Virus Nasties and Ravelry Swag

Yesterday, after posting on here, I went in search of a clover lace stitch pattern, just to see what might be out there. I clicked on a link that was supposed to be an enlarged photo of just such a pattern. Instead of getting a picture, a virus/spyware/spam program downloaded and installed on my poor little laptop. It happened so fast it took a bit for me to realize just exactly what had taken place.

My first clue was a warning from Google telling me some program was trying to change my default search tool (which is supposed to be Google) to some place called Virus Heat. Not good!

Wow! Did it make a mess of my laptop! It was a program that claimed to protect my computer from viruses/spamware/spyware/worms. It kept popping up windows telling me it had detected something and that I needed to download a host of different programs to get rid of the detected nasties (some of these programs required a purchase-what a scam!).

I'm not that stupid. I knew exactly what nasty it detected. Itself!

My laptop did not have any actual security protection software on it. I have asked Sweet Hubby many times what I should have for just that purpose, but he always says "Oh, you don't need anything. The firewall I set up will protect you."

HA!!!

I shouldn't have believed him.

So, now my laptop was bogged down, and fast heading for a running to a halt situation. I can't get the fake virus warning pop ups to stop (I'm clicking x's right and left!), I can't get the fake security software to uninstall, and I'm starting to panic. So I did what I had to.

I Googled for a free security program to download and install asap! Microsoft has one called Windows Defender. I downloaded it right away, installed it, and started a scan. It found 4 programs that were bad. Hmmm...they all had names with Virusheat in them. Isn't that interesting? Defender was able to completely remove it all, and now my computer is running really fast again.

Don't have any security program running on your computer? GET ONE! I highly recommend Windows Defender.

After I spent 2 hours fixing my computer, my daughter went to the mailbox and found a package for me. YES! It was my Ravelry Swag!

Me in my Swag

Last week the Ravelry store officially opened so I ordered a shirt. It's a deep grey. The words say "A daily dose of fiber" with pics of a sheep (wool), bunny (angora), goat (cashmere), and alpaca. I love my shirt.

Have a great day.