Having been on computers for 3 decades now, I am pretty good at doing things without thinking about it. Following commands is second-nature. Well that certainly bit me in the arse the other week when I found myself researching cancer remedies for a community hero. I found myself on a website that had a captcha on it that asked the user to follow a few prompts…

Imagine my surprise when I clued into what it was asking me to do after I had hit enter on a command line prompt… ffs. I had initiated a passive shell command that installed a script that downloaded and executed a trojan virus. Woops…

Although I had exited almost immediately after I hit “Enter” on the cmd prompt, the trojan was downloaded and executed. This means that I spent the last week and a half reinstalling Windows on my new (as of May) laptop and changing passwords on more than 50 websites…

I will never again use “remember my password.” It just isn’t worth it to my any longer. Previous to this, there was a data breach where my Microsoft account had somehow leaked? I am not sure the details, but I do know that I had just changed those 50+ passwords only a few weeks prior to this and it is exhausting having to dedicate that time to it. Especially when I have enough responsibilities on the go as it is.

I am a shift worker who is often working double-time to make ends meet, and a full-time single parent to a raging ADHDer as well as part-full-time to a goal tending teenager (50/50 custody, but I do majority of driving). Not complaining; just pointing out how little time I have for these inconveniences, hence why it took me almost two weeks to finish re-setting up my laptop. It still isn’t setup fully, either! lol

With that said, I have discovered a program by Malwarebytes which is exceptionally good and includes a free version/free trial.

Also, eff McAfee and Windows being in cahoots, making you unable to choose which antivirus you want to use and then being absolutely harassed by the McAfee “reminders” that your trial has ended.

…and eff Windows having a stupid “Co-Pilot” key where the right CTRL key should be. I am still learning to type and use the keyboard properly. I hate Co-Pilot right now. I do not want to be using it, but I can’t say I never will. There might be a day that I integrate it fully into my daily adventures. Today just isn’t one of those days…