrol PLUS!, Windows Defender, SiteAdvisor, AVG Free and hpHOSTS plus MVPS HOSTS files
I'm a Mod at Calendar of Updates and a frequent contributor to SiteAdvisor bad site listings, CCleaner forum and hpHOSTS file entries
VERY ashamed to say that it was when my 17 year old son got on my computer while I was gone and went on some "site's" that he SHOULD NOT of been on .
He doesn't know a whole lot about computer's( not that I'm a computer genius mind you) I went to use my bookmark's ,accidently clicked the history instead and when I saw porn site's on my history .
My entire computer had to be wiped clean .The D drive was SO infected that the computer guy had to switch it to my H drive .
Needless to say that now when ever I go any where I take my mouse with me . Who ever invented the wireless mouse is a genius and a God send.
Just password protect your pc and then you don't have to take anything.(unless of course you make your password too easy.)
Yeah, and also what's cool is to completely disable the desktop of any icons including the taskbar like some corporate computers do that only allow their web applications to run via IE.
I shocked a company I fixed a computer for when I showed them just how easy it was to get into the C: drive and any file one wished to use via Internet Explorer.
In that case just tell him you've installed software that logs any adult site visited, he won't wanna risk the possibility that its true and the following embarrasment
I'm proud to say I have never beend infected - bar my workd fiasco (see my other post)
Not that I am squeaky-clean, but thanks to the input of guys like yourselves, myself and my babies (my m/c's) have survived practically untouched.
For that I thank you, cos in the early days of (pre-2002/3 ish) many ppl fell at the first hurdle - the odd-deleted-email and self-sense saved me from many a nasty end (many of my friends had dead machines as a result)