Anyone Remember Their First Infection?

[Cowpipe]

Was thinking just a moment ago about how my first ever virus infection came back when I was about 12, using Windows ME.

I noticed the computer had slowed right down, opening up the task manager there were two randomly named processes which I thought suspicious, using up most of the CPU. Of course, killing them just made them re-spawn again.

Funnily enough, regedit was blocked (but not task manager? amateurs ).. So after a day of trying to think how to fix it, I dug out an old Linux rescue disk and removed the startup entries from the registry.

With that done, and the CPU freed up, I got a virus scanner running and to my surprise one of the viruses was called 'superbike.exe' Files deleted, registry fixed I was pretty chuffed, first ever virus infection dealt with successfully

Anybody have a story to share?

 

[Striker]

never got infected almost 10 years, thats my story

 

[Cowpipe]

never got infected almost 10 years, thats my story

I've probably been infected seven or eight times over about 10 years, hacked once (dumb mistake by me), so I take my hat off to you, envious What's your secret? (having to ask is probably a clue as to why I've been infected so much right..)

 

[Lailson]

I'm too young. The first was a trojan that McAfee blocked.. About 1 year and a half ago when I had my first notebook, of course I was a layman User with little knowledge of the internet, but it was nothing serious, most were adware, crack (lots of it) and some PUPS Trojans : (
Okay blessed day, while surfing the net, I came across MalwareTips and soon fell in love, and other sites of technology and security, tranformei me a basic User for extreme knowledge regarding safety. Glad!
Gradually I was dropping me, I identify a lot with the Virus Exchange part, that every day I learn very slowly I got to know everyone and the other participating ago and now infected assist some friends unknowingly daily.
Just now there is no possibility of my being infected, now learned to take action high degree of security, and I am much happier and peaceful

 

[kaljukass]

Nothing I can recall -'ve never been any viruses and do not know anyone who got some viruses in their lifetime. Some have got indeed malware or something similar, but these are not, after all, viruses. But when I look at the forums, then - oh my God. Most of people owns their personal domesticated virus.
Of course, I left unsaid, that the influenza virus has been a couple of times during 55 years, bat I dont got it from the internet.

 

[randj89]

I remember I got my first computer and I didn't know too much about them in (2001) got infected with a Blaster virus I think or something that was disconnecting my dial up (2001) after 1 minutes of connection.... I hated it every minute after getting connected that thing disconnect it automatically.... I didn't know about antivirus and viruses at the moment I just remember I got it. I was 12 years old.

 

[sid_16]

I got my 1st Pc assembled and loaded with windows xp, say about 5 years back. The 1st infection was a malware I think and it didn't let me open the windows, reformatted and all were well then came the non-genuine notification from MS and got rid of it by installing windows 7 on 2011.

However, it was a new windows and full of fun but I marked that my 'C' drive was getting full day by day and found no solution to it, so I searched the net and landed at MDL there I got help from many members and one volunteered to help me through the Team viewer to expand my 'C' drive and learned many things or still learning from them then out of curiosity I found MalwareTips and fell in love with the people, tutorials, giveaways and forums , so I'm here with no virus since the old xp days.

 

[Cowpipe]

Thanks for sharing the stories guys, great to hear them

 

[FreddyFreeloader]

I never installed an AV from 1995 until MSE in 2009. Never any infections. I like this site because of all the good people here, and their good advice, chat, posts, information I'd never discover on my own. Hands down the best site of it's kind on the web. It's a pleasure being a member of malwaretips.com!

 

[Oxygen]

Never had a virus.




Like a Sir

 

[samit]

I remember when I got virut-ce or something like that...I don't remember.......it was in my uncles laptop......even with Comodo Internet Security 5.8....it didn't block at all...it start detecting a little late...eventually deleting system file causing system to crash.....when I complain about it in Comodo's facebook page....I was blocked from their facebook page...still blocked

 

[xywcloud]

When I was 9,using Windows 98.
The computer was infected by HappyTime~

 

[FreddyFreeloader]

When I was 9,using Windows 98.
The computer was infected by HappyTime~

 

[xywcloud]

A very popular virus at that time~

 

[illumination]

Funny thing about malware, when running only one scanner on your system, if it did not detect it, you may not even know or realize you would have been infected.. Not all of them cause a big scene and get your attention.. So i would be willing to say most people at some point or another have been infected whether they realized it or not..

 

[FreddyFreeloader]

Funny thing about malware, when running only one scanner on your system, if it did not detect it, you may not even know or realize you would have been infected.. Not all of them cause a big scene and get your attention.. So i would be willing to say most people at some point or another have been infected whether they realized it or not..

You may be right. Started using HMP, MBAM when they came out. Never had anything that stole my ID, banking or financial details, or screwed up my machine, though. Back in the day, my dialup service was so slow malware didn't have a chance to load, I bet.

 

[XhenEd]

I was a newbie in security when my laptop was first infected by a malware. I think the malware was a drive-by download. It started to show pop-ups on the screen saying that I have no AV protection, and that I should download the AV it recommends. I was so foolish enough to believe it. So I followed it even though I knew that I have Avast! running. After clicking the "download" button, I could not open any browsers, and file explorer. I restarted my laptop, hoping that the infection would be gone. It restarted successfully, but the pop up is still there.

Thankfully, I could access Avast!. However, Avast! wouldn't run a scan. But, after a few minutes, I discovered Avast's boot-time scan. I had ran it successfully and after an hour it deleted the malware. Hooray!

Bottom Line on the earlier Avast!: It let the malware run, and too late detecting it through boot-time scan.

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

During the mid 1990's, my then girlfriend whom would later become my wife (aka The Queen of our Castle!) had a castle like tower computer built with the cutting edge technology of the "New Windows 95" OS!! The computer accessed the internet with a dial-up connection which was simply fast because we didn't know anything else to compare it with, and of course a High Speed Cable service was only for the rich and those privileged to excessive. Service for us was provided by EarthLink, the largest privately owned internet provider, and an alternate choice to AOL. The first hint of anything amiss was after having updated the newest version of Internet Explorer, somehow ...it just didn't feel right, and from this point on, Explorer's image was marred in our thoughts & views, and another 'different' browser was needed. As my wife described it, "Explorer, it acts like an octopus. It gets it's tentacles into the computer, and once it does there's no way to get them out!" What we found was a browser called Netscape Navigator (which would someday develop into the famous gecko engined Mozilla Firefox) and along with everyone else who wanted a better smoother internet they'd not yet begun to dream of beyond the pleasures of emailing long distances, & reading the news on a mini TV/color monitor. Little did we know, or realize, there was an unwanted presence, until the popups started to be noticed, and something more & more people were calling viruses needed to be dealt with by something called an anti-virus. We experienced noticeable slow downs, and our first infection was deemed a Trojan! It was either McAfee or Norton that identified this mysterious intruder, and brought our system back nearly to how it was before. Thus began our exile from The trouble Free Internet Garden of Eden. Numerous Windows operating systems later, running parallel along with those (as does my brother in law) whom compute with Mac, we've reached a plateau which looks into the promised land of linux. I am grateful to have come to this splendid and autonomous site that is MalwareTips and which stands as a beacon of knowledge, and a stalwart ally to all men (& women) whom bring themselves, their questions, and often without even knowing they possess them, the answers and support so many of us seek.

 

[Tony Cole]

I've been using PC's/Laptops for years and luckily (fingers crossed!) I've never had a computer virus, during this 99.9% time I've used Kaspersky. I did have a wobble and installed (yes I know) Comodo - biggest mistake ever!

 

[Rahadian Putra]

I was 10 years old, I saw my dad playing with his computer, then I suddenly remember those cool actions on movie..you know act like a smart guy who can do many things like penetrate system, he looks could speak with computer to me
That movie inspired me, I had an idea to "play" my dad's PC once he's out. And yes..I had the opportunity soon, I turned on the computer...didn't know what I had to do, then just opening a browser (I think it was netscape if I remember correctly) then just do randomly things, I don't even remember what I was doing but one really thing I still remember is..once I done playing with the computer, I heard my dad's car coming.. I was freaking out and didn't shut down the computer (of course I didn't know how to turn it off) my dad coming to his room, and he was shocked when he saw his computer On, and congratulations..his PC infected with happy time and worms (I knew it once he told me about this story once I was 19) I'm not sure whether I was caused his PC being infected or not, but I still remember he was really mad to me and never talked to me for 1 month

During the mid 1990's, my then girlfriend whom would later become my wife (aka The Queen of our Castle!) had a castle like tower computer built with the cutting edge technology of the "New Windows 95" OS!! The computer accessed the internet with a dial-up connection which was simply fast because we didn't know anything else to compare it with, and of course a High Speed Cable service was only for the rich and those privileged to excessive. Service for us was provided by EarthLink, the largest privately owned internet provider, and an alternate choice to AOL. The first hint of anything amiss was after having updated the newest version of Internet Explorer, somehow ...it just didn't feel right, and from this point on, Explorer's image was marred in our thoughts & views, and another 'different' browser was needed. As my wife described it, "Explorer, it acts like an octopus. It gets it's tentacles into the computer, and once it does there's no way to get them out!" What we found was a browser called Netscape Navigator (which would someday develop into the famous gecko engined Mozilla Firefox) and along with everyone else who wanted a better smoother internet they'd not yet begun to dream of beyond the pleasures of emailing long distances, & reading the news on a mini TV/color monitor. Little did we know, or realize, there was an unwanted presence, until the popups started to be noticed, and something more & more people were calling viruses needed to be dealt with by something called an anti-virus. We experienced noticeable slow downs, and our first infection was deemed a Trojan! It was either McAfee or Norton that identified this mysterious intruder, and brought our system back nearly to how it was before. Thus began our exile from The trouble Free Internet Garden of Eden. Numerous Windows operating systems later, running parallel along with those (as does my brother in law) whom compute with Mac, we've reached a plateau which looks into the promised land of linux. I am grateful to have come to this splendid and autonomous site that is MalwareTips and which stands as a beacon of knowledge, and a stalwart ally to all men (& women) whom bring themselves, their questions, and often without even knowing they possess them, the answers and support so many of us seek.

That's an interesting story my friend, the way you described it make me feel like I was watching this scene by me self, unlike reading it from a post