VirCrash.Part.001.2006.0425
PARCEL... MY home PC got infected with 'that-which-I-would-not-speak-of' (/that-which-I-would-not-hyperlink) computer virus.
This would be the first MAJOR infection of one my drones since 1996. That was ten years ago. College days... just months after I was given a PC I could truly call mine.
Yes... that experience was terrible enough that it caused me to religiously install/run/update five tools for protection. Along with a truckload of common sense (You can buy a dozen at a discounted price at Waltermart), cybernetically-enhanced instincts and paranoia.
(Of course a pet tiger who could sniff computer viruses/worms when hungry. (And this one's hungry all the time.))
A reliable anti-virus application, a paranoid 'stand-alone' firewall (no... not the one that comes bundled with SP2), an all around ---ware immunizer/remover, and a couple of 'top secret' tools were there for me all these years.
(Except for the ---ware tool since these SPY/MAL/ETCwares just went fashionable a couple or more years ago but vhoi their growth almost made me forget the existence of 'old school' computer viruses.)
What makes things more ironic is I got infected when I was downloading an update to one of my protection tools from a respectable site.
Just like ten years ago when I was infected upon bringing home a copy of an infected set of virus definitions from our computer lab.
(Edit... apparently judging from the trail of infected files after SEVEN HUGE hours of scanning, I got this days before... which makes the virus a 'that-which-I-would-not-speak-or-even-think-of'. It might try infecting brainwave frequencies too.)
I don't have an internet connection at home so I depend on downloadable manual updates. (And probably CATALYST (the office PC) is not infected after all since it updates automatically but I'll find out once I'm there.)
It infects 32-bit .exe files. And I probably felt the symptoms before when it would automatically rename the files I am copying to lowercase. I did suspect but seeing the dates and byte sizes to be what they should, and the processes panel showing no hoodlum-looking process, and items being intact after MSCONFIG-in'... I chose to ignore.
As of now I'm not yet sure of what the root cause of this one is... let me waste my time and investigate further.