Advice Request What was your dumbest security mistake?

Please provide comments and solutions that are helpful to the author of this topic.

Sorrento

Level 9
Verified
Well-known
Dec 7, 2021
402
This was over 20 years ago & I'm not sure what actually happened but the screen flashed a few times & an error box came up I've not seen again which said ' Windows does not exist' as that was pretty final & very conclusive I either reinstalled or I may have used the disc backup system that was totally unreliable, but I never knew the cause :oops: - I used a few years ago Webroot as I had used Prevx with success in the past but ended up believing for a while that Webroot was of some value - Disagreeing with support on any aspect of the program caused flames, fire & brimstone to emit from your keyboard, in time I gave up :D:D
 

Zorro

Level 9
Verified
Well-known
Jun 11, 2019
404
Many years ago I decided to try myself as an antivirus tester. ☺️

One user from the Russian forum sent me an archive with 1100 viruses, where there were both completely new ones and viruses from a month ago. I installed an antivirus, then tested it for phishing, for web protection about surfing on malicious sites, and then for viruses from the archive. Tested Kaspersky, Avast, and then decided to test Eset. Eset performed well in protecting against phishing, after which I began testing web protection.

The situation with malicious sites was also good, the antivirus blocked everything, and I decided to have a real hardcore - turn off the ad blocker and click on all the ads in a row, which only I get in the browser. I began to click on all the flashing banners, on some advertisements for cream, on naked flashing aunts with cellulite, and so on.

And then I clicked on a banner that said - "This news will shock you!". I clicked to shock me... And I was transferred to some news site, from which I was immediately transferred to some other news site, and then again transferred to a third site, on which a huge banner appeared with the inscription " Shocking news" and the "Agree" button. I pressed the button...😯

And I was shocked! I was shocked by the cynicism of the people who do this, because as "news" they wrote an outright blasphemy against one deceased singer (allegedly she is alive and well, although she actually died of cancer and even the funeral was shown on TV). But not only that, by clicking on the "I agree" button, I subscribed to the daily mailing list of such "news", and since I used the mobile Internet (USB 3G-modem), 30 rubles (0.5 euros) were immediately withdrawn from my account, and I subscribed to something to shoot the same amount daily, in exchange for their crazy "news". It was impossible to disable the subscription even through the personal account of the mobile operator. It was possible to unsubscribe only by coming to the office of the mobile operator and through the entrance to the personal account from their office computer. I went to the office the same day. When I stood in line at the mobile operator's office, there were several other people with the same problem (one of the users managed to subscribe to 10 such "news" sites and paid 5 euros daily for six months).:mad:😲

Since then, I have not tested antiviruses. :D
 
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show-Zi

Level 36
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 28, 2018
2,463
My guess is that there are overwhelmingly more members who overdo it and fail than fail without doing it.

The reason we call attention to over-protection proposals is probably because we share such an original experience.
 

Nevi

Level 11
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Apr 7, 2016
500
I remember short time after getting my first computer. Into my e mail account, came a little e mail called "Snow white and the seven dwarfs"!
As most of you probably remember it was an ugly worm, that infected the computer. Also Limeware were I downloaded MP3 music files where a constant pain. But around that time I discovered Kaspersky, and all infections stopped.
Short after I started using PrevX. Nice and very light malware buster. Then ESET and I use ESET these days too.
 

Dave Russo

Level 21
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
May 26, 2014
1,041
I had a pop-up saying I had an infection,then pop up for a spyware/malware removal tool that cost 60 dollars it was a scam,could of got rid of it with task master oops didn't know any better but bought it,(lol at least it worked,another time no backup program and lost really nice pictures of the kids
 

byronbytes

Level 2
Mar 30, 2022
51
I vaguely remember some huge security mistakes I made when I was really young.

- Accidentally made a typo in a website, got a popup scam saying you need to call this number, I somewhat believed it.
- Accidentally installed a malicious chrome extension that disabled the entire explorer process and forced me into fullscreen chrome (I fixed that quickly.) Who knows what that could've done?

Oh I can list so many more, thank god I learned from my mistakes when I was young.
 

Captain Holly

Level 5
Verified
Well-known
Jan 23, 2021
227
Back in the early 2000's when I had AOL on a dial-up connection I fell for an "Insta-Kiss" phishing gimmick. I had to enter my AOL user ID and password so I could read a message from an interested woman on an internet dating site. Of course, the site did not really exist and the next day I had over 200 spam emails in my inbox and more than that in my sent folder. That was when I learned not to click links in emails.

C.H.
 

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