Six Strings and a Sketchpad

Yesterday my computer got Hit by a malicious spyware / adware attack.

It was actually quite clever..it posted a wallpaper that said 'You have a virus, install an antivirus to clean your pc'...then it mimicked Windows defender and popped up a 'Windows has detected a virus on your pc, please click here to download and install anti-virus'..it then downloaded a sham anti-virus that was itself infected with spyware, that downloaded and ran more spyware. It was a lot of fun.

Anyway I formatted and reinstalled and all is well now.

But I am royally pissed with McAfee. My company has a policy of using McAfee as our anti-virus of choice. I have no say in the running of this piece of software. It sits as a shield on my taskbar, and the only option I have when clicking on it is 'Update now'. Which I have done every week since we got it.

But it didn't even blink when my pc was nailed yesterday. Further to that there is no console I can use to clean my system! No 'Scan now' option...nothing.

Basically it slows my pc down. Allows it to get infected. And then does not allow me to scan. WTF.

So I have installed Computer Associates Security Centre..It has a GUI and has just completed scanning my HD. I am clean. And it is sitting there and scanning my mail and Interweb connection so I know I'm secure. Screw company policy.

And furthermore Screw McAfee..