Virus Busters

Watch out, they're coming to get you!

Those little programs designed by hackers, people who do not have any good things to do with their lives, or who are rumored to be the designers of anti-virus software just to wreak havoc on your computer come in various sizes and forms, destructive & spreading potentials, and ways to get in your computer without of you knowing. And they are seemingly created almost everyday, with multiple strains of the same virus.

When I was really young, say about the early to mid -part of grade school years, what upped my interests in computers was not only games but computer viruses. I was exposed to them early, dealing with the likes of Microbe, CPP-NPA-NDF & Pakistani Brain, and the anti-virus software named Vir-Ex. The first book I borrowed from the Ateneo Rizal College Library (yes, I was still a grade schooler) was a book about computer viruses with the viruses at that point in time like the ones mentioned above, Joker and more.

I had this sort of obsession back then that in college, I used to go to RSF, pick a computer and just spend the time eliminating computer viruses that the maintenance in RSF seem to not notice or care at all.

Just two days ago, my sister told me that her USB disk got infected with a worm (worm_gatecoll.a) that came from the RSF, and she accidentally spread that to her laptop. Yesterday, I got a cellphone call from my other sister telling me about the same worm that her entire class got infected due to her professor's laptop. She even accidentally infected the family computer as well.

Everything seems ok now. Some programs were irrecoverable and were deleted, but luckily, those programs were only just games, and can be replaced anytime.