If you EVER had an FIRST Computer Virus......

[JuanMena]

Can't remember the name of it. But I got it thanks to fucking SoftTonic...
I downloaded all the programs I (innocently thought) would work with my computer and I screwed it.

I was probably 12 years old.

The virus is the one that duplicated the Trashbin and wouldn't let you delete anything. It was on Windows XP.

 

[sarkwalvein]

I am almost sure it was old Mikey on DOS.
What PC? Hmmm.... Sure I had it on the 286, but perhaps I had it already on the XT.
What OS? I think it was MSDOS 3.2? Not sure, one that still came with EDLIN instead of EDIT.

 

[chaoskagami]

I had to deal with other people's problems, but my first piece of malware, huh?

Well, uh, didn't happen. The closest would be that I deliberately forkbomb'd my computer with vbscript when I started learning to program due to a friend who could be best described as a skid. I was no better obviously.

Then, I kinda sorta forkbomb'd the classroom computer in middle school using the same code (while working around policy restrictions: gotta love HTA files) and got yelled at because they had to reboot it and I got caught. Hahaha.

Well, we all have to start somewhere, I suppose. Remember: don't fuck with school computers.

Unless you can cover your tracks and have an alibi.

 

[Shadd]

The only noticeable virus I had first remembered ever having was where one morning I turn on my PC from instead of booting Windows Vista to a black screen with text on it: to put it all together it was fried. Since I wasn't really tech-savvy when I was around seven nobody really knew how to fix this. In the end, I followed my brother to my cousin's house to switch out the desktop PC for another one that looks exactly the same (same model) because it was being sent out to someone to be given away to them. I can't say that I hadn't had another virus after that but then I eventually learned about this. XD

-Fixed weird merge; I have no idea why I had a double post!

 

[Alexander1970]

The only noticeable virus I had first remembered ever having was where one morning I turn on my PC from instead of booting Windows Vista to a black screen with text on it: to put it all together it was fried. Since I wasn't really tech-savvy when I was around seven nobody really knew how to fix this. In the end, I followed my brother to my cousin's house to switch out the desktop PC for another one that looks exactly the same (same model) because it was being sent out to someone to be given away to them. I can't say that I hadn't had another virus after that but then I eventually learned about this. XD

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

The only noticeable virus I had first remembered ever having was where one morning I turned on my PC from instead of booting Windows Vista to a black screen with text on it: to put it all together it was fried. Since I wasn't really tech-savvy when I was around seven nobody really knew how to fix this. In the end, I followed my brother to my cousin's house to switch out the desktop PC for another one that looks exactly the same (same model) because it was being sent out to someone to be given away to them. I can't say that I hadn't had another virus after that but then I eventually learned about this. XD

Oh dear...the SAME Virus two times ?

 

[zxr750j]

Although I've used a lot of warez, cracks etc in my time, I never had a virus myself. But I've seen many many examples of viruses on pc's from friends and family. They all think I work in IT (I'm actually a data-analyst/BI-consultant). I think I cured most of them, but sometimes a reinstall was absolutely necessary. Having a firewall, basic virusscanner and common sense helped me a lot through the years.

I thought early viruses were funny, dropping all the letters from the screen or playing yankee doodle or something.

 

[medoli900]

View attachment 178217
MSBlaster when it peaked in 2003, of course (and the first solution was to change the action on RPC crash to restart service instead of entire system!)

Next was when I deliberately tried a ransomware around 2016 - confirming my theory they don't make funny malware as they did (computers in general are a lot less entertaining, with everyone being in for the money worse than they were in the dotcom boom, and most everyone trying to rip off disgusting Apple flat kiddie design, but that's for another topic)

But the first reason to reinstall windows (ME) was that I set the scaling to 400% or so and couldn't reach the button to change it again, lol

You could try MEMZ :^)

There's still some fun malware out there, you just have to search for them. Malware Wikia has some great resources.

 

[Dust2dust]

Interesting topic! Obviously, all these mentioned viruses are Windows-based. I wonder if anybody actually got hit by a virus using a version of Linux? I know they exist, but they don't have root access, and when they're discovered, updates are delivered so quickly that the virus has no chances to spread. Not to mention software repositories, where a typical Linux user normally gets his programs, are commonly checked very strictly for any malware. Of course, you can allow a more shady software repository, but you have to go out of your way to do that, it won't happen by accident. So yeah, has any Linux user among you guys been infected by any virus at some point? I mean without doing anything special? I visit shady sites like porn or premium link generators (re-direction and captcha hell) every so often, and never got infected by anything. I'm sure it would be an entirely different story on Windows.

 

[Deleted User]

Me I accidentally screw up my computer quite allot although I regret nothing as it has been quite a learning experience

 

[orangy57]

I remember having tons of viruses on the main house computer back in 2007, but since then I've been super diligent on not installing bloatware or hitting the wrong download button, until I must've installed a RAT on my computer somehow. At some point back in 2016, I was using my computer and noticed my mouse just started moving to the corner of my screen on its own while I was watching a video, but I thought It was just my mouse tracking weirdly, because when I moved my mouse again, it stopped.

Fast forward to a week later, and I left my computer awake while I went to make dinner. Around 20 tabs were open when I went back to my computer, all of them trying to buy Playstation and Visa gift cards on Amazon. Thankfully I had literally no money to my name and they were all declined, but it was still a huge pain going back and changing all of my passwords since you can get them in your browser as plain text. I still have no idea what I downloaded to get that onto my computer, but now I make sure to actually keep Windows Defender enabled.

 

[AdenTheThird]

A Trojan virus that took over an installed game on my PC by telling me the launcher needed an update. Eventually forced me to uninstall the game. I liked that game. Very sad ):

 

[Deleted User]

I remember having tons of viruses on the main house computer back in 2007, but since then I've been super diligent on not installing bloatware or hitting the wrong download button, until I must've installed a RAT on my computer somehow. At some point back in 2016, I was using my computer and noticed my mouse just started moving to the corner of my screen on its own while I was watching a video, but I thought It was just my mouse tracking weirdly, because when I moved my mouse again, it stopped.

Fast forward to a week later, and I left my computer awake while I went to make dinner. Around 20 tabs were open when I went back to my computer, all of them trying to buy Playstation and Visa gift cards on Amazon. Thankfully I had literally no money to my name and they were all declined, but it was still a huge pain going back and changing all of my passwords since you can get them in your browser as plain text. I still have no idea what I downloaded to get that onto my computer, but now I make sure to actually keep Windows Defender enabled.

Yikes being broke has its advantages

 

[AsPika2219]

Memories.... My very-very old PC since below year 2000 on oldies MS-DOS and Windows 3.XX got stupid virus likes Shampo, TPVO3464 etc...

 

[D34DL1N3R]

I'm 48 and have never had any virus wreak even the smallest amount of havoc on a single PC I've owned. Sure, I've had some pup's & plenty of false positives, but never anything major at all. What in the world do people do to get these nasty virus? I've seen tons of porn sites, downloaded tons of games, been to so many sketchy sites I could never put a number on them, clicked on I don't know how many fake ads, etc. And have never once been infected beyond anything very, very minor.

 

[altorn]

I'm in windows 7 and i never really use antivirus software, and rarely use Windows Defender.
My OS is pirated, and have issues with Windows updates, where it will take 22 hours for 1 update. So i disabled auto-updates. 4 years later no issues. I know my way around web security so I can avoid threats.

I use a VPN as well, especially when torrenting. I have backups of backups for my software projects, photos and important files. My account passwords and banking info are not stored in browser cache (even if i use VPN), and i do keep a text file of my accounts and passwords but I keep them in isolation, encrypted.

I did get emails from myself by someone supposedly hacking my account and has been following my search history, and everything i do in my PC, and they said my porn history is disgusting. They asked for bitcoin for payment in 2 days otherwise they will release my files to the public. especially my porn history. lol

I ignored it even after they sent 20 of the same emails and checked the headers of that email, and saw that it has spoofed my email address to look like they're using my email. It can't easily be seen from apps like Gmail or Hotmail, but I was using a forwarder so my email server gets those emails for me to confirm the underlying information. Any regular person would get scared shitless if they don't know what's up in the world of hacking.

In short, don't use the internet. lol

 

[digipimp75]

Back in '98, I got hit with the Chernobyl virus. I had just built my first pc (Pentium 2 233mhz) and was running Windows 98.

 

[Kwyjor]

Does no one remember Word macro viruses? Those were pretty prevalent around 1996-1997. As the local school board was deep in the pocket of Apple, viruses were not generally a problem otherwise.

I do recall the DOS version of McAfee started giving me flak about a false alarm around that time (I think it was something called the COM virus?); I never found out exactly what was the cause of the problem.

 

[chaoskagami]

Interesting topic! Obviously, all these mentioned viruses are Windows-based. I wonder if anybody actually got hit by a virus using a version of Linux? I know they exist, but they don't have root access, and when they're discovered, updates are delivered so quickly that the virus has no chances to spread. Not to mention software repositories, where a typical Linux user normally gets his programs, are commonly checked very strictly for any malware. Of course, you can allow a more shady software repository, but you have to go out of your way to do that, it won't happen by accident. So yeah, has any Linux user among you guys been infected by any virus at some point? I mean without doing anything special? I visit shady sites like porn or premium link generators (re-direction and captcha hell) every so often, and never got infected by anything. I'm sure it would be an entirely different story on Windows.

Actually, there's quite a few botnets that target Linux IoT devices. Also, out-of-date Android devices are pretty exploitable remotely. Regarding "running stupid programs" there's been a few cases of penguin-flavored ransomware that encrypts your whole home directory.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Interesting topic! Obviously, all these mentioned viruses are Windows-based. I wonder if anybody actually got hit by a virus using a version of Linux? I know they exist, but they don't have root access, and when they're discovered, updates are delivered so quickly that the virus has no chances to spread. Not to mention software repositories, where a typical Linux user normally gets his programs, are commonly checked very strictly for any malware. Of course, you can allow a more shady software repository, but you have to go out of your way to do that, it won't happen by accident. So yeah, has any Linux user among you guys been infected by any virus at some point? I mean without doing anything special? I visit shady sites like porn or premium link generators (re-direction and captcha hell) every so often, and never got infected by anything. I'm sure it would be an entirely different story on Windows.

This is a bit off-topic but nevertheless interesting. I’ve never seen (desktop) Linux based malware myself. I’m not really sure why that is.
Some say it is the small user base, some say Linux users are (often) more tech-savvy and careful and therefore not a good target and some say Linux is more secure than other OS. I don’t think the last statement is true (anymore) and tend to agree with the first two. Centralized repositories for software are helpful and I avoid any unknown third-party software on my main computer which limits options sometimes. (VirtualBox gets around this.)

The thing with “no root privileges” is very important in multi user scenarios – but almost useless on private PCs. Not having admin rights (without further exploitation requiring additional known vulnerabilities after getting the current users rights) usually does not prevent malware from unauthorized access of personal data (copying+sending or deleting/encrypting). See this xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1200/

That said I'm very happy to say: "Linux is – for whatever reason – shielded from widespread desktop malware." (Discussing servers and targeted attacks is a completely different topic). The last time I had malware was with Windows (Blaster or Sasser). I already mentioned my first malware: antiexe under MS-DOS.

Actually, there's quite a few botnets that target Linux IoT devices. Also, out-of-date Android devices are pretty exploitable remotely. Regarding "running stupid programs" there's been a few cases of penguin-flavored ransomware that encrypts your whole home directory.

IoT devices are a pretty good target. No updates. And many users do not care about the things being part of a botnet as long as the machines continue to work (if the user even notices the infection).

 

[Kwyjor]

I’ve never seen (desktop) Linux based malware myself. I’m not really sure why that is.

In the end, I think it's already hard enough to write a regular program that will reliably install and run on a broad range of desktop Linux systems without a considerable degree of user intervention. To write a program that will do so and then continue to propagate itself unnoticed and unaided would be a tall order. I would also say it's considerably easier on Linux for legitimate developers to unintentionally spread buggy, inadequately-tested software. But maybe that's just my opinion.