Antivirus Software - Really

Recently, much to my consternation, my little netbook that I so cherished, seemed completely locked up on me. It seemed to be in real pain, constantly telling me that my computer was infected with a very serious virus, and the only way I could get rid of it was by buying an virus scanner, which a particular company was selling for $49.95 for a 3 month subscription, exorbitant prices by any standard.

Of course, the virus, had done the usual stuff that you would expect a malicious little fellow to do. It went ahead and disabled my antivirus software (all of them!), all executable files, internet access to any site other than the software vendor, spyware, adware..you name it. In a netbook that doesn't have an optical drive removing something like this can be quite a task. Anyway, now that the removal is complete, the virus has been wiped from my hard drive and I am able to use my laptop again, I have some time to stop and think, and be very incensed that a rogue company can hold someone hostage so easily.

This goes beyond deceptive marketing practices: it reeks of thuggery, thievery and holding people hostage to your whims. Imagine the desperation faced by a business executive finishing off a last minute presentation, a school student meeting a deadline on a term paper, a doctor's office trying to bring up a patient's chart...just any application that could be mission critical...of course, there are usually backups for mission critical apps...but this situation would still be mildly more than annoying, a waste of time, productivity and resources.

Is this the social cost of computing, is this the state of affairs when we must be held hostage by a bunch of thieves. Don't take this lying down, if this ever happens to you report it to the FCC, blog it, ning it, digg it, facebook it, tweet it, talk to your friends - spread the word.

The name of the company is "spyprotect 2009". If you find this on your computer don't buy their software - start your computer while holding down the shift key, once its booted up use a reputable anti virus software to clean it, or just go to www.trendmicro.com and use their free online scanner to clean your computer.