Has your computer ever been infected by a virus?

Always keep the latest Anti-Virus Program (Norton) with current dat files on the system. Do full system virsus scans 1-2 times per week. Do not allow others to download or install anything on the system without my prior knowledge. Always confirm that all data files from any type of storage systems have been scanned for virsus prior to usage. Data or programs used must be from trusted companies and WEB sites. Be as SPAM Free as possible.

TTT&ZB

I use a mac

Ive been infected by Screaming Fist in 90's (with MS-Dos 5.0). Ive got this virus in a B.B.S. with my godly 2400bps!!).
But since i have internet @ home, i never been infected. I always use lastest Symantec NAV version and update, i got a hardware firewall too (linksys router) and, i think, i got enough maturity to avoid this kind of treath. (well ill touch wood)

I watch what I load keep my virus software up to date and am very careful what I open. I use IE and install patches asap. Hope what I'm doing keeps working and my luck holds.

Maybe the low market share keeps the hackers from looking at the Mac OS or maybe it is because it is harder to infect. Whw knows?

I was infected my first year using the internet in 1999 because I knew nothing about all these dangers and my local ISP did not protect me when I was using Outlook Express. Now I have not had a Virus in 4 years because I keep my Anti-Virus protection software up to date every day with auto updates.

I wil not say what software I am using so as not to promote them but, I really like it. Nortons.

I have never had a virus in the 10 years I have had computers. I have went through 5 computers and have never had any problems, probably becaues I always keep virus software running and don't download any attachments or junk off the web. Or I have just been plain lucky.

Yeah my computer has been infected by viruses....

the blaster-worm
the sasser worm

Just those two.

OH HELL YES!!!

And it was from a web site which is no longer there. I was surfing the web, looking for downloads, and found this great site (in Russia, hence .ru). Ok so I don't understand the lingo, but they had the stuff I was looking for. After a few days my e-mail box started to get this strange e-mail stuff, from Microsoft (NOT!).

It went something like this;

"Dear friend (since when does Microsoft says dear friend let alone an e-mail), there are many dangers on the net. Please download this patch to upgrade your protechtion"

That's when my Norton kicked in with a warning that a virus Safro I think was downloading, And I pulled the phone jack from the wall....

So, I still use my SLOW SNAIL 56 k MODEM and still had time to react to stop the virus from loading completely, causing only an error in the reg; and be able to clean up the mess left over, then reboot and back to normal running speed.

Unforntulty another friend who bought all new high end model computer from DELL (sorry I don't know what model but it was BIG bucks) with Win XP in it. He hooked up to a DSL and claims (or should say brag about it) that at a touch of a button a site will come up in a snap of the fingers. Well he went to that site like me, and I did warm him about the problem with the virus, but because of his high speed DSL...he wound up getting a new Hard drive, the other one was soooo useless that you couldn't wipe it clean.

The Doc

Never! My secret is... I use OS X!!!!!!!!

I use Yahoo mail with it's built in antivirus so even if a virus is sent it can't be open, plus I ignore unknown emails. I have Avg free and can't remember the last time it detected a virus, probably a year ago. I'm currently on dialup so i don't even bother with a firewall except for XP's built in one.

I stick to known sites and gave up on the p2p thing long ago.

I don't know if it was a virus or a flaw in XP but last time i had something virus related was the NT shutdown thing.

I've always used macs and never seen a virus...

My son likes to download songs and never worried about viruses. Each time we cleaned the computer he would download some more and not check the source beforehand. Lately he's been more careful, I don't know what viruses we had.

It seems just about every virus that has been out I've had at one time, or another. I have had the MyDoom virus, until I saved the patch to my hard drive.
I have no idea of where they came from either. I will be reading emails, and the message will come on that windows has encountered a problem, and you have 2 minutes to close & save before re-start.
With a dial up connection like I have it makes it really difficult to get a patch downloaded before the computer shuts down. I have found through trial & error if you hold down the enter key it will not shut down as long as you hold it. However, when it takes sometimes 20 minutes to download your finger does get tired : )
It is a GOOD thing I can never get my hands on one of those people responsible for these atrocities against my computer !! I use a windows XP Gateway Mid-Tower, so I'm used to an unstable system anyway lol !!
Is there any recourse that will prevent this without expensive virus protection i.e. Computer Associates ?? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated !! Also, I read about the floggings, and would love to be a "Volunteer" for any such punishment for the perpetrators : )

I have gotten infected with viruses several times this year. My defense is: Netgear Router and Firewall (nat and sp1)
McAfee Anti-Virus
Zone Alarm personal firewall
Xoftspy
SpyBot Search and Destroy
Firefox browser
And I expect to get infected again this year. Why? Because I go to "cheat" sites for video games, waraz sites for questionable downloads and "free" sites to see if there is anything worth it.
If I don't want to get infected, I wouldn't go to these sites. No matter how well a system is protected, if you go to infected sites, you will get infected.

If you want to play, you've got to pay.

Resigned to it.

A long time ago, someone can recall the ping-pong virus? Yup I got it on a soft 5 1/4 floppy. The removal was quite easy, but hey, those viruses were not as sophisticated as some viruses are in the present. On the other hand, in ms-dos it was quite easy to remove a virus, windows will usually prevent you from deleting one because the virus is being executed and thus write-access is prohibitied LOL
Greetz. B. Talman http://www.surfing-safe.com

Secret: Mac OS X

No viruses, adaware, spyware, worms, etc. All without performing weekly and sometimes daily scans. And for those of you who decree that Linux is still too esoteric for the public at large, there are many distros out there that are very intuitive, GUI oriented, and STABLE. For a first time user, you can't go wrong with Red Hat/Fedora Core or Ubuntu. All 3 distros provide the stability of Linux, the look and feel of Windows, office productivity software, and at a price that, well...you know where I'm going with that one

Some have tryed but AVG caught them

I have always had AV software installed and have always kept it up to date.

Way back when I used Norton's but found it's interface intrusive, not to say a little childish.

McAffee is an excellent product.

I've been lucky and use mainly a Mac.

Because I only use Macs!

I'm not sure which one it happened years ago. I have awalys use AV Firewall Spyware Privacy software and am careful what I open as far as attachments and e-mails and try to stay up to date as to what is happening with my computer security.

I used to participate in file sharing.Also,certain websites install virus programs without your knowledge.Now,it is spyware that is everywhere.
Why does this happen?Isp's don't do enough about it and AV companies are not doing their job well enough.There should be laws about it that are enforced.

If you've got a PC then run Linux, I never got a virus inthe 5 years that I had a PC. Or do what I did and buy a MAC.

Computer infected by Java-Byte-Verify according to AVG which could not get rid of it. Since my computer was running okay I simply did not take any other action........until my ISP terminated my internet connection because my computer was sending out spam. After a bunch of grief, and an on-site tech-rep call, I was finally advised (by my ISP) to go to housecall.trendmicro.com to remove this virus(after they "lit me up." I did this and this site immediately scanned and quickly removed this virus that AVG was unable to fix. I should mention this service was completely free. Because of this, I will purchase their(trend micro) spyware.

Or some variant. The only thing that would recognize it was Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, but it wouldn't do anything about it. Even the specialized "removal" tools I managed to download couldn't do anything... eventually I just did system restore, and it worked fine. I had to fix up my hosts file afterwards before I was completely clean, but I haven't had any problems since.
And my virus and spyware protection software? It did nothing. The thing just stopped them from openings, simple as that.

a trojan redirecter got by my firewall and Norton about two or three years ago.
took me weeks to get completely rid of it.