I’m ashamed – very ashamed

Do you know the kind of guy who thinks viruses only effect people who don’t know what they are doing and because of that never felt the need to install an anti-virus/malware/spyware program? That guy is me. I’ve never had a virus before and therefore never had an anti-virus program either. Why should I? They slow down your machine and are just annoying and as long as I’m not stupid enough to get a virus, all is good.

Then it happened. Yesterday. I got my first virus and I have no idea from where. It’s not directly malicious but it changes my internet settings and I keep getting a popup saying “Windows security warning, click yes to download an anti spyware program”. I of course click no, because something doesn’t smell right.

I know that I’ve never had a virus because I occasionally run the online Panda ActiveScan or the Trend Micro HouseCall. They both run in the browser and have never found virus on any of my machines ever. Right now, I run the Trend Micro to get rid of the pesky intruder.

I’ve always been proud to say that I’ve never had a virus, so the fact that I finally got one leaves me ashamed and angry for allowing it to do whatever it does. There goes my perfect track record.

So the question now becomes whether or not I want to install an anti-virus program to prevent future attacks. It would be the logical thing to do I presume. Well, think of it in another way. If you walked the same streets for 5 years to and from work and suddenly fell on the pavement and hurt your knee, would you then start wearing knee pads? Definitely not. It would be to admit being stupid and count on it to happen again soon because of my own recklessness.

What I’ve learned is that I have no problem getting a virus every five years, but I’ll bet the feeling of shame will be equally big next time in 2012. I’ll write another post about it then.