Infection!
Or… He should have read my last post!!!
It hasn’t happened for a long time but Mr JM got his computer infected yesterday. Given we use Symantec Antivirus, Spybot – Search & Destroy and Adaware as protection, I was curious as to how it happened.
As explained in Save Money on Movies there are Torrent sites that provide access to software and movies. Given the prices of both as well as the cost of living for a couple not too far along in starting out as a couple, we make use of these to download things.
The problem is, sometimes the software doesn’t let you run it because the person uploading it failed to activate it or didn’t include the codes needed. Not all software comes with a trail period for evaluation and when it doesn’t you need a serial code to be able to install it.
Yes, yes, I know it’s not a legitimate copy of the software, but the model for a lot of software requires you shell out hundreds of dollars on something that may not do what you need it to. The more enlightened companies realize this and will provide either cut down versions (or sometimes the previous version) or limited versions of their software that can be unlocked when you decide it is what you want. Others don’t.
Torrents can be a way to try before buy.
In this instance, the Sky6 astronomy software didn’t seem to have a serial code or a trial mode. So Mr JM went looking for a crack code. What he found was called a keygen program – you run it to generate a serial key for the product.
This keygen turned out to be a virus instead. He ran it, ignored the Spybot warning & promptly got infected.
He tried running Spybot & it found problems which it cleaned. Then the TeaTimer part of Spybot began warning about attempts to modify an important Windows program called the Registry. He ran Antivirus and it found problems and fixed them. But TeaTimer still reported hijack attempts.
Eventually he had to start Windows in Safe Mode, then run Spybot, Adaware & Antivirus and also run Spybot on restart to clean his machine.
So endeth the lesson…
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