Technology, I hate you.

I feel like, after days like today, you should have learnt something. After all, I believe mistakes are only mistakes if you never learn from them, yet I cannot find the lesson in this set of events.

Yesterday, whilst happily surfing the internet, my computer restarted itself. Nothing major, no big panic, until an "antivirus software" window popped up and "scanned" before telling me I had thirty-five "viruses". It was obvious straight away that this was a fake application and I thought, oh, simple, I find out what it is and uninstall it as the whole point of such a virus is to make you pay for software you don't need. Yet it didn't seem this simple, and after an hour of trying to suss out where the hell this thing had put itself on my computer, I searched the internet to find out what it was.

And it is, basically, a very dangerous virus which starts to gradually take over every piece of systems software and hardware, pulling it into it's own hidden files to stop you from finding it, doing systems restore, going online to download a removal tool... it has literally taken over every main piece of software/hardware on my computer to the extent that nothing works. I just about managed to salvage my documents, music and photos, but otherwise the whole thing is knackered and I need this long weekend to be over so I can find some sort of computer technician to help me fix it.

Solution?

Whilst this is obviously a massive worry, and the number of trojans and spyware it installed on my computer meant I've had to cancel all my bank cards and change all my passwords, my main concern is that I have absolutely no idea how this happened. I always thought viruses happened to people who went on dodgy websites, opened emails from strangers with unknown links and attachments and who didn't have any anti-virus software. I did have anti-virus software, I had definitely not been on a dodgy website (or even one which I don't normally use) and I hadn't opened or authorised anything I shouldn't have, yet it still happened?

This is why I am most frustrated, as I would like to know what I did wrong to ensure I don't do it again, but that's not possible - I did everything you should do and I didn't do anything I shouldn't. I'm not a gullible person anyway and I am not a complete computer-retard, so I always figured I'd always be safe. Yet, no, my new(ish) laptop is completely ruined and unusable until I find someone who can help me.

I realise this was a bit of a rant, but if anyone knows what I did to get this virus, then please let me know.

And to think, I was so close to throwing my old, knackered laptop away last week. In comparison, this beast is a supercomputer...