When was the last time your machine was infected?

[ejr]

I read with interest about all the different security applications. I am often fascinated with various posters knowledge of their PC's and the air tight security suites they assemble. But I wonder when was the last time someone here was infected with something other than a cookie? Or even when was the last time one of your security programs stopped a real nasty?

I'm not even very strong technically with computers, but I haven't had any real malware for about 2-3 years. I got a keystroke logger on my machine back when I used to share music on-line, before I found this site. I also once visited a crack site (very bad idea) and NOD stopped a nasty from entering my machine.

But I must say, I don't often encounter threats now that I have learned what not to do on-line.

[ThunderZ]

I am at times a high-risk surfer. On several occasions Nod has stopped a bad d\l. One time in the not to distant past I was playing with a codec pack from a "questionable" source. The d\l package had scanned clean with Mwave, Ewido-micro and Nod, also A-Squared & Super Antispyware. PG alerted me to some suspicious activity when I attempted to install it though. An attempt to install a key logger as well as altering Firefox, Thunderbird, and some critical system files. :o Needless to say the install was stopped and the codec pack purged from my system. So in answer to your original question, to the best of my knowledge it has been years since I have had an infection. ;D

[Long View]

Serious infection ? - never - but I only started using a pc in 1992. False positives ? every couple of months. Amount of protection used ? Very little. Hardware Firewall, antivir ( or something similar), no software Firewall, Firefox + No scripts, ISP that removes spam from e-mails, virus and malware checks.
Surfing habits - conservative.

[TOMxEU]

I was not infected for 3-4 years, though NOD32 stopped one trojan 18 months ago.
In the past, I was infected for sure, adware, dialers, but I just did not know about it.
For now, I use no security soft, I do p2p (torrents), I visit crack pages and I am clean.

[fcukdat]

Currently hosed to with CWS VX & haxdor rootkit;D (1st collection run today).

Oops i forgit that i'm always in a cycle of getting infected and then cleaning up and then getting infected again.... ;D

[Peter2150]

Never here

[WSFuser]

ive had KAV stop malware i caught from p2p, email, and webpages.

I dont encounter threats weekly or daily, but i feel safe knowing KAV is protecting my computer(s).

[cheater87]

Only 3 FPs so far. No malware yet luckly.

[ako]

I have had PC since 1988.

I had some low-risk adware 2.5-3 years ago.

Two viruses have been stopped while browsing: One by Antivir about 2.5 years ago. Another by F-secure perhaps 8 months ago (here, I used Sandboxie, though, as I knew the site was dangerous).

I clicked a sponsored security-related (sic!) news link in Gmail some 4 months ago: F-secure
stopped another infection. This really shows that with bad luck you can get infected anywhere.

And a lot of false positives...

[madaro]

Once when my browser opened a website I encountered (3) viruses which at the time F-prot detected and cleaned. That was many years ago. I now run Nod32, since installing Nod32 last June, it's alerted me on one website, that's it, I rarely encounter threats while using the internet. Still, it's nice knowing I have Nod32 proactive protection.

[duke1959]

Back when I did it to myself by trying a lot of Antispyware programs before investigating it here or anywhere else. By the time I was done trying I had more spyware on my PC than before I had started. LOL. Seriously though nothing bad happened at least, and I think Zero Spyware removed most of it. It was a long time ago so I don't remember what else helped. I just didn't know about this forum at the time. I stick with the tried and true software today now that I know about Wilders, and usually go with what you folks say when the obsession hits me. LOL.

[Chuck57]

I started with computers in 1991, a 40MB hard drive, 2MB RAM, Win 3 thing.

I have had viruses and trojans try to get on my machines through the last over 10 years, but the antivirus always stopped them. None succeeded.

That said, I did buy a brand new computer in the late 1990's, an HP. Got it home and hooked it up, installed my usual stuff on it and let the security software run - and discovered a program called IAMBIGBROTHER installed on it.

This computer I'm currently using is also brand new, locally built. The builder puts them together and then lets his kids test drive them for a couple of weeks. Normally he reformats and reinstalls the OS. I was in serious need after my old one died, so got this without the reformat. After cleaning it up as best I could so it would at least boot in less than 10 minutes, I found over a dozen viruses and several trojans on it. This was a computer with Trend Micro installed, fully updated and running. I eventually gave up, reformatted, and reinstalled XP Pro.

[CJsDad]

When I first started using a computer which was back in 1999-2000, yeah I know a real newbie here.
I didnt know a firewall from a fire truck, an anti-virus to me was not catching a cold or getting sick, If I saw the words "download this" I did it just to see what would happen, I knew absolutely nothing.
Visited every website, opened every email, didnt care who it was from, just opened it.
Eventually my computer died which didn't take very long but it wasnt until I received help from a good friend that I started learning more about security.
He downloaded a security program, I cant remember which it was, at the time I didnt really care but what if found made me open my eyes to alot of "high risk" malware that the application found.
My computer was so beat up he deleted most of it but then just decided to reformat my computer along with a list he emailed me of "do's" and "dont's" for me to study over and over again.
From there it was trial and error, but alot less error, today I might see a tracking cookie but thats about it.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
I think it was the ping pong virus on DOS 3.0 on an XT machine, most likely because I wanted to see what it does...
Mrk

[nadirah]

Never happened here on my machine, thanks to my safety practices.

[Mere_mortal]

Last time I was unintentionally infected was when I reinstalled. Due to a previous incident, an Rbot variant is continuously probing the IP range that I'm on. I think others with a similar IP Address are infected and don't realise it. If I reinstall the OS, I am reverted to Service Pack 1 with no updates, so I have to install a MS RPC patch to circumvent the problem. Last time though, I forgot to do this and got infected within a minute of being online.

[beetlejuice69]

Never in 11 years.

[MaB69]

Never

Luck, Brain or the right tools ?

regards,

MaB

[Pedro]

-{ Quote: "Hello,
I think it was the ping pong virus on DOS 3.0 on an XT machine, most likely because I wanted to see what it does...
Mrk" }-
Heh, that was my first infection:)
Notice the ping pong ball bouncing on the screen.
It was annoying back then, believe me, dragged the computer so bad! I didn't know what it was the first days, and played LL anyway...

[Old Monk]

Hi

To my knowledge, nothing. Probably thanks to Wilders members and the insight into good practice and good security programs

I live in the Uk and I'd hate to think how many users are vulnerable but expect someone else to take the blame if something goes wrong !

[rdsu]

2000.

[Ice_Czar]

last personal infection about 5 years ago just before I kissed IE goodbye forever
last nasty blocked from the wild dates to about a year ago when I last accessed my public email addy for a website I used to write for (no malware filtering)
Pretty much could look forward to samples of most everything using email as an infection vector every weekend.

My normal ISP\email servers do a really good job filtering and Ive rarely had any positives off them. If I want samples these days I generally have to go find them.


errr....and all this is of course, as far as I know :P
but no accounts, passwords, credit cards or money is missing\compromised from what I can tell

[EASTER.2010]

The last time I was unintentionally hit, about 3 years ago, was when I reinstalled XP then went online for a few seconds without any firewall.

Bingo, Zap. A trojan file slipped in and when after i finally got my firewall installed and running it was bombarding it with attempts to invite even more friends to join the party. The reason i knew this is the XP Firewall was declaring it just ALLOWED :o an outgoing connection from a wtyre.exe or something on that order.

Needless to say i never repeated that move again and yes i did finally hunt down the downloader plus quite a few additionals that breezed their way in.

[Osaban]

The year was 2003, as soon as I moved from dial-up connection to broadband without a firewall and not having renewed my AV yearly subscription, it turned out a real debacle: 12 viruses and more than 60 spyware.

I didn't think it was that bad back then, except I got sick and tired of asking a friend to clean my computer.... That's how I run into Wilders and decided I wanted to learn how to protect myself.

2004 and the best part of 2005 I had the odd spyware, I've been running 'clean' eversince (more than 18 months).

Only one regret: In the beginning the internet was really exciting because there was no anxiety about malware, nowadays I'm protected but that original enthusiasm about surfing and discovering, I'm afraid it's lost forever.

[ccsito]

On a recent scan on my laptop, Spybot said that there was a Smitfraud Toolbar BAT file and regsitry entry and that there was still some Virtumonde registry entries. :o None of the other antispyware programs detected anything more than cookies. This might be a FP, but the files and entries don't appear to be anything malacious. The only infection on the laptop was around May of last year when a trojan got downloaded. My desktop got infected a couple of times over the course of 8 years (JS/No Close), but there was never an impact on the PC performance.

[dawgg]

Feb 2006 (i think) was the last time i got infected un-intentionally... hit by a worm and corrupted alot of my *.exe files... AV detected it, but it kept coming back days later. Few days later switched AV (and got Kaspersky) and cleaned the worms... havent been infected since.

Also became more knowledged about viruses and protection since then which is a vital reason why I haven't been unintentionally infected now.:)