This hasn't been a good week for computer health.
First, I got hit with an e-mail transmitted virus at home - the first virus I believe I have gotten at home in over twenty years of computing. This evil little number came via a hidden signature attachment, and was able to infiltrate my system through Outlook Express because I hadn't updated it to fix a known security hole. I unwittingly passed the virus to my brother Tom, who had the latest security patch and was not affected.
I realized that I had a problem when I rebooted my machine after it locked up. When it came back up, there was an error about not being able to execute "kak.reg" or something like that. This immediately set off alarm bells in my head, and as I snooped around the system, I found evidence of altered files (most notably, my autoexec.bat had two lines in it that I sure as hell didn't put there).
So I guess I am going to have to invest in some anti-virus software for home. Even the most fastidious refusal to run e-mailed executables or open Word documents was insufficient to protect me from this signature virus. It took about a half hour to clear up, and I had to make a bunch of phone calls to make sure I hadn't infected anyone else. (I hadn't.)
To add insult to injury, at work the "FunLove" virus is running rampant on our file server. It seems that just about every executable file has been infected. I have backups, but it is not clear how long this virus has gone undetected, so it may be difficult to restore everything.
Right now these viruses are just a nuisance, but it will be interesting to see how they evolve. Already there is a lot of crossover between different virus strains, as hackers borrow the best techniques from several viruses to create new, more powerful versions. I expect that over time, we'll start to see benevolent and even helpful viruses, since these will have the best chance to survive in the computing environment.
We live in interesting times.
You can respond to my ranting here.
A rant a day keeps the doctor away.