This is a bit of a rant, so if you're not in the mood, hit the "Back" button and go on with your day.
I just spent the last three hours cleaning vome viruses off my computer. And really, even at this point I'm just ASSUMING it's cleaned, since the laptop is spinning away smoothly in non-safe mode. Seems to me that safe mode would be the default... But I digress.
I read up on the particular virus I had, and it seems that it comes in pieces from various sources, and when it finally is all there, it pretty much locks things down. Up pops a display for Security 2012, it starts a scan, telling you that you have all manner of viruses on your computer, and says you need to start the clean-up process.
And what is that process? Why, buying their security software, of course, to the tune of $60 for the lite version (1 year). Well, guess what? That IS the virus. And it's just trying to dupe you into clicking the "buy me" button which starts the process of identity theft and credit card fraud.
Okay, I get it. There are some talented programmers out there with too much time on their hands, too much caffeine, and apparently no scruples. One could assume that this starts in the teen years.
What ever happened to TPing some one's house, or for the real miscreants, a flaming bag of dog poop on the doorstep?
But at least it's Friday, I don't have to go to my day job early in the morning, and it's done and cleaned (knocking on wood as I type).
I may be getting to the point in life where "get off my lawn" is my catch-phrase, but seriously, can't you braniacs put your talents to better use?
And I'd like to thank the folks at MalwareBytes for the free scanning software and the very clear instructions for cleaning up the mess.
1 comment:
Great rant and I totally agree about today's teens. However, most of these identity theft virii are from Russian mafia type organizations. "Hacker" is a great career decision in today's Russian kleptocracy, where it seems *no one* has any real scruples. They scrape billions of dollars from the web each year with their botnets and identity theft software. And when it's not the Russians, it's the Chinese, although they seem less sophisticated currently.
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