Has your computer (or other device) ever been infected with a virus?

[NurseJackie]

I've never had a virus (that I know of). I use "Avast" antivirus... and several times a week, it will pop-up a warning letting me know that it intercepted a malicious script or program or link that's being sent to me by email.

What AV software do you use (if any)? --- In the past, we have used Norton Antivirus and AVG antivirus. I don't know how well they worked at keeping viruses away, but I do know that they slowed-down the computer.

17 votes, 2 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes... my antivirus software didn't catch it.
	7 (41%)
	Yes... I didn't have antivirus software installed.
	2 (12%)
	No... I have antivirus software installed.
	6 (35%)
	No... I do not have antivirus software installed.
	2 (12%)
	2 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[Shermann]

1. I've had plenty because I've been around the block

Browsers are much more secure than they used to be.

I wasn't uncommon to go to a website with Internet Explorer 6 and see it run a freaking batch file on your system.

[NurseJackie]

3. One crazy thing that happened to me was my browser kept opening new browsers...

... this was very early and I was using Netscape (I think. Maybe IE.) I couldn't close them fast enough and more would open up. Eventually, it crashed my system. When I rebooted, everything was okay.

So, I have been the victim of a malicious prank... but no long-lasting damage.

[House of Roberts]

10. I had a key stick on my keyboard and do that.

Now, every time something acts ignorant, I check the keyboard first.

One never learns much about a computer until they get fouled up.

[TexasTowelie]

2. Clicking yes since I'm the techie in this household

and my brother's laptop was infected with a virus. He didn't have anti-virus software.

[NurseJackie]

7. My sister-in-law answered a phone call from "Microsoft Technical Support" (sigh)

... and she believed them. He talked her through the process of giving him remote control of her computer. He put a virus on it and locked it until she paid a "ransom" (ie: buying overpriced software) to get rid of the virus he had put on.

The computer's functions were restored, but they didn't trust it and ended up buying a new one and starting from scratch. (My husband helped them to copy their "documents" and "pictures" folders onto their new computer.)

[TexasTowelie]

11. This ended up being a timely topic for me

since I bought a new computer last month and the 30 day McAfee trial offer is about to end. It seems like the way companies are trying to raise money is by marketing multiple device plans. I only need a subscription for the new computer and I'm leaning towards malwarebytes for anti-virus protection.

[mopinko]

4. i got a virus so bad, mac techs couldnt find it.

part of the solar winds hack. really.
killed 2 laptops and an ipad.
counted on my mac firewall. oops.

eta- like you, any time i had av software, it was soooo slow.

[bearsfootball516]

5. Antivirus software 15-20 years ago was VERY crude and inept.

It was extremely easy for viruses to beat it. As a previous poster said, browers were extremely simple and easy to infect. Virus creaters were miles ahead of antivirus software manufacturers for a long time.

[secondwind]

6. My Mac behaves pretty much... I like Norton Antivirus... have used it before but am having

difficulty now, installing it here in the Caribbean... ugh

[dingosatemyusername]

8. mine was infected with NIMDA around 1998

anyone remember that one? it was especially nasty, a hard drive killer

[fescuerescue]

9. There's only two correct answers here

1) Yes.
2) Yes, but I didn't know it.

[milestogo]

12. Norton and Malwarebytes work for me.

[dickthegrouch]

13. I have both on my system too

Norton and malwarebytes

[relayerbob]

14. I use CPU dewormer. Lol

[milestogo]

20. Now with Ivermectin!

[Tetrachloride]

15. People, anti virus software is not enough

1. ad blockers
2. hosts files. ( a type of site blocing)
3. browsers with javascript turned off
4. extra browser
5. extra user admin account for special cases ( if you are lucky, you might never need)
6. decent email
7. email set to not load remote images
8. ... that’s the basics...

I use phone for email more often than not

Find someone smart in your neighborhood. give them free shawarma or curry or enchiladas.

9. disk backup

[MurrayDelph]

18. And, if it's a laptop, tablet, or phone you connect to public WiFi

Don't forget the VPN.

Also useful when you travel out-of-country and want to watch US-based shows (or vice versa)

[NurseJackie]

19. Yep... my email is set to not load remote images from unknown senders.

I do have ad block plus installed on my browsers (chrome and firefox) but what I really want is an ad-block that defeats the popups which say "We See You're Using An Adblocker" ... for those sites, I just click and close (I will NOT disable my ad-blocker)

[KentuckyWoman]

16. Win 3.1 computer did.

I think the detector was McKaffey (spelling). It was so bad we gave up and bought a Win 95 instead. Later Peter Jennings had a segment the Russians are mixed up in that company so I always wondered.

I have a laptop now and every few months one of my younger family goes in and checks. So far so good. No clue what it uses. It once would not let me see a page on Amazon as a threat. So it works.

[Polybius]

22. McAfee

Their founder was John McAfee. He was quite the Libertarian extremist. Even married his hooker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee

[LeftInTX]

17. I've had issues in 2002 and 2008

Fortunately, they were not serious.
AV software is so different now.

I believe something was disabled in 2008 and I had browser hijacks. I had to reinstall Windows. In 2002 or so, my computer had "swen", but I simply reinstalled Windows.

Viruses can persist if they are in your documents and permanent files or are present on external hard drives, cameras etc. As a matter of fact in 2008, my son was trading files via external media and that is how it got on my computer.

If the virus is only in your temporary files, then it can be removed. Once it infects your registry and system files, then you need to reinstall. In 2008, I kept removing it and it kept coming back.

Currently, I use Windows Defender and adblock

[Polybius]

21. Which answer should I choose?

I've had them on computers with no anti-virus, and computers with them.

[NurseJackie]

24. I don't know. That's a hard one.

It's difficult to anticipate every possibility with a quick binary-type poll.

[Ms. Toad]

23. 12-year old daughter who know not to click on strange links that popped up on websites

asking to download or agree to stuff.

The web designer (a clever 15-18 year old who just happened to live a few miles away) had designed the site to attract pre-teens AND to make it impossible to move off of the page without answering "yes" to whatever the question was. Once she answered yes, it started redirecting her to other sites where they would download viruses, and to other sites, and so on. The download of viruses was faster than I could keep up with them.

This was close to 2 decades ago, and at that time the anti-virus software was not as sophisticated as it is today - today there would hav been a warning flag before she ever landed on the site.

I was able to download malware detection software on another computer, take the infected computer offline, run the antivirus software to identify every virus it recognized, remove them one-by-one by hand, download and run a different anti-malware package, and so on.

It took me 20-25 hours to clean it all up.

My one regret is that I didn't take the little jerk to small claims court to recover for my time. Most of these jerks are too far away to get personal jurisdiction - but this one lived in the next town over.

Since then a few have made it past the increasingly sophisticated anti-virus software. Malwarebytes normally takes care of them.

[hunter]

25. Not recently. Microsoft's built in anti-viral stuff seems to work fine...

... in combination with a blocker like uBlock Origin.

I haven't used or recommended any third party antivirus programs for a long time.

I regularly visit a few advertising supported technical and scientific sites so I'll turn off the ad-blocker for those. The ads I get on those sites are highly targeted, don't pop up, don't have moving images, and don't make any sounds.

I tend to block sites with annoying advertising entirely.

Avoiding obnoxious advertising is one reason I don't watch traditional television.

Just as an experiment, if I open DU without logging in and with the ad blocker turned off, I get ads for women's clothing, IT stuff, and radiology equipment.