Virus!

One day, you're cruising around on your computer, checking emails, writing blogs...maybe working a little, and overall just happy as a clam! Then, with the click of a mouse button it all comes crumbling down as colors begin flashing on your monitor, red signs begin blinking at you, and your computer does everything short of blow up.

I take pride in knowing that I could never fall for downloading one of those silly viruses. As a Computer Enginerd-ing major, I am too familiar with the tricky shaninigans that maliscious computer wizards try to pull on the innocent! My combination of practical common sense and superior technological knowledge makes me uncrackable! HA!

You can imagine my suprise when my computer monitor started flashing bright colors and everything went haywire.

I had downloaded what I thought was an innocent little application to clean my computer's registry for FREE. Well, it certainly did SOMETHING for free, and it sure as hell wasn't cleaning.

I had a feeling something was wrong when the screen went red and the lower left corner was blinking "VIRUS WARNING!"

Apparently though, this was just a "trick virus." Not an actual virus, but rather malware to make me think I have a virus. Little do they exactly who they're dealing with!

When I saw a window popup that looked like my McAfee security software already on my computer, I was relieved. "Virus Alert! Download and install 2008 Antivirus protection "here." I'll show those hackers! HA!

I enthusiastically clicked the button while audible yelling "HA!" much to the confusion of everyone else in my office.

I got the feeling that this was a bad move when clicking the button caused my already discombobulated system to lose all control and fifty bazillion popups started taking over my screen!

In a panic, I did what any technologically savvy, windows user would do. I did a "hard shutdown," and turned off my compy. Maybe my computer just needs a little rest? I turned it back on praying for some semblance of normalcy. Obviously, I'm a computer expert thinking that turning my computer off, letting it rest, and turning it back on will somehow defeat the virus. My intelligence is unmatched!!!

Or not. More blinky red things and virus alerts.

As a last ditch, I called the IT department hoping my computer wasn't totally hosed.

IT Guy: "IT Dept, what's up?"
Me: "I think I have a Virus thing (the technical term)"
IT: "Well, what's going on?"
Me: "Uh, there's lots of blinky red things, and a popup, and my backgroud..."
IT: "Does your background say "Click here to install 2008 antivirus protection?"
Me: "Yea!"
IT: "Did you do it?"
Me: "I'm one step ahead of you man, I already did it!"
IT: "You're hosed"
Me: "Oops"
IT: "I just helped someone with this yesterday, and it even got ME last week"
Me: "Wow! Really?"
IT: "Yup...You got screwed."

Actually, I was lucky that he had already seen this because he guided me through the steps to fix everything, and now my computer is back and healthier than EVER! I don't feel so bad either since even the IT guy got tricked.

Of course when people around me found out that I had gotten a virus, everybody started chiming in with the token, "Ooooh...I guess we know what kind of websites ARUN is visiting! Hehehe!"

So what did I learn? I learned that computer hacker-wizards have gotten so tricky that even I can be swindled! Be careful! If I'm vulnerable, then no one is safe! Although, if this does actually happen to you, I know how to fix it.

If you call me for expert advice, I can give you step by step details on how to "hard shutdown" your computer and how to NOT click the 2008 Antivirus button :)