Malware

Last night I finished a two day bout with a particularly insidious piece of malware, Binkiland ... as evil a piece of software that ever has been invented. It basically made my computer almost inoperable. In a way it reminded me of those parasites that kill their hosts ... not a very wise strategy for self propagation. Therefore I had to kill this monster ... which I eventually did, although it took me two agonizing days and $40.

I think I infected my computer with this malware when I saw a pop-up advising me to update my Adobe Flash Player. Stupidly I clicked on that fatal button and sunk into a funk of losing one of my best of friends and confidents ... my computer. The first manifestation of Binkiland is that it takes over your browser and throws all sorts of irritating pop-ups into whatever you are trying to do.

At first I tried my standard virus-fighter ... Avast ... which was not up to the task. It advised me to use a rescue disk and re-format my computer. So I called the Geek Squad at Best Buy and they gave me the number of where I could order one from Acer. Unfortunately every time I called this number I was told to call back later. So I went on my Ipad and searched "Binkiland" and found a few references on how to get rid of same. The first one was so technically detailed that I gave up. But then I found a recommendation to use Spyhunter ... which I downloaded and ran. It seemed to be doing the job, but wanted $39.95 before it fixed things.

I was desperate so I paid the money and took my chances. It worked! However it took the better part of a day to do its stuff. So, if you follow my lead, be patient.

And, for the developers of Binkiland, may you rot in hell.

Afterward: I sometimes get the impression that our federal government is infected with malware ...