Brush with a Virus

Yesterday evening I was shopping for shoes at online shoe store sites when my anti-virus software, PC-cillin, popped up with a real-time scan message that said a trojan had been detected on my computer. The message went on to say that PC-cillin had failed to clean and also failed to quarantine the file and said to manually delete it if I was sure that it was not a required file. I was not able to find the file through Windows Explorer. I doubted that I would be able to delete the file from the DOS command prompt. I thought about using the Windows search feature to locate the file, but the search is so slow. Finally I decided to unplug my WiFi router to disconnect my pc from the internet. Then I ran a manual scan using PC-cillin. The file was soon detected, and this time PC-cillin was able to quarantine the file. I reconnected my WiFi router.

I then went to PC-cillin’s website to find out more about the trojan: TROJ_DLOADER.OS – Description and solution. To my dismay I found the trojan, if executed, attempts to install spyware on the pc. I did not think the file had been executed, but I ran my two anti-spyware programs. No spyware was detected.

I am really disgusted that this happened to me. I have been using personal computers for over twenty years and have never, to my knowledge, been infected with a virus. I take every precaution of which I am aware. I have a firewall enabled; my anti-virus software is the latest version and has the latest update; and I run two anti-spyware programs that also have the latest updates. I have Windows Service Pack 2 and all of the Windows critical updates installed on my pc. I am careful about opening email attachments, and clicking on links in questionable websites. I do not know what else I can do to protect my computer.

My intention is to buy a new computer six months after Windows Vista is released; but even if Microsoft is able to stick to its schedule, this is more than two years in the future. If computing continues to be as dangerous is it now, I may have to think about switching from Windows to Apple.