It didn’t work, all the OS patches installed, all the Security Apps are current, firewall, anti-virus software, complex multi-character passwords, logging on as a ‘user’ not an administrator all the things you do to keep unpleasant things from happening.

But it did.

Friday I attempted to log on to my ISP and got an “Invalid Username or Password” response. More than a little disturbed I called Tech support.

And was told my account had been suspended for ‘misuse’. After some rather testy discussions I was told my machine had been used for a distributed DNS attack. I’ve spent the last three days digging through the registry, doing a lot of line-by-line looking at program files, checking hidden folders ETC.

And finally found a tiny mal-ware program buried inside my WYSIWIG editor (which has its own browser/server), a zombiefier. I have no idea where it came from, or when. (Thank god for Google!)

Instead of trying to dig it out I reformatted and reloaded.

Now, I am forced to ponder a few things, with all the measures I take, I still got jammed up. Is there is actually no way to totally secure a computer short of locking it inside a Faraday cage with no modem?
And my opinion of script kiddies is at a new low, which I would have considered impossible before Friday. If I got my hands on the offending party they might have a lot of trouble using their computer for some time. I’d relocate it in a place I won’t mention here, except to say they’d be eating quite a bit of ex-lax for a while.