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Worst Security Clean-Up You've Performed?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the with-this-track-record-are-you-going-to-trust-vista dept.

nakhla writes "Last night, I was tasked (by my wife) to help fix her friend's computer. It is a Windows XP home system which has been running slowly, almost to the point of un-usability (like *that's* never happened before). It turns out that hundreds of random processes had filled up its meager 256 MB of RAM. The cause? Nearly 7,500 viruses and worms that had infected the system. That number doesn't even include the hundreds of spyware and adware programs that had installed themselves, as well. Although the box is now behind a firewall, that wasn't always the case. This was, by far, the most infected system I'd ever seen, but I'm sure it can't be the worst ever. What was the worst security cleanup you ever had to perform?"

2 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Mine? by Scarletdown · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    My biggest security clean up was the Gateway MX6440 laptop I bought from Best Buy a few months ago. The documentation said that it was infested with something called Windows XP Home Edition. So, I gave it its initial boot up with a Debian CD in the drive, wiped out Windows and am now happily running 64 bit Linux on her. The "Made for Windows XP / Vista Compatible" case sticker was removed and stuck in its rightful place on the toilet's tank, and a "Linux Inside" case badge was stuck on the computer in its place.

    BTW, anyone interested in buying an unused XP Home OEM license? :D

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  2. Was it running Vista? by wan-fu · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Was it running Vista?